Buckinghamshire:

BELLS will ring across Buckinghamshire to mark the finale of the centenary year of girl guiding. The Buckinghamshire leg of the national celebrations, which culminate at 20:10 on October 20th, will involve churches, and other buildings with bells, making a resounding ringing noise.
Sue Berry, County Commissioner for Buckinghamshire described the activities throughout the year, which started with a county launch party with 2,500 people and giant inflatables.
Brownies enjoyed a circus themed day while Guides and the senior section held a festival style camp with climbing, high ropes, archery and an X factor style talent contest. The adults held a garden party with a heritage display of history for leaders.
Sue said: “One tradition in Buckinghamshire is our banner service. We are the only county that does this every year, parading our banners which tell a story depicting the area they represent. We held our centenary banner service with 54 banners paraded.” Another group went to a jamboree in Holland, two or three to Switzerland, others to Iceland and two, including one in a wheelchair, joined a national Guiding tour of the coastline of the UK in a wheelchair.
Sue said that Rainbows, Brownies and Guides across Buckinghamshire have ‘waiting to join lists.’ She said “Guiding is something we could offer to many more girls and young women if we could encourage more adults to become leaders. We are a youth organisation but getting involved is hugely rewarding for adults.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Sue on 01296 487683. Seewww.girlguidingbucks.org.uk.

Berkshire:

Celebrations started in August 2009 with WINGS, the annual Guide and Scout camp, when 100 girls took to the stage during the closing ceremony,writes Jane Bingham.
In September, all our 11 Divisions had their Division and District parties, and one division even went to Brownsea Island to launch theirs, some Guides had a ballroom dance, some held a fun party and some just chilled out.
During a Thanksgiving service at Reading Minster, Bishop Stephen preached, telling the congregation that his path into Anglican ministry was as a result of his sister being a guide.
Our oldest Guide Unit is 1st Pinkneys Green (Miss Agnes Baden-Powell’s Own). The Lord Lieutenant and the Borough Mayors joined us, and we all renewed our promise with our County Commissioner. We had our very first County Musical- Joseph – with a cast of about 200 girls, leaders, and Trefoil Guild members.
To celebrate World Thinking Day, the County went to Salisbury to join with other South West Region members at - One World, One Beat, a fully International activity day that was much fun as well. Now we are looking forward to our County Activity day- Festival 100- being held at our County Showground for about 3,000 members of all ages, and then if we have enough energy left we shall be celebrating our Finale in 3-4 venues around the County on 20.10.20.10.2010.
We also have a County Centenary cloth badge for sale at £1(plus SAE). If you would like one please contact me on: centenary @berkshireguiding.org.uk or phone me on: 0118 978 1175.
We are still enjoying our Guiding whatever age we are, and looking forward to the next Centenary.

Oxfordshire:

When I was asked four years ago if I would be County Commissioner for Girlguiding Oxfordshire, one of the deciding factors was knowing that I would be Commissioner during our Centenary year,writes Carol Dunne.

I have met so many amazing people who give their time to enable girls to be involved in Guiding. The movement is thriving in Oxfordshire with 6,500 members aged five years and upwards. Many units meet in church halls around the county and their connection and relationship to their church community is very important. Guiding is an inclusive movement open to girls of all faiths, all backgrounds and all abilities.

In 2009, Girlguiding linked with partner charities to enable guides to ‘Change the World’ an initiative where girls supported a charity by learning more about the issues and then either raised funds or gave time to help the charity.
In September 2009 our celebrations began as Oxfordshire Guides invaded Cotswold Wildlife Park for two days. Two highlights of the year were Thinking Day and a multi faith Thanksgiving Service held at Dorchester Abbey. Thinking Day on 22nd February is a special time every year but this year saw me and my two assistants travel the county as we aimed to see as many services and events as possible.

