Rainbows 4 - 0 Teddies

On Monday I went to the North Tyneside Trefoil Guild County Executive Meeting which is a very grand title for an enjoyable morning with the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurers from the other Guilds in North Tyneside. It gives me another perspective on Guiding especially as I'm the youngest one there by quite a bit.

When we go round the members asking for news from the Guilds.... this lady is poorly, that one is housebound, another is very ill and me "We've had a baby" Of course this is the collective Trefoil Guild we and the actual mother is Lynsey with her beautiful baby Ilana.

We were told that there are 10 people in the County doing the Voyage Award (5 of which are from Forest Hall) and 725 nationally. I also saw a Bronze Voyage Award Brooch for the first time as the County Chairman had two to present to  Ann Elliot and Ella Baxter from our County. Well done to them both.

I came away with some tasks:

• Find a non-denominational, inspirational reading for the North East England AGM which is being held in Newcastle and find someone to read it. 
• Find two willing volunteers to be Stewards at the event which will involve directing traffic and taking care of any problems inside the venue. 
• Rally the Guild to actual go to the AGM at a cost of £5 (but free if you agree to be a steward).
• Organise the North Tyneside AGM in March and find a speaker.
• Sell some Trefoil Guild pens to raise some funds and promote the Guild

I can tick off selling the pens, getting someone to do the reading (when we find it), finding a speaker and getting support of our Guild with the organising of the AGM. 

Monday night was our regular Trefoil Guild meeting and we celebrated our first birthday with a visit to our local Pizzeria Amici's.

Tuesday was my Rainbow night and the night I would find out if the sleepover was a hit with the Rainbows. Three returned the form and the deposit and another after a talk with me said they would bring the money next week. Hope this week brings a few more, would hate to cancel it now.

And finally the answers to the 5T questions

1. great, fantastic OUTSTANDING
2. move SHIFT
3. use to record weight or height CHART
4. pay for things at a COUNTER
4. not a full amount FRACTION
6. prime number THIRTEEN OR NINETEEN
7. not savoury SWEET
8. 1st 2nd or 3rd POSITION
9. wait/pause HESITATE
10. from the Wizard of Oz DOROTHY

Two teddies or one that is the most important question

So far I haven't done anything for the skills category of the Voyage Award but that is about to change.  My Rainbow units have never done a sleepover so I've taken the big step of deciding to work towards an Overnight Licence. This is part of the Girlguiding Camp and Holiday Scheme and lets me run overnight events for my Rainbow unit.

I've already helped on a couple of sleepovers with other Rainbows units so have an idea of what is expected but its still a big leap to have the responsibility of it all. But the time is right, I have a fantastic team in the unit who will all help me and plenty of people who I can call on for advice when I panic (and I will).

I've picked a date in January, I've booked a venue and decided on the theme now all I need is the Rainbows to say yes.

This week I talked to the Rainbows about it and they were, shall I say, slightly excited. Amongst all the chatter were questions:

Can I bring 2 teddies?
What are we going to sleep on?
Are we sleeping here in our hall?
Do I get a badge?

As this is my first sleepover and I wanted to have the girls really excited about it that they would persuade their parents to say yes you can go I picked the theme of "Frozen". For those (and there must be some out there) who don't know this is the most popular Disney film of this year.  But I still wanted the girls to be part of the planning of the sleepover so  I asked them what they wanted to do on the sleepover.....funny no-one said sleep but they did say games, make something and eat. Think we'll be able to do all that.

I'm now waiting to find out if any Rainbows are going to come. Now that I've built myself up to do it I don't want to have to put it off, fingers crossed.

The Golden Girls of Forest Hall

I've been browsing through the note books and photos that were given to me when I became the Chairperson of our Guild. There is a photo album which states that our Guild was formed in 1964 so it has reached the grand old age of 50. Throughout all the photos, whether black and white or colour just like the current members it is women getting together and enjoying themselves whether it was having tea and biscuits, a trip to the garden centre, weekends away to Whittonstall (which I can remember going to as a Guide) or taking part in a barn dance. The common thread between then and now is food and drink.

We went through plenty of suggestions for how to celebrate this birthday: 50 lengths of the pool, 50 exercise classes, 50 photos of the Chairperson (me) in different locations in the North East, a 50's style afternoon tea, read 50 books.

In the end we did a night of challenges none of which involved food but did use a 50p. Although in the planning  I thought we could split into 2 teams for the challenges and the winning team would win a bar of chocolate each. Unfortunately we only had 6 people at that meeting so not enough to split into teams but just enough for us all to "win" a bar chocolate".

The challenges we did were

• flip a 50p off the side of the table and catch it
• carry a 50p between your knees and drop it in a cup
• how many items can you place on a 50p
• how many pictures can you draw using the 50p as the template
• who can balance a 50p on their nose for the longest
• who can get their 50p nearest the bottle
• balance a 50p on your finger and walk to the end of the room and back
• build a structure out of a sheet of paper to support the 50p
• and finally, a quiz by Joanne about the 5th T.

The 5th T I can hear you ask, well so did we so here is the quiz.

