Each year we raise money for a different cause and in 2015/2016 it was for Action Cancer. One of our leaders is very involved in the local branch and was keen to get the guides involved. Just like last year, when we raised money for the Nepal Scouts and Guides, we decided to have a coffee evening and invite the parents of our Guides and the Beavers.
The coffee evening went basically as planned but we had some funny incidents with the Guides and some of our new Senior Section.
First there was the overly guilty looking Guide who came to confess her sins. Her and her friends had snuck out to the garage and bought themselves sweets, they hadn’t thought that it wouldn’t be okay. I ticked them off but then let them eat the sweets anyway.
We had a brand new Guide that night, who seemed kind of bemused by the whole situation but once she found some friends seemed to settle in. In fact she is still with us this year so we must not have scared her too much.
One of our newer Guides and one of the new Senior section asked why they had to stay late that night, when I explained that we would need them to clean up, the shock on their faces! It was as if I had told them I expected them to fight a lion, they couldn’t believe I wanted them to wash dishes.
They did manage to raise about £180 and the Guides had fun and learned how to talk to adults a little better.
The next week was the church’s Week of Mission. Something I find difficult Guiding in Northern Ireland is that a lot of the units take place in Church Halls and the leaders are very nice Church Ladies who have a habit of pushing a religious agenda onto the Guides, which I don’t agree with. But sometimes I have to allow it to happen and can’t really do much to stop it.
Our youth minister is a nice guy and he ran an evening with them which we set up as a pamper evening. He brought beads for them to make bracelets (they did have something to do with Bible quotes but I wasn’t paying attention). We invited in a lady who does makeup, someone else who did hair and Barrel brought along her extensive nail polish collection.
It was interesting to see the Guides interacting with all of the girlie things, some of them jumped right in and others were shy about it or not interested at all. I had a small delegation who asked if they could do my make up and I of course agreed. I try not to wear make up but sometimes being a Guide Leader means making sacrifices :p
The youth minister had brought along a chocolate fountain, fruit and sweets so we sent the Guides home happy and full of sugar!
The Guide Life 