Month: July 2021

The summer holidays are upon us, with the easing of more restrictions. The Leys division has been approving lots of risk assessments so many of our units can meet face-to-face again. It’s been lovely to see so many of our Girlguides and leaders together again. Being able to meet up has been a welcome breath of fresh air and has re-energised our volunteers. 

Lots of our units have been working on the Have Adventures theme. They’ve been learning firelighting skills with both real and pretend fires, experimenting with outdoor cooking and pitching tents so they are aired with the hope of camp on the horizon.

Our multi-section virtual unit has been completing challenges from the Commissioners Spring Challenge, and we hosted vice president of the Royal Astronomical Society Dr Megan Argo who ran a virtual planetarium for us. We opened the session up to the whole division and over 40 girls and volunteers spent the most engaging 45 minutes exploring the planets and constellations from the comfort of their homes. 

We’re looking forward to what the summer brings while we gear up again for September!

Our Seven Hills division covers the areas of Gildersome, Drighlington, Morley and Tingley. 

As with other divisions around Leeds (and the UK), over the past most units have kept in touch with their units via online meetings or delivering activity packs. When they were allowed to last year, some units also met outdoors. Different groups have enjoyed virtual camps, joining in with the County Commissioner Winter and Spring challenges, Science from your Sofa virtual event, as well as challenges from other areas and adapting the program so it can be delivered online.

Since the easing of lockdown in April, roughly half of our units have started to meet face-to-face again, in a mixture of indoor and outdoor settings. It’s really wonderful to see girls enjoying themselves building dens and toasting marshmallows or just meeting for the first time “in the flesh” rather than online – and getting to know their fellow unit members.

We’re excited for the continuing easing of restrictions and (fingers crossed!) being able to get back to ever more “normal” meetings. It will be lovely to start planning division events again and starting to grow our membership. 

And finally, I want to say a big thank you to all the leaders who have been doing their best to keep units running whilst coping with everything else that the past year has thrown at them.