Girlguiding Anglia 1971-2021

‘Buzz about Anglia’ 50th Birthday Challenge

Introduction

In 2021, Girlguiding Anglia celebrates its 50th Birthday and we invite all of our members to join in the celebrations with us.

Girlguiding exists to give girls and young women a space to have fun, find their voice, build their confidence and empower them to make a positive difference in their community.

To celebrate our 50th birthday we have a big birthday challenge for you to complete called a “Buzz about Anglia”. The challenge was inspired by bees, we have been busy buzzing around for 50 years and just like bees we are helpful, community minded and care for one another. Have you heard of the Baden Powell bees? Robert Baden Powell described bees as a model community.

The Challenge

Our birthday challenge has six themes with activities for you to complete across the year to compliment our Girlguiding programme. We have also linked our themes to the Girlguiding strategy, Today, Together, Tomorrow; reminding us all that #TogetherWeInspire.

Each theme will offer lots of activities to take part in, and we will provide a variety of ideas and resources throughout the year to support your planning, enabling you to link to the programme and other activities you want to do. We hope you have plenty of fun taking part and challenge yourselves and your unit to try something new.

The challenge is designed to last all year, giving you plenty of time to visit each of the six themes. To complete it we would like you to try at least one activity from each theme but we would love it if you tried more. Every two months the region team will highlight one of the six themes as well as adding ideas and extra resources for each theme at relevant points throughout the year.

What are the ‘Buzz about Anglia’ themes and what do they mean?

The six themes spell out  ANGLIA and each will be recognisable by its colour and theme icon.

Bee        Adventurous – Have a new adventure or try a new activity.                                  

Bee        New and creative – Use your imagination to create or learn a new skill.

Bee        Giving – Give your time or generosity to others or your community.                                         

Bee a     Leading light – Lead the way on those things that important to you or those around you.                                     

Bee an   International explorer – Discover more about guiding around the world and WAGGGS. There’s a whole world out there to access and enjoy.

Bee         Amazing – Be amazing, celebrate being you and being part of Girlguiding Anglia and all the amazing fun and friendship Girlguiding has to offer.

What Happens Next?

The challenge is totally flexible and you can tailor it as you wish. Explore the themes and activities in any order and you can do them either alone or with your unit or group. The challenge can be started at any time as long as you complete it by 31 December 2021, the end of our anniversary year.

Fresh ideas, suggestions and supporting resources will be added throughout the year to inspire and help you. These will be added to the individual theme blogs (details below) and shared on the region newsletter and across social media. Members of all ages will be invited to contribute to the challenges throughout the year, this could be by making videos, sharing interesting links or writing instructions. We will also try to link some activities to Unit Meeting Activities and Skills Builders to help you build a balanced programme.

We hope you will send us photos and stories of you getting involved so we can  share your experiences to inspire others and celebrate your achievements, (please remember to send in permission forms with your photos/videos). Please email everything to anglia50@girlguiding-anglia.org.uk.

Whilst you may choose to do the challenge in any order we will spotlight the themes every two months.

Please keep your own records of how you and/or your unit are completing the challenge.  We won’t be asking for any evidence, but please share photos and stories with us at anglia50@girlguiding-anglia.org.uk. Once you have completed at least one activity from each theme, you can send for your very special ‘Buzz about Anglia’ badge.

The ‘Buzz about Anglia’ Badge

Thank you for getting involved in Anglia’s 50th birthday celebrations. We can’t wait to see how our members celebrate the occasion, if you want to watch the video by Tracy Foster, Anglia Chief Commissioner, for more information, use this link.

As of July 2023, the 50th birthday challenges have been removed from website. However, if you would like more information on the activities that took place and how we celebrated in 2021, please contact us at commsteam@girlguiding-anglia.org.uk