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Continue reading →: Opening the vaults – When camp was ‘jolly’
We had such great feedback on our last post from inside the vaults of the Girl Guides of Canada archives, that we’re giving you another peek at some of our treasures. Among the most coveted items in our archives are log books where companies (or units) recorded their activities. One…
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Continue reading →: Brownie Book Club
What do Brownies like to do for fun? READ! That’s what we found out at our Annual Brownie Book Club meeting this year. We invited a special guest, retired librarian Dayle Cushen, to discuss her career and thoughts about books with us and enjoy a cup of tea! Each Brownie…
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Continue reading →: Saying Thank You
We’d had a pretty wild meeting. The weather outside was crazy as there was a strong front coming in. We were down one Guider because she had a family event to attend. We had cookie money, rally day money and permission forms for two spring events coming in from the…
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Continue reading →: Home is where I do Guiding
I have lived in three countries – the U.K., the United States, and now Canada – and there is one thing I have learned and that is to get my priorities straight. To me Guiding/Scouting is up there with finding a house! I used to be in Guides but left…
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Continue reading →: Can urban living and a love of nature go hand-in-hand?
Since I was a child, I have had an insatiable curiosity about nature. I grew up hiking and camping outdoors, and my mom, who had once worked at a greenhouse and had a garden, taught me about the beauty of plants and growing your own food. Despite my love of…
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Continue reading →: National Day of Honour
May 9, 2014, is the National Day of Honour, a day to honour the sacrifices of all who served in Afghanistan. Over the years, members of Girl Guides of Canada-Guides du Canada have shown their support and appreciation for our Canadian troops in many ways. Here are some wonderful photos…
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Continue reading →: Designing T-shirts
It’s finally – finally! – almost T-shirt weather across Canada. And while we know that nothing beats the Girl Guide uniform T or your favourite camp shirt, there’s something pretty awesome about girls designing their own T-shirts. As we head into the weekend and get ready to don short-sleeves for…
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Continue reading →: Throwback Thursday: The Right Stuff
Sometimes it can feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Work commitments, family commitments, time for yourself, time for your community – it’s tricky to squeeze it all in. Here’s a guest post on the invigorating power of working with girls in Guiding. ——————————————- How hectic is your…
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Continue reading →: Guiding Underwater
Sitting around the dining room table at one of our weekly meetings before the end of summer last year, our Pathfinders were discussing all the things we wanted to do the following year. To me as a leader we had fallen into somewhat of a slump with activities and what…
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Continue reading →: Say cheese! Setting up a Girl Guide photo booth
I often forget to take pictures at Guiding events. At our recent Olympic sleepover we chose the scrapbook option in the Quebec Spin Challenge and I set up a photo booth to make sure some pictures were taken. I’ve seen photo booths at Guiding events before, but they were always super creative…
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Continue reading →: Should girls bring tech to camp?
It started when a Brownie asked if she could bring her iPod Touch to camp. Our packing list says no electronic devices at camp. Cameras are optional. The Brownie (and her parents) understood, but she explained that her iPod is her camera. She added that her parents didn’t want to buy…
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Continue reading →: Opening the vaults: Inside the Girl Guides of Canada archives
The archives at the national office is a treasure trove of records and insignia from the last 100 years of Canadian Guiding. We have uniforms, badges, publications, minutes and photographs. Here’s a snapshot of just a few of the items in our collection. This eye shade was given to Miss…
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Continue reading →: Why every Brownie unit should have a rubber chicken (or two)
Have you met our unit’s pals, Mr. and Mrs. Chicken? Here’s why we think you should have at least one rubber chicken in your unit kit, too: Chicken Games are Awesome! Thank you Becky’s Guiding Resource. Chickens can often substitute for other equipment… They replace balls, flags, boundaries (“don’t go…
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Continue reading →: How engineering could take you to Mars
March is National Engineering Month (NEM), which shines a spotlight on the role of engineering in society and (hopefully!) inspires future engineers to pursue engineering as a career path. As a soon-to-be mechanical engineering graduate at the University of Guelph, I use Guiding as a way to share my experiences…
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Continue reading →: Beauty on a budget
For the past two years, the leaders of the 3rd Bowmanville Guide Unit have been teaching girls all about natural beauty on a budget. It’s important to us because our own children have gone away to college and one has just finished. We know what it is like to have…
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Continue reading →: Sparks CAN Snowshoe!
