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Army Take Over Day

On Sat 15 June 7 Guides from 1st Musselburgh Guides along with one of their Leaders Violet  attended Girlguiding Scotland’s British Army takeover day at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh. It was an amazing day, Guides took part in everything and we had great feedback about how polite they were and the brilliant questions they asked. We did exercises with maps, debating, mentoring, on praise, teamwork, problem solving, leadership and aspirations. Guides successfully completed their Stage 5 Lead Skills Builder in the day.

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Oor Wullie Big Bucket Trail 2019

Valerie Duncan our County Go Co-ordinator for Girlguiding East Lothian was selected to be one of the artists to create one of the larger than life Oor Wullie sculptures for the Edinburgh Big Bucket trail to help raise funds for the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.

“Having been successfully selected to design and paint one of the Oor Wullie sculptures I spent a week in April bringing my design to life.  I had some aching muscles and very sore knees after crawling around the larger than life sculpture to make sure I hadn’t missed any bits!  My design is inspired by the healing properties found in plants and the positive impact nature can have on people’s wellbeing. It is called Natural Healing. All the artists on the bucket trail have been challenged with collecting the most votes for the public’s favourite Oor Wullie so if you like my design please vote for it.”

You can download the Oor Wullie bucket trail app and follow the trail around the city to look at all the amazing creative designs. There will also be a map in the Sunday Post published on the 16th June to help you find all the sculptures. In St Andrews Square you will find Our Wullie HQ where you can get more information about the trail and buy Oor Wullie merchandise. 

Once you are on the trail stop on Waverley Bridge,  near the entrance to Princes Street Gardens and take a look at Valerie’s sculpture. 

You can keep up to date and share your snaps online, by following on social media. -        

Facebook: Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail       Instagram: @owbigbuckettrail     Twitter: @OWBIGBucket

The Oor Wullie bucket trail is on from the 17th June to 30th August.  When the trail ends, the fun won’t be over just yet! There will be a Farewell Weekend Event on the 13th-15th September in St Andrew’s Square, with all the sculptures finally being auctioned on the 19th September.

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First Minister’s Reading Challenge

Before Christmas 1st Musselburgh Guides signed up for the First Minister’s Reading challenge. Over the Christmas holidays we looked for opportunities to read more.

In the new year we did a sponsored read-a-thon for 90 mins and raised £439 for District and Unit funds.

Over Easter we agreed to read more than usual and read instructions, recipes, magazines and books.

We have a huge range of reading ability from equivalent of age 7 to very advanced but we were able to have a good discussion about what we read after the hols Harry Potter and related books were a big theme. About a quarter had read factual books with a few more fiction based on fact. Books read included:-

*Becoming Michelle Obama

*The Tattooist of Auschwitz

*Cinderella

*One of us is lying

*To Kill a Mockingbird

*Orphan, Monster, Spy

Barriers to reading more were money and a quiet space. We discussed sharing books, free downloads and using the library to mitigate where cost or weight limit was a limiting factor.

Where distractions reduced reading time (noisy siblings seemed to be biggest issue) suggestions to reduce impact included read in bed, find a quieter room or space in garden, use audio book and read alone at same time, listen to music, use earplugs or utilise Musselburgh library (after school, Saturday or their late evening.

We have been looking at book lists to decide what we extra books we read over the coming months. We’ve made a submission to the First Minister’s Challenge and hope we win money to buy new books.

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Rainbow Gold Award

Emma and Poppy Forrester completed their Rainbow Gold Award at the 4th Musselburgh Rainbows in December, before they moved onto Brownies. The girls said their favourite part of their Gold Award was making a poster and giving a presentation to the other Rainbows and doing the new Interest Badges. They were presented with their Gold Award the night they made their Brownie Promise.

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Brownie Gold Award

Brownie Gold Award

The 8th Musselburgh Brownies were really proud to be able to present Asia McIntyre, Erin Phillips-Drummond and Lucy Degg with the new Brownie Gold Award on the 13th March. The girls completed this in December before they moved onto Guides.

We also presented Amy Robertson and Grace Harknett with this award in April

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1st Prestonpans Guides Remember

1st Prestonpans Guides made poppy badges from Fimo polymer clay and painted rocks they had collected.  They will hide them around East Lothian.  The rocks are also on the Love on the rocks East Lothian Facebook page.

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County Flag Competition

A sunset beach, 20 Guides, the Navy and a fair amount of rope. It was County Flag time, 5 East Lothian Guide units met at Yellowcraigs beach for the next competition event. This time the activities were being run by the Royal Navy, Youth Engagement Team for Scotland & Northern Ireland. The teams moved around bases, moving in sync on planks of wood, attempting bomb disposal, compass directions blindfolded and carrying messages alongside a bit of R&R making a beach sculpture. 9th Musselburgh Guides were the winners this time, competing against 1st Dunbar, 1st Pencaitland, 1st Prestonpans (the holders) and 4th Tranent. Well done to the all the teams, see you in two years.

