I have been in Guiding since I was 7 and first started at 1st Emmer Green Brownies. In fact, earlier this week was the 21st anniversary of me making my Brownie promise for the very first time. So, I have just celebrated my 21st Brownie Birthday!! And just so you can have a good laugh at how lovely I look in my Brownie uniform, the photo to the right here is a black and white photo of me on that very day back in May 1983, with my promise certificate that I still have!!
When I was 8 (nearly 9) we moved house to Thatcham and I transferred into 2nd Thatcham (Henry) Pack. I still remember it well - we went to Brownies in Emmer Green on the Thursday, on the Friday we moved and on Friday evening we (me and my sister) started at our new Brownie pack. I remember going on several pack holidays to Pauline's Lodge near Southampton and having a great time. By this time I had also been on several Guide camps (if only for a couple of nights) thanks to mum. This was all before I hit the age of 10 and moved on up to Guides.
I went to 7th Thatcham Guides which my mum started the term before I joined. I worked my way through the programme getting my Yellow, Green, Red and Blue trefoils. I was also a pack leader with 2nd Thatcham Brownies (not the same unit I had been a Brownie with) and I was a Patrol Leader. I was also selected to carry our unit flag to represent our district at County Thinking Day at Sandhurst. I remember carrying our nice new (well, only a couple of years old) flag up the aisle, but during the service they all fell over and got mixed up, and getting a rickety old flag belonging to another unit given back to me at the end of the service! Again thanks to mum I went on my first (and only) international camp in 1997, Four Winds. It was held locally in Newbury, but we had Guides from Monseratt, Belguim, Ireland and Norway on our sub-camp. I shared a tent (Icelandic) with a two other British Guides and three Guides from Monseratt. It was definately an experience!!
Once I completed my Blue trefoil I started work, with my friend Sue, on my Baden-Powell trefoil. It was a lot of hard work, but in the end Sue and I were the very first Guides from 7th Thatcham Guides to gain the award. We were closely followed by Stephanie (another close friend) and my sister Catherine. I remember the cake we had for our presentation evening - the blue icing was so vivid it made our mouths go blue!
Once I left Guides I moved on to Rangers and also became a Young Leader. I was still helping at 2nd Thatcham Brownies and was really enjoying it. I left Rangers after about 2 years or so but continued as a Young Leader. I didn't really do anything constructive at this stage, and then it was time for me to leave Thatcham and go to University in York.
I didn't do any Guiding during my first year at uni (York not having a Student Scout and Guide Organisation didn't make it easy to get involved) but I still got involved and helped out back in Thatcham when I was there during the long university holidays. In my second year I found that a Brownie unit met at the end of the road where I lived, so I went down and offered to help! By the time I graduated two years later I had got my Warrant and had been on two more Pack Holidays staying at a pack holiday house just outside Goathland (AKA Aidensfield from Heartbeat) on the North Yorkshire Moors.
After university I moved to Bracknell to live with Adrian (by this time we were engaged). Again I struck luck by seeing that there was a Brownie unit, 1st Crown Wood Brownies, meeting in the community centre just two minutes from my house, and I offered to help. Now, I am their unit Guider and webmistress!
In the last seven years I since moving to Bracknell I have done several other Guiding "things". I guess the most notable is getting involved with NetGuides and spending a brief spell as our Division Young Leader Adviser. I didn't get on too well with this role, but during that time I was asked if I would carry the County Standard for the Year 2000 County Thinking Day Celebrations. So currently I am Unit Guider for 1st Crown Wood Brownies, Assistant Guider at Phoenix Ranger Unit (NetGuides reincarnated) and a user of Scoutlink chat rooms and GuidingUK Yahoo Group. I also have a pretty busy camp blanket with its very own webpage and a large bag of badges waiting to be sewn on.
And that's my Guiding life so far ... the next developments are likely to be working towards my Pack Holiday licence hopefully so that I can take my Brownies away!
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| Me carrying the County Standard in 2000. L-R are our then County Commissioner Janet, Vicky (one of the escorts), me, and lastly Hayley (the other escort). | Me next to the Founders Stone on Brownsea Island, taken in June 2003. |
This page was created on 30 May 2004
© Rachel Jasper 2004
Email:
rachel@thejaspers.org.uk
All images have either been created by/for The Jaspers or are from Leo's Icon Archive