Three years ago at my first monthly District Guider meeting, one of our (amazing!) 50+ year Guiders advised our group that the district had a huge cache of snowshoes at our disposal. It was my first year as a Guider and I was seriously intimidated at the thought of organizing…
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Continue reading →: Reflections from the UN Commission on the Status of Women
Saffina Jinnah, a Guider from Vancouver, is attending the UN Commission on the Status of Women, being held from March 10 to 21 at the UN headquarters in New York City My Brownie unit is the reason I wanted to attend the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). I…
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Continue reading →: How to Explain the Beauty of Winter Camping
“Why would anyone do that!?” That was the reply when I told a dinner companion that in 10 hours I’d be heading to the mountains of Manning Park, British Columbia, to go winter tent camping in record low temperatures, along with my long-time co-Guider Cindy, three very experienced Rangers and four…
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Continue reading →: Girlfriends Through Time: Bridging the Distance between Guiding Generations
This year, our unit was looking at new ways for doing things. As a multi-branch unit, some of our Guiders have been with the unit (and in Guiding!) for many years, as have a number of our girls. After a discussion with a co-worker about multi-generational programming, we came up…
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Continue reading →: Where will Guiding take you?
Stuck in the never ending cycle of Canadian winter weather, leaving on a jet plane for a far flung corner of the world seems like a pretty good idea right about now. As we celebrate World Thinking Day on February 22, it’s the perfect time to consider the opportunities we…
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Continue reading →: We Can Make a Difference
A year and a half ago 1st Red Wing TREX signed up to take a humanitarian trip in 2014 through Me to We, an organization committed to social justice and empowering youth. Each month a different member of our unit chooses a service project according to their interests. So far…
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Continue reading →: Check Your Problems at the Door
It’s not easy for me to admit, but I’ve been going through some bad times lately. I am lucky to have a few good friends who I feel comfortable sharing my very personal issues with. I am also lucky to have amazing Guiders who work with me in my Spark…
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Continue reading →: We CAN Sing Challenge and Community Service Event
Being in Girl Guides allows us to work together as a team while planning a project that will bring about awareness for those who are less fortunate. Our We CAN Sing project was one of the ways that we as Pathfinders took action to help our community. It was great…
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Continue reading →: Your Role Model – Your Choice
Between YouTube videos, commercials, TV shows, books and movies, we are shown a lot of different ways to act in the world – some good and some bad. It’s okay to enjoy a variety of media, even some of the lower quality stuff, as long as we do it with…
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Continue reading →: Taking the Reins: My First Experience being In Charge
This Guiding year I got a promotion! My two co-Guiders of four years decided to move on to other things and suddenly I became the one “in charge” of our unit. It was a bit of a scary moment knowing that it would be me and one other Guider who…
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Continue reading →: New Guider: New Fun
I have never been involved in Guiding. I was never a Girl Guide when I was young. I have never sold a box of cookies. Yet, on November 7, 2013, I found myself as a new Guider with the 12th Toronto Brownie Unit, where my Brownies formally inducted me, giving…
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Continue reading →: Our Guiding Tradition
Guides love crafts! So for their Christmas party, we decided to make a cute elf of felt and cardboard rolls. I was new to this unit and checked that we had glue guns, but didn’t realize we were really short on electrical outlets! The Unit Guider assured me that the…
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Continue reading →: From Girl Guides to Girl Scouts
This summer my family and I moved from Vancouver, British Columbia to Hanover, New Hampshire. I was fortunate enough to go on the Arctic Adventure trip to Churchill, Manitoba with Girl Guides of Canada over the summer, and I was looking forward to going back to my unit as a…
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Continue reading →: Guinness World Record Holders!
