Dear
Families,
Welcome
(back!) to the 4th Riverside South Guides. This email contains some
important information about the upcoming Guiding year, so please respond that
you have received it (and to confirm I have the right email address). The
leaders are all very excited to get started!
Start
date and meeting location: Our
first meeting will be on Thursday September 21, from 6:30 to 8:15pm.
Unless otherwise specified, our meetings will be held at Canyon Walk Daycare,
which is attached to Steve Maclean Public School. The entrance to the daycare
is off Goldeneye Way.
Other
general meeting information:
- Guides are required to
submit a completed H1 form (sent via email) at the first meeting.
Unfortunately, the girls are unable to stay at the meeting if this form
is not submitted.
- For every meeting, Guides
are asked to wear their uniform – shirt, sash, scarf. They should also bring their
program book (all items are available for purchase at http://www.thegirlguidestore.ca) and indoor shoes
(preferably runners). Dark bottoms should also be worn with the uniform
shirt, and water bottles may also be handy.
- Please ensure your Guide
arrives for the meeting at 6:30pm so that we can get started on time.
Girls should also be picked up promptly at 8:15pm, as the custodian needs
to clean the room after we leave.
- Please check our
unit’s blog (http://4thriversidesouthguides.blogspot.ca/) for regular
updates.
Dues:
This
year we will be collecting dues at the beginning of the year. Please send
$35 (cash or cheque payable to Girl Guides of Canada) with your Guide. As the
Guide unit only receives a small portion of the Girl Guide registration fee,
these dues and the unit’s profits from cookie sales pay for crafts, badges,
crests, etc. for your daughter for the year.
Badges:
Most
of our meetings will be spent doing badge work and special challenges. While we
will generally focus on badges from the program areas we are covering this year
--You in Guiding and Discovering You, we will also add some others as we
discuss programming interests with the Guides. If your Guide would like to work
on a badge but is unsure if we’ll cover it as a group, please do not hesitate
to have her ask us about it. We are also more than happy to do badge testing
during the year; please just have your Guide mention it the week before she’d
like to be tested so that we can book some time at the following meeting. Also,
if your Guide attended a Guide camp this summer (e.g. Camp Woolsey), please
send in her badge tracking pamphlet so we can make sure she gets the badges she
earned. Finally, some badge credits can be awarded for achieving a certain
swimming level, participating in bicycle safety days at school, etc. – feel
free to ask about these.
Camps:
We
like to offer a variety of camps on weekends for our Guides during the year.
While they are optional, we do encourage the Guides to attend when possible, as
they provide with excellent opportunities to get out and enjoy nature and work
on our camping (and other) badges. More information about our Fall camp at Camp
Woolsey, October 13 to 15, 2017, will be circulated in a few weeks.
Community
Service for Lady Baden Powell Challenge:
Guides
have an option to earn the Lady Baden Powell Challenge during their years at
Guides (it normally takes three years to complete the Challenge). While we do
cover some of the requirements in our group with our other badges, others such
as additional community service work must be done by the Guides on their own
time. Examples of extra community service include helping around their
school as a lunch monitor or participating in a kindness or environmental club,
tree planting, volunteering with Churches or other community organizations, and
attending community clean-up activities. Girls will be asked early in the
Guiding year to start tracking this extra time if they are interested in
earning this special Challenge.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have
any questions. We are looking forward to a great Guiding year!
Yours
in Guiding,
Jen
Collins (Contact Guider), Jenn Raponi (Cookie Coordinator), Janice Villeneuve,
Mary Robotham, Becca Mann and Lisa Dorman (Treasurer)