The fifth letter is a T

1. great, fantastic _ _ _ _ t _ _ _ _ _ _
2. move _ _ _ _ t
3. use to record weight or height _ _ _ _ t
4. pay for things at a _ _ _ _ t _ _
4. not a full amount _ _ _ _ t _ _ _
6. prime number _ _ _ _ t _ _ _
7. not savoury _ _ _ _ t
8. 1st 2nd or 3rd _ _ _ _t_ _ _
9. wait/pause _ _ _ _ t_ _ _
10. from the Wizard of Oz _ _ _ _  t _  _

For some this will probably be easy for others it may take a bit longer - just like the teams on the night. I was going to put the answers upside down at the bottom of this post but I cannot work out how so I will put them in the next post. They might be upside down they might not, you'll just have to wait and see.

The Great British Beach Clean

1st Forest Hall Guides and 4 members of Forest Hall Trefoil Guild were found on Tynemouth Longsands this morning to help with the Great British Beach Clean organised by the Marine Conservation Society. The beach was deserted when we arrived.

In groups of three, armed with a litter picker, black bag, thick gloves and a clip board we roamed a 100m area from the high tide area to the dunes looking for litter. We had to log everything that was found and that is used for the annual summary report prepared by the society about the state of our beaches. 

I was impressed by how clean the beach was and most of the litter was just on the tide line so was probably washed up with the last tide. There were not many others there to do the clean so it was just as well we turned up. It is an activity that all ages could take part in so keep your eyes open for the next one, I would do it again. 

For more information take a look at www.mcsuk.org/greatbritishbeachclean

This little piggy........

Forest Hall Trefoil Guild meet up every second Monday of the month and when I started this blog I said I would include what we do at the meetings. This month we were painting pigs. Kelly suggested we decorated the pigs to help a relative who is involved with a charity that helps bereaved children. The charity visits schools to explain about their work and give out the pig money boxes asking that they are used for donations for the charity. Kelly couldn't remember their name but it had Rainbow in it so there is a loose Guiding connection! Anyway for two hours we sat and painted with barely a word spoken as we concentrated. Here are my 4 little piggies, started off painting them all but the last one was spotty for quickness.

 Here are the rest of the pigs, our creative juices were certainly flowing that night.

100 hats in 100 days part 2

After taking my hats to the Post Office they were handed over with a heavy heart. Also slightly worried, what if they went missing in the post? No money could replace the time and sense of achievement I felt. So it was with relief  I read the post on Crafty Aid to say the hats had arrived in Hampshire. It's the end of my involvement with the hats but the start of a long journey to Uganda.

And in case you're wondering......no I haven't knitted any more since then but did buy some new wool yesterday ready to start again.

100 hats in 100 days

As part of "learning a new skill" I thought I would learn to crochet. My Mum used to crochet squares and take them to Oxfam so I thought I would give it a go. I tried many moons ago but could never master turning a corner. I spent an afternoon browsing the Internet to see who I could do the squares for and where they could be sent. Inevitably I got distracted by websites about knitting hats for premature babies so I thought I would investigate that instead. I found a group called Crafty Aid on facebook, the members of it knit hats (among other things) for a maternity hospital in Uganda. Inspiration struck - one of the sections of the Voyage Award is Explore my World and a category is Global. One of the suggestions is to "get involved with a global charity for 20 hours", from that came my plan. I started on the 6th May 2014 and kept timings to make sure I did 20 hours. After knitting about 15 hats I decided I needed to make it more of a challenge. As I lay in bed one night mulling this over it seemed appropriate that as Brownies are 100 years old this year I should knit 100 hats in 100 days. The next morning I worked out 100 days from 6th May which would take me up to 2 days before my holidays so I thought that was a sign and would do it. To make sure I kept to the target I announced it on Facebook  so that I now had to do it. 

The charity is the Basingstoke Hoima Partnership for Health  http://www.bhph.org.uk/home.  Amongst other activities, midwives and nurses go out to Hoima in Uganda to help in the maternity hospital. They take medical supplies and items for the babies - like hats.

Crafty Aid (https://www.facebook.com/groups/CraftyAid/) on Facebook help to co-ordinate desperately needed items for newborn babies in Uganda to help their survival. The hats are given to the new babies when they are born to help keep them warm which surprises me. I think of Africa as a hot country so why do babies need to wear woolly hats. Many new born babies in Uganda die of hypothermia which is frightening. The hats have to be in bright colours as that is what the mothers want. They also have to be in darkish colours as they are put on the baby when it is born and stay with that child until it no longer fits. If they are washed it would probably be in cold water so our traditional baby colours would be no good as they would soon look grubby. 

So the challenge was on and every night I sat and knitted a hat and then my brain started ticking over again. As I said Brownies are 100 years old this year and there are many enthusiastic badge collectors who are collecting badges commemorating the centenary. I have never designed a badge before and so I tentatively asked if anyone would be interested and the proceeds would go towards the cost of the wool and postage. I was overwhelmed with the response of people who wanted to buy it. I had 100 made (in keeping with the theme) and have practically sold them all which I never expected. Some very kind Guiding people also donated extra money or sent me wool to help. 

The final week of the challenge was looming and I got a bit worried as I knew I was out for 2 nights so I doubled my efforts. Normally I knit one hat a night and then stop but for the last week I just knitted until I'd had enough. And I did it, I was so proud of myself for sticking to it.

Today was the final step posting them off to the co-ordinator and they will be on their way to Uganda very soon.

I think I've satisfied the time requirement of 20 hours! It has actually taken about 150 hours and that doesn't include the sewing up (the part I hate doing). What will I do next?