In August, members of Girl Guides New Brunswick-PEI gathered at Snider Mountain Ranch for Bridging Friends Forever 2013, a provincial all-ages camp. With a theme like Bridging Friends Forever, it seemed fitting to make an attempt to set the record for world’s longest friendship bracelet. Since we always have a…
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Continue reading →: Violence against Women and the Role Guiders Play
During the 16 Days Campaign for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we decided to ask our members some tough but equally important questions about the role Guiders play (or can play) in stopping the violence. Below are some of the questions and responses that we received on Twitter and…
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Continue reading →: Research and the Guiding Promise Connection
During the international 16 Days campaign for the Elimination of Violence against girls and women, it is important to highlight girls’ education. Today we hear from Jenna, an amazing young woman working to fulfill the Guiding Promise “to do [her] best”. She is also a past Girl Guides of Canada-Guides…
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Continue reading →: Unexpected Things I Learned From Tae Kwon Do
When I started tae kwon do a few years ago, I wanted to become stronger, to learn some self-defense, and maybe learn to do some of the fancy kicks you see on TV. I have done all of those things, but I also learned some unexpected things along the way.…
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Continue reading →: Inspiring Teen Esteem
I have been involved in a workshop geared towards Grades 7 and 8 girls for the past three years that discusses topics directly linked to young girls’ self-esteem called Teen Esteem. The turnout is always impressive and the event can be a lot of fun. There is one session per…
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Continue reading →: The Importance of Self-Respect
Pat runs a Girl Guides of Canada unit in a penitentiary. She shares some thoughts about the unique issues that arise for the girls and young women in her unit. This is an important blog post to share during the 16 Days to Eliminate Violence against Women and every day.…
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Continue reading →: 16 Day Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women (2013)
As part of the 16 Days Campaign to Eliminate Violence Against Women, we asked our teen girls what they thought. Here is what these girls had to say: Question A: What can you do to stop violence against girls and women? Ciara of the 1st Caledon East Rangers I would…
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Continue reading →: Canada’s Dirty Secret and What You Can Do about It
It’s something no one wants to think about – violence against girls and women. But it’s all more common than you might think. Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. All violence is unacceptable, as…
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Continue reading →: The More We Get Together…
In Guiding, we place a huge emphasis on teaching girls to communicate better. We play team-building games, talk about bullying and healthy communication, and encourage girls to express their own opinions. So, my question today is: Why, as leaders and adult members of Guiding do we sometimes have so much…
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Continue reading →: What I Learned from Going to Kenya
This summer I was fortunate enough to participate in the Kenya Adventure travel experience. I when I got the news in March that I was going I was so excited and everyone in my district was rooting for me to have a fantastic trip. Even though I was super pumped…
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Continue reading →: Giving Back with Sparks and Sparkles!
This post originally appeared on the blog Everything But the Kid. Thank you Amy for allowing us to share this with our audience! —————————————————————– For years I have volunteered in some capacity or another with various groups and I love it. From racing to the Cancer Society and beyond, I…
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Continue reading →: VOTE NOW! for our Aviva Community Fund idea in support of Camp Wa-Thik-Ane!
Round TWO of the Aviva Community Fund is here and Guides Québec’s Camp Wa-Thik-Ane is still in the competition, so we hope you will consider voting for them. Here is their original blog post to inspire you!
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Continue reading →: Back to Guiding Mosaic
At the end of October it was announced that Guiding Mosaic 2016 would be held at Camp Woods in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. As a member living in Edmonton, I was excited that this accessible location would mean a lower cost. What most excited me though was that I would get…
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Continue reading →: 2013 Photo Contest Winners
The Girl Guides of Canada-Guides du Canada (GGC) is very happy to share the winners of the 2013 annual photo contest. The judges were impressed by all 350 entries from members across Canada and had the difficult task of selecting only 11 photos. Every photo captured a beautiful and unique moment…
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Continue reading →: Ideas Worth Sharing
First off, a confession: I’ve loved TED for a long time. I’ve watched in my car and on my computer. Who’s TED, you ask? TED is a what, not a who – it is a conference; an acronym for: Technology Entertainment Design and its main thought is “Ideas worth spreading.”…
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Continue reading →: Seven Going on Seventeen
November 4-8, 2013 is National Media Literacy Week and this year’s theme is “What’s Being Sold: Helping Kids Make Sense of Marketing Messages”. Media Smarts has developed material to help open conversation with young people across Canada to talk about the marketing they encounter on a daily basis. This post,…
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Continue reading →: Guiding Mosaic 2016
Mark Your Calendars and Start Dreaming of Fun on the Shores of Sylvan Lake! Guiding Mosaic 2016 will be held from Saturday July 9 to Sunday, July 17 at Camp Woods in Alberta. This is the 13th Girl Guides of Canada national camp to be held since 1927 and will…
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Continue reading →: The Lure of Trackables
Recently on my personal blog I wrote about why geocaching is so great for kids (and for parents, too). What’s not to love? It’s a digital treasure hunt requiring a few basic supplies, a sense of adventure, and the ability to read clues (both written and physical – when you…
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Continue reading →: The Promise Bunting Relay Race
The activity has been modified for Girl Guides of Canada. It was originally posted on Guider Snowflake’s blog. ——————————————————————————————- I can’t really claim the credit for this activity — it is a variation on an activity featured in Guiding UK magazine. However, every group is different, so adjusting things is almost always necessary.…
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Continue reading →: Why Train?
A few weekends ago, I had a fabulous time at a Guider training weekend. Many have asked me why I attend training weekends when I have a family, work full-time, run a direct sales business and volunteer my time with a Guide/Pathfinder unit. The answer is quite simple, because Guider…
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Continue reading →: Happy International Day of the Girl 2013!
Happy International Day of the Girl from Girl Guides of Canada -Guides du Canada! How are YOU celebrating? Here are many ways that our girl members have celebrated! I. Several units did Girl Guides’ International Day of the Girl Instant Meeting and shared their postcards with us. We wanted to…
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