In May 2010, Blenheim Palace was the venue for our Palace at The Party, attended by over 4,000 members who enjoyed a glorious day of activities including zip wires, outdoor cooking, dancing, and were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough for a huge picnic and sing.
In August, Quest 2010 was our Centenary International camp held at The European School in Abingdon. We were joined by guides from Australia, Fiji, South Africa, Nigeria, Lebanon, Pakistan and Wales to share in the fun while learning learn more about one another. During the week the guides participated in a range of activities and challenges. A highlight was tobogganing as tonnes of snow was shipped in on the day hundreds of Brownies joined in the fun at camp!

During the year, we challenged ourselves to walk the whole boundary of our County, with girls aiming to complete a few miles each. I am aiming to cover the whole lot and have so far completed over a third of it. We have long waiting lists and could offer guiding to more girls if more adults joined us. For further information on how to become a guiding member, go to: www.girlguiding.org.uk. Or the Girlguiding Oxfordshire website:www.oxfordshiregirlguiding.org.uk.

Girls Brigade

Girls’ Brigade’s passion is to enable girls and young women to Seek Christ and discover life; Serve Christ and reach out; Follow Christ and lead others,writes Catherine Burt

The movement is involved in many different initiatives, primarily working as an expression of mission with local churches. In the UK, Girls’ Brigade (GB) runs weekly groups, events, residentials and training that connects with around 50,000 girls aged four plus. In England and Wales GB is also piloting a variety of local mission opportunities in schools; new age specific groups like n:counta groups for 11 to 14s; and an initiative called GirlsB - helping young women explore tough issues like image and sexuality. GB’s National Director Ruth Gilson says “GB began in 1893 and uniform quickly became our “way”. We’ve been grappling with the issue of uniform in recent years and, although many of our groups wear it, it is not the key focus or distinctive that is a “be all and end all” of who we are.
“I believe GB was birthed as a visionary and pioneering mission with a heart for local girls, recognising their needs and aspirations are fulfilled through the gospel - and nothing about that has changed for this new and uncharted generation.”
See www.girlsb.org to find out more about the Girls Brigade, which is based in Didoct. Oxfordshire.

Boys Brigade:

The most annoying thing about my annual Boys’ Brigade (BB) camp is that the week beforehand seems to last forever, so when I woke up at 5.30am on Saturday I knew the next four and a half hours would really drag!

This summer around 30 young people, together with 10 leaders from four BB groups in North Oxfordshire held an annual camp at the CMC, a Christian residential centre near Pen-Sarn in North Wales. The camp started with a short service led by the Revd Dr Hugh White, vicar of Deddington. We then headed north in a convoy of vehicles. The estimated journey time was three and a half hours, but five hours (and a burnt out clutch) later we safely reached the centre.
The programme, each day started at 7.45am with room inspection, followed by a healthy breakfast before our daily activities. Each day ended with a film, devotions led by one of the leaders and ‘lights out’ at 11pm.

The theme of the week was “the mountains and the sea” and our devotions were based around key Bible passages including the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus calming the Sea of Galilee. On Sunday we held a parade at St Tanwg Parish Church, Harlech and in the afternoon we went swimming in the freezing sea. Outdoor activities provided by the CMC included raft building, sailing, kayaking and gorge walking which all included getting soaked in a freezing river at no extra cost! We also found the time to visit Barmouth and the Centre for Alternative Technology.

By far the most challenging activity of the week was our ‘expedition’ up Mount Snowdon. Apparently it is only 3 miles to the summit of the mountain from the base, the path the BB decided to follow was 15 miles long and the leaders refused to let us go up on the train! When we finally reached the summit we were greeted by beautiful views of dense fog.

On Saturday with a great deal of disappointment we made our journey back to North Oxfordshire.
Only 51 weeks until the next camp. I can’t wait!
Tom Westbury is 16 and a member of 1st Deddington BB
The BB is an international uniformed Christian youth organisation. There are 1,500 Church based BB groups in the UK providing activities for over 60,000 young people aged five to18. For more details on how the BB can make a difference to young people in your parish call (01295) 722713.