Guiding Lights for Thinking Day

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Carissa

Happy Thinking Day everyone! As our Guiding enthusiasts all know, February 22 is the joint birthday of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and celebrated worldwide as a way to honour Guiding’s past, present, and future here and all around the world.

According to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, this year’s World Thinking Day theme is Peacebuilding. On that note, did you hear that WAGGGS was nominated this year for a Nobel Peace Prize? You can learn about that here: https://www.wagggs.org/en/news/wagggs-and-wosm-welcome-nobel-peace-prize-nomination/

Closer to home, if you follow our local Guiding bodies (like West Coast Area, or BC Girl Guides) on social media then you probably already know about the Guiding Lights Across BC celebration this year. Due to Covid, we can’t celebrate Thinking Day with the big parties and celebrations that we’re used to, so we’ve invited landmarks from across the province to light up blue to help Girl Guides celebrate our special day.

Sample lights made by Sparks and Brownies in Burnaby Mountain

Many of our units have been busy making their own blue Guiding lanterns so that they can let their Guiding lights shine this evening as well. Are you a Girl Guide? Were you a Girl Guide? Do you simply love the cookies? Whatever your affiliation is with Guiding we encourage you to put a blue light in your window tonight. Eagle-eyed girls around the province will be looking for their sisters and supporters and it would mean a lot to them if you showed the love.

Happy World Thinking Day

Posted on February 22, 2020 by Carissa

Did you know that today, February 22, is celebrated by Guiding and Scouting members all around the world as World Thinking Day? It is the joint birthday of both of the founders of Guiding and Scouting, Lord Robert Baden-Powell and his wife Olave Baden-Powell. More than 10 Million members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) are celebrating Thinking Day this year with the theme of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

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To get involved in this global celebration, our 24th Guides recently had a unit meeting where they completed the 2020 WAGGGS Thinking Day challenge: Living Threads.

In one of the activities they cut out shapes of leaves / flowers and made a note of what they were proud of, showcasing how they all have different (and awesome!) skills and abilities.

In another activity, called “Ties that bind,” the group stood in a circle and whoever held the ball of wool would say something about themselves. Everyone that had the same would put up their hands and the ball of wool would be tossed to one while holding a string. They learned they had lots in common — for instance, lots of hands went up for “Like to Read”!

This challenge, designed to help them explore the theme of diversity and inclusion, involved a lot of fun and stimulating activities and even earned them a cool badge!

Happy World Thinking Day from all of us in Burnaby Mountain District.

Thinking Day 2018

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Carissa

Burnaby Mountain Girl Guides hopes all of our sisters around the globe had a wonderful World Thinking Day.

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Last night, our 56th Guides were lucky enough to have their regular unit meeting fall on Thinking Day. How did the girls choose to celebrate the joint birthdays of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell? With a fabulous Dairy Queen ice cream cake, of course! Happy birthday!

For some of our units, the party continues as they will be joining the provincial celebrations at BC Guide House this weekend. We hope they have a wonderful time.

Welcome to Canada

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Carissa

As we embark on a Canada Day long weekend celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday, it seems like a good time to post about Burnaby Mountain District’s Thinking Day event from this year — although this happened back in February, it is just as relevant today.

Back in 2016 at our district camp, girls from all units in Burnaby Mountain District worked on Welcome to Canada cards which were donated to ISS of BC to help welcome immigrants and refugees new to Canada. When we delivered these cards, our Guiders were so impressed by the work of this organization that we wanted to do more to help welcome these newcomers.

This is what inspired our Thinking Day 2017 Welcome to Canada luncheon. Working with ISS of BC, we invited six families with children aged 4-17 to join us for our Thinking Day celebration. Girls and their families from all of our units came out to this event, demonstrating how kind, friendly, and welcoming our community is.

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We began with a colour party and the singing of O Canada. We served a tasty lunch to everybody. Nothing builds camaraderie in a community quite like sharing food together, after all. Following the meal, girls gave presentations that they had worked on in their units which included sharing songs, dance, and artwork. At the end of the presentations, the entire district encouraged all the special guests to participate in a sing-a-long campfire. Specially chosen songs with big actions and repeat-after-me lyrics were chosen so that even those unfamiliar with our songs or language could still enjoy.

