Shropshire Cares, Shropshire Shares Badges

Posted by Amanda Taylor

Shropshire Cares – Shropshire Shares

This social action badge is in two sections, Shropshire cares is about being active in the community, maybe carol singing at an old peoples home or planting trees along the canal. Shropshire shares involves collecting and giving, this maybe toiletries for the Red Box Project, food for the foodbank or animal food for the cats and dogs home. Make your challenges as quirky as you want and don’t forget to share them on social media. These will allow units to take social action at all levels. Shropshire cares is about being active in the community and Shropshire shares allows you to collect and donate for a worthwhile cause – all of your girls choosing! Enjoy!!

The badges are in stock and available from the badge secretary.

Sunrise Walk

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A group of senior section members and leaders walked up the Long Mynd to celebrate Thinking Day 2018.

Although it was cloudy and we didn’t see the sun rise it was still a beautiful location to walk in so early in the morning…. it was a 5.45am start!

Car Maintenance Skills

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Severn Gorge Rangers took part in a car maintenance evening at Just Service in Broseley. They practised changing wheels, checking tyre pressures and tread depths. The Rangers are now adept at opening the bonnet on a range of different cars, checking the oil, brake fluid and screen wash and understanding warning lights that appear on the dash board. They also mastered jump starting the car and had lots of fun whilst learning new skills.

How to make a buddy burner..

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One of our most popular activities in the 100 zone at #WAVES2017 was the chance to cook over buddy burners, and we promised to share the instructions for those groups wishing to try it for themselves.
Buddy Burners (Please remember to risk assess this activity.)

What you need:
• 1 empty, large catering size tin
• 1 empty tuna tin
• cardboard strips, about the height of the tuna tin, cut at right angles to the ridges
• church key tin opener or drill
• tin snips
• paraffin wax or ends of unscented candles
• old saucepan or clean tin to melt wax
• 3 wicks or lengths of string dipped in the wax
Instructions:
1. With tin snips, cut door in the larger tin on open end – this needs to be just a little larger than the tuna tin.
2. Either use the drill or the church key tin opener to make vent holes around the top of the larger tin. Make about 8 holes with diameters of 6-8 mm.
3. Spiral cardboard strips around one wick and squeeze into tuna tin – the coils need to fit snuggly but not too tight a fit. Tuck in the two other wicks between the coils– always good to have spares to light if one goes out!
4. Carefully fill the tuna tin with melted wax allowing it to fill the spaces between the card.
5. After the wax has set you can store your buddy burner until you are ready to use it.

buddy burner

To Use:
1. Only use outside and stand the burner on a heat resistant surface; it gets VERY HOT.
2. Brief the participants and have safety equipment available [e.g. bucket of water for burns, etc.]
3. Light the wick[s] and wait a while until the card & wax catch alight.
4. Place the large tin over the small tin, you can begin to cook once the larger tin heats up. Remember its surface is not like our non-stick pans so use plenty of cooking oil.
5. To extinguish: Using tongs, I invert the larger tin and use the cooking surface to press down on the burner to smother the flames – do not use water. Make sure it is fully extinguished before moving and remember there may still be hot, liquid wax in the burner. Do not take inside until you are certain the fire is completely out; I recommend leaving the extinguished burner outside overnight.
Things to cook: Welsh cakes, fried sandwiches, pancakes, bacon & eggs. Or use a small pan,
either place onto the larger tin or construct a suitable frame to hold it over the burner.

Shropshire Celebrates

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On Saturday, 1400 members of Girlguiding Shropshire celebrated 100 years of guiding in Shropshire with a carnival fair themed event at Shrewsbury College. Rainbows and Brownies from across the county spent the day at Shrewsbury College taking part in activities such as bhangra dancing, circus skills workshops and a silent disco, as well as adding to a tile mosaic which will be displayed at the Jackfield Tile Museum to mark our centenary. The girls then made hats and shakers and took part in the carnival parade along with guides and senior section members.

Whitchurch District Thinking Day

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Whitchurch held a District Thinking Day event on Sunday 5th March in the Whitchurch Market Hall. The theme was a celebration of the 50th birthday of one of the WAGGGS World Centres at Sangam, India. The event was attended by nearly 100 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers, Leaders and helpers from Whitchurch and Prees.

