Last term was very busy for 6th Durham City (St. Oswald’s) Brownie Unit. We managed a full term of face to face meetings after a term on Zoom. We welcomed 6 new Brownies to our Unit this term. We had 6 make their promises (1 started 2 weeks before lockdown and didn’t zoom, 1 tried zoom and decided to wait for face to face, 3 moved up from Rainbows and 1 has just started her guiding adventure). We still have 2 girls to make promises and are welcoming another four girls to the Brownie adventure.
We’ve been busy – our leaders have crammed a lot into our programme to help our older Brownies achieve their awards. Many of our older Brownies were close to completing skills builders and needed a small nudge to complete interest badges but were spurred on by the enthusiasm of our Zoom Brownies and new starters. At our badge presentation night, we awarded a whopping bag full of badges (Spotty Owl and Barn Owl lost count a couple of times but we averaged around 180 badges!)
We’d like to celebrate the achievements of the Brownies this term:
- 5 Bronze Awards
- 3 Silver Awards
- 25 Theme Awards
- 46 Skills Builders (many needed only one part finishing)
- 29 Interest Badges (15 Aviation done as a Unit)
- 19 Brownies took part in UK Parliament Week
- 18 Brownies took part in a 2km walk around the city (with no fuss!)
- 19 girls commemorated the fallen soldiers of wars by painting and laying stones of remembrance at their local war memorial with a former leader of the Group and current Trefoil Guild member, Quez.
It’s not just been the Brownies who have received badges this term:
Spotty Owl received her 10 years’ service badge at the first face to face meeting in 18 months and after being handed the keys from Wise Owl as she took on the Unit Leadership with Barn Owl.
And we surprised Wise Owl (formerly Brown Owl) during the term with her 40 years’ service badge at the end of our 2km walk. We finished back at the hall with hot chocolate and marshmallows. Her family and fellow group Guiders sneaked their way in to see an unsuspecting Wise Owl be presented.