In the closing remarks a representative from ISS of BC helped us hand out welcome gifts to the families. These were composed on donations from our girls and families of gift cards, transit tickets, and new gifts like Canucks scarves, toys, and treats — and of course, the gift bags also had Girl Guide Cookies! We were also able to donate a large basket of gently used toys, books, and games for ISS of BC to bring back to their welcome centre to use in their daycare facilities.

This project felt more important than ever this year with the socio-political context in some parts of the world being less than welcoming to immigrants and refugees. Many parents commented on how valuable it is to have Girl Guides provide the opportunity for their girls to get involved and take action to welcome newcomers like this, to demonstrate their compassion and the warmth of our communities, and to get them engaged even at a very young age in conversations about why this is so important.

The special guests all seemed to have a good time as well. They appreciated the warm welcome and their children had a great time singing the songs and then afterwards playing outside on the playground with our girls. Some of the families even made inquiries about how to join Girl Guides. Over all, it was a Thinking Day that we’re not likely to ever forget.

Happy Canada Day from Burnaby Mountain District!

Sparks Visit Seniors

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Carissa

Burnaby Mountain District is thrilled to have a great relationship with nearby seniors residence LJ Christmas Manor. Every month a unit visits there to share some Guiding spirit with the older adults who live there. The residence always provides a lovely snack of juice and cookies and the girls provide some entertainment and socialization. The residents always appreciate the visit, some of them looking forward to the event every month.

Last month the 1st and 2nd Sparks visited together. The visit happened to occur on February 22nd, which of course is World Thinking Day, a very special day for Girl Guides. The leaders spoke to the girls and the residents a little bit about the history of Guiding and then sang some favourite campfire tunes to celebrate. Some of the residents even joined in when they sang “Quartermaster’s Store” which is a very traditional song.

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Then the girls and residents paired up to play an exciting game of Sparks Bingo! Words associated with Sparks were called out and the players had to find and dab those words on their cards. These Sparks words included “sharing,” “friendship,” “Crystal,” “promise,” “sleepovers,” and “crafts.” The prize for the bingo games was a package of radish seeds, which happened to fit in great with the “grow” theme that had been decided upon by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts for this year’s World Thinking Day.

Everyone was amused to see just how much of a mess five and six year olds can make while using a bingo dabber.

It was a fun evening! Other groups that have visited the manor this year have done activities including skits, games, dancing, and quilting. We love the opportunity to share these moments and memories with others in the community. A huge thank you to the staff at LJ Christmas Manor for allowing us to come in each month.

District Thinking Day: Connecting

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Carissa

February 27th Burnaby Mountain District came together to celebrate World Thinking Day. Following the lead from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) we took a “Connect” theme and decided to connect as a district while also connecting with the community. The focus of the event was a food bank drive for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank done in the style of a can art construction competition.

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Each unit had been working for the past few months on collecting non-perishable foods, mostly in cans, in preparation for the event. Girls took time to consider their donations and to plan a sculpture that took into consideration a Guiding theme (so we could also connect with worldwide Guiding!). At Saturday’s event, the girls worked together, showing great cooperation, to assemble their sculptures.

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Sparks, Brownies, and Guides had a great time building with the canned goods. Older girls got involved in other ways. One Ranger took the lead coordinating the donation drop off with the food bank and lead a team of dedicated Pathfinders and Rangers in tasks like assembling and filling the boxes, and arranging to have the goods dropped off at the local fire department, which would hold the donations until the Food Bank could arrange pickup on Monday morning.

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Pathfinders and Rangers also helped to run the bake sale, which was a fundraiser for the upcoming district camp, and also the WAGGGS inspired “Connect” picture frame activity, which helped some units complete their WAGGGS Thinking Day 2016 Challenge.

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Congratulations to the 49th Guides who won the sculpture competition with their trefoil-inspired piece. The unit won some funds for unit activities and each girl got a small prize.