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I’m a survivor, guide me out of here!

In July Guides from 1st Musselburgh Guides took part in a unit camp at Fordell Firs in Fife. 

Their new tents were bought from money donated by the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.  The Guides came first last year in a public vote in store for camping & sports equipment.  Part of the trip was also funded from being,  CO-OP Musselburgh,  charity of month. Thank you to Wilson’s in Musselburgh who gave a great discount on our fruit, veg and eggs. The theme of the camp was I’m a Survivor Guide Me Out of Here. 

The challenges included bush tucker trials including worms in dirt (chocolate mousse and jelly worms) and a very realistic looking dog food (lime jelly set with pieces of mars bar in it). We learned survival skills, water safety and cooked on open fires for the 5 nights.

Highlights included a morning at Loch Ore doing bell boating, a trip around Dunfermline and a water fight with water balls in the paddling pool. We were very lucky with fantastic weather. 

Scouts camping on the site swapped all our duplicate badges so lots of sewing required for camp blankets. The girls can’t wait to use our new tents again.

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Ladies Scottish Open

Guides from across East Lothian were given the opportunity to learn from the Professionals on Friday.  Three of the competitors of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open, Michele Thomson, Kelsey MacDonald and Vikki Laing,  took time out from competing to give the Guides a golf lesson.  The Guides learned about their grip and stance and got lots of balls to send out on to the practice green.  The sun shone and everyone had a very enjoyable time.  The session finished with a Q&A and then the Guides were given the opportunity to go over to the stands and watch the professionals in action. What a wonderful opportunity.

Watching how it’s done.

Now it’s our turn.

Collecting autographs.

Now we are Pros too!

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Centenary Art Work Procession

Members of the 9th Musselburgh Brownie Unit took part in the centenary art work Procession on Sunday 10th June in Edinburgh to commemorate Votes for Women. The Brownies had great fun parading through the streets of the city centre with their unit banner which they created and enjoyed meeting lots of other Girlguiding members. The Brownies also learned about democracy in the unit and staged their own election.

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end of term

Last week 1st Musselburgh Guides spent the night practicing putting up our tents in advance of our summer camp in July. We then had a sausage sizzle outside and s’mores which the girls did a great job preparing. At the end of the evening our newest Guides made their Promise. 

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Votes for women

After working on their 100 years since women got the vote badge some members of 1st Musselburgh Guides and their mothers took part in Procession 2018. Guides made their own banners as part of the badge. The procession was an art installation to mark 100 years since women in UK got the vote. Scarves in the colours which represent suffrage were worn on top of Guide uniforms. 

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Recruiting volunteers

1st Musselburgh Guides took advantage of a recent sunny evening to deliver leaflets to seek new volunteers for Girlguiding. Being an enterprising lot they also posted 100 leaflets to a fundraising coffee morning they are holding at the end of term as part of fundraising for a Divisional trip to Austria in August. They maximised the evening by hiding our “Girlguiding rocks” rocks (see Facebook group “Girlguiding rocks”) which we decorated as part of a badge learning about 100 years since women got the vote in the UK, around the town. 

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Wicked!

As part of Guides choosing items for their programme a group from 1st Musselburgh Guides went to see Wicked at the Playhouse in Edinburgh at the start of June. For some it was the first time they’d seen a musical. Before the show the girls enjoyed lunch at Nando’s. Happy Guides when they found out the gift shop had Wicked badges to be sewn onto camp blankets :) The Guides were engrossed in the show and chatting afterwards they had really picked up on the inclusion themes.

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Party Planning

Some Guides from 1st Musselburgh Guides earned their party planner badge by throwing their leader Alexis a 40th birthday party in May. When they were deciding on a theme it was pointed out that no Alexis wasn’t born in 1938... They settled on an 80s theme. The party planners researched food and had 80s themed sweets and classics like fairy cakes and tophats. They handmade invites and everyone came in fancy dress. The Guides favourite was the chocolate fountain! They did a terrific job and everyone had a fun evening dancing to 80s tunes with glow sticks.

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Jump!

1st Belhaven Guides visited Jump in at Newhailes, Musselburgh this week.  It was a really great session and the girls had a fantastic time. They would recommend it as good night out for other units.

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Thank you to all our volunteers

Follow Iulia’s story at the following link - 

https://scvo.org.uk/post/2018/05/30/a-new-adventure-called-volunteering

If you would like to get involved in guiding you can register your interest at -

https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-volunteer/register-your-interest/

and come and join in the fun.