Activities included Bollywood-style dancing, tasting Indian foods and mocktails, henna designs, making elephants and lotus flowers. District Commissioner, Rebecca Harding, visited Sangam in January and gave a short talk about her trip and all learnt the Indian greeting “Nam aste”.

Wem District Thinking Day

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Wem District Thinking Day celebrations were held on Sunday 19th February at Attingham Park. Over sixty Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Senior Section attended the event and spent the afternoon involved in  outdoor challenges ranging from Picture Trails around the Mansion to Orienteering across the park. Everyone gathered in the afternoon to renew their promise and enjoy a slice of Trefoil Cake; the day ended with a traditional evening of campfire singing.

D of E Awards

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Girlguiding Ellesmere D of E Group: Following on from a very successful 2016 expedition season our young women are now completing their awards.

On 10th November, awards were presented to:

Silver: Jay Morrison-Little, Emily Hilton, Lucie Hine, also completed are Anna Davies and Olivia Faux-Grace who were not able to attend.

Bronze: Rhiannon Jones

D of E Diamond Challenge: Fran Butler

10yrs volunteering in Girlguiding: Mike Ford (who took the picture)

It is worth saying that this is a very mixed bunch geographically: Rhiannon is also in Baschurch Rangers, Emily, Whitchurch Rangers, Lucie was in Malpas Guides & Explorer Scouts; Anna & Olivia came to us from St Martin’s Guides and Jay had never been in Guiding before joining our D of E Group.

District Pantomime Trip

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On Saturday, 90 girls from Ellesmere District headed over by coach to Theatre Clwyd to see the Aladdin – the Wok ‘n’ Roll pantomime.

Arriving with plenty of time to spare, the girls played a few games before they headed inside to eat their lunches before the performance began. They had ice creams at the interval and some of the girls even got the chance to have photos taken with the cast members.

 

Guiding at University..

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Are you applying to University this year? If so, the next chapter of your guiding life is about to begin. Lots of universities have a scout and guide society which you can join along with other members of the organisations. Melissa shares her thoughts as her first year of University comes to an end…

“I started studying International Politics and Strategic Studies at Aberystwyth University last September and absolutely love being here. I have always known that I wanted to carry on guiding when I moved away from home and I am so glad that I did! I got in contact with the District Commissioner for Aberystwyth before I left home so that I knew I would have a unit to join when I arrived, and knowing that I would have some consistency through such a change made moving away from home and settling in a lot easier.

My Brownie unit in Aber is run by a team of 5 students who are all studying different things and are in different years so I probably wouldn’t have met them without Brownies but I’m so glad I have as they’re all lovely! We try and split up the work involved in running the unit so it never feels like you have loads to do and it’s really flexible so that when someone has an assignment deadline coming up we help each other out. Guiding is a great way to escape the Uni bubble (which is incredibly easy to get caught up in!) and keep in touch with the outside world.

As well as my Brownie unit, I am involved with my University’s SSAGO (Student Scout and Guide Organisation). We have weekly events on a Sunday, which I don’t often go to as I have a job, but when I have been we’ve done backwoods cooking, Frisbee golf and “Aberopoly”. We also do a pub quiz once a week and I love going along and being able to switch off from Uni work for a few hours. Because we go to the same place each week, we’ve got a really good relationship with the bar staff which gives a real community feel and helps everyone feel as though they belong there!

One of the best things about SSAGO is that it’s a national organisation and there are four national camps each year; three rallies and an annual ball. We went to a rally in November and although it was the muddiest and coldest camp I have ever been on (it snowed and then froze to our tents!), it was an absolutely brilliant weekend! Because the SSAGO organisation is only for adult members, the camps are a lot more relaxed than those I’ve been on before.

I’ve met some of my closest friends here at Uni through SSAGO and now I can’t imagine my life here without them; they’re always here when I need help or I’m feeling down and I’ve lost count of how many cups of tea and pints of cider I have consumed with them..!”

To find out where your nearest unit will be when you get to University, put your membership number and new address details into Join Us.