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The real winner, of course, was the Greater Vancouver Food Bank which got a donation of more than 800 cans and other items (including a good number of Girl Guide Cookies!). Thank you to everyone who donated, and who helped to pack and move the boxes. We also want to thank the City of Burnaby, which donated cool prize packs for every participant including a pin, pencil, and chocolate treat.

Happy Thinking Day!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Carissa

Today is World Thinking Day. February 22nd is celebrated as the joint birthdays of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and has become a day for our 10 million members to think about each other and our history and all the amazing things that we do for girls worldwide.

This year, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) decided we should celebrate Thinking Day with a theme of “Connect” — connect with ourselves, connect with our friends, connect with WAGGGS, and connect with the world. Many of our units are working on the World Thinking Day Challenge this week and will be earning a special crest.

Three Brownies and a Guider wearing the uniforms to school

To encourage us to connect with our communities, the WAGGGS challenge and West Coast Area have both challenged us to proudly wear our Guiding uniforms out in the community, to school, or to work.

District Commissioner Bethany in uniform at work

Burnaby Mountain District will be hosting a special World Thinking Day celebration this coming Saturday which will include a massive food bank service project. Units will be engaging in friendly competition, building can art sculptures on a Guiding theme and then donating their collected goods to the local food bank.

Stay tuned to find out how that event goes — we’re pretty excited about it. Some girls, such as the 2nd Sparks above, have been hard at work practicing the can art sculptures.

Happy World Thinking Day from Burnaby Mountain District!

Thinking Day 2015 – Healthy Living

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Carissa

In February, Girl Guides around the world celebrate the joint birthdays of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of our organization, in Thinking Day celebrations. This year, Burnaby Mountain District hosted its annual celebration on February 21 at Charles Rummel Hall.

Approximately 75 girls came out with their families to celebrate Guiding. The event was planned and delivered by the 12th Rangers with help from the 14th Pathfinders. The girls did a wonderful job hosting the event, showing exemplary leadership skills.

The theme of this year’s event was healthy living, and the Rangers planned stations for the girls to visit round-robin style that contributed towards the new provincial program Colour Me Healthy challenges. By the end of the day, all girls present were well on their way to earning the challenges which may be completed in their units.

Fun stations included fruit & veggie trivia, yoga, foot tag, and a fruit and veg tasting station. The afternoon was rounded out with a lively campfire.

In addition to the festivities, there was a bake sale that many families contributed to. So many tasty things! Proceeds from the bake sale are going towards the district’s year end event in June. Thanks for helping us raise the funds for that.

A huge thank you goes out to the Rangers and Pathfinders who worked so hard planning and leading this event. The girls all had a great time and hopefully learned a thing or two about healthy choices.

To our sisters around the world, Happy Thinking Day 2015!

Thinking Day 2014: Operation Earth Action

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Carissa

On February 22nd, Burnaby Mountain District gathered to celebrate Thinking Day, a special day celebrated by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts all around the world.

This year, our district decided to celebrate Thinking Day by completing the Girl Guides of Canada National Service Project Challenge, Operation Earth Action. Girls from nine different units presented challenges that they completed related to environmental sustainability.

Projects included making lip balm from household ingredients, doing crafts with recycled supplies, and doing litter pick ups. One unit presented a map-your-meal project to learn about how far away some of our food travels to meet us and to learn about the benefits of eating local. A Pathfinder group gave a presentation about tree planting in the community.

In addition, every girl at the event got to decorate a tote bag made out of a recycled T-shirt. Everyone at the event also participated in an oath to use reusable bags and water bottles when possible. All girls who participated got a crest celebrating their participation in the National Service Project.

The event also included a bake sale which is a fundraiser for our District camp at the end of the year. Thank you to everyone who donated baked goods, and to everyone who bought treats — we earned almost $250 for camp. About 80 girls came out to the Thinking Day event, and many parents and siblings stayed to join in the festivities. It was one of our most successful Thinking Days yet!

Burnaby Mountain District

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