Category: Volunteering

Last year I wanted to join the new CamCity WI as many of my twitter friends went and it sounded like just the thing I needed – something for me rather than another volunteer activity where I looked after children for other people.   I was quite willing to commute there from where I live in Hertfordshire as my local WI’s are on the ‘traditional’ side.   However, my attempt was thwarted as they meet on a Wednesday which is one of the nights when I volunteer to look after other people’s children.

This led to a call to the Hertfordshire Federation WI to ask if there were any ‘next generation’ WI’s in the county I could join.   I said I would commute for the right one, but I couldn’t run it.   I was then told that there weren’t any (I think I was being sold a dud there!) but I could get some friends together to start my own.   Appeals on twitter, interviews in the local paper and a meeting down the pub later and Puckeridge WI was born.   Despite the assumption by others that I would become President, I was relieved when someone else stepped up, although I am now Vice President and Assistant Treasurer and a founder member of Puckeridge WI.

We are a small village WI with a membership of almost 30 aged in their 20’s through to their 70’s and are a mix of full and part time workers, mums and grans, and everything else in between.   We have a great programme of activities, add on clubs are starting up, and we are getting involved in our community.

We had a request from county to be interviewed on BBC 3 Counties Radio which covers Beds, Herts and Bucks.   They were doing a feature on the growth of WI membership and wanted to interview someone from a new WI to go with their pre-recorded feature on Royston WI.   A lot of messages later, I agreed to do it if I could.   So on a cold Monday at 8.25am in the car park of my doctor’s surgery, I called the switchboard.

I’d had lots of thoughts about what I would say (don’t mention bungee jumping, don’t mention bungee jumping), and while I was on hold, I could hear the show clearly down the phone.   Iain Lee, the normal presenter, had car trouble that morning, so a replacement presenter had taken his place.   Ruth Bond was being interviewed on the phone and I was told that the first thing I would be asked was about having men at WI’s, was it a terrible thing and do we sit and gossip about men all night?!!!   Hardly sticking to the theme of the new, younger WI’s!   In fact the whole interview seemed to try and reinforce the traditional ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ stereotype.   I stood my ground and tried to keep to the general theme of cake, friends, opportunities and fun.

Listening back, I caught an interview with two women from Luton who have started a new WI, and they were again battling against the interviewer’s stereotyping of the organisation.   The most disappointing bit was the pre-recorded segment at Royston WI which seemed to concentrate on one member’s 90th birthday, the opinion of a member that younger women should join so they can ‘learn how to behave’, and the repeated singing of Jerusalem.

Overall, I think it was a pretty poorly put together piece, although if people listened to the ladies from Luton and Ruth Bond, rather than the bias of the interviewer, they would’ve got the message of what the WI can actually offer nowadays.   I’m still pleased to have done it, and I hope my enthusiasm for the WI has come across.

I know it’s been quiet on my blog.   It’s been quiet with all things Craftyguider recently too.

At the beginning of the school holidays, I was working flat out to get Guide camp organised.   There’s obviously lots to do if you are feeding and looking after other people’s kids and keeping them safe and entertained.

We all got to camp and had a great time.   The Craftyguidelets camped too which made things a lot different to all the previous camps I’ve done in my 17 years as a Guider.   I had three Guider friends from my former Division (area) to help me as I had no Guiders from my unit who could camp.   As the site was quiet, the Guides and other leaders got to watch the TV coverage of the opening of the Olympics on the first night with the site crew while I watched the Craftyguidelets sleep.   This was unplanned and was a fantastic opportunity for them.   The Guides then re-enacted it for me the next day using our art and craft box, some union flag plastic tablecloths, and lots of over-acting!   That evening, we held a campfire, shared songs, jumped around like silly things, and then headed back for soup and bed.

The next morning things changed.   The Guides served breakfast themselves as three of the Guiders had to deal with a tragedy.   An ambulance was called.   A paramedic confirmed what the three Guiders had already realised.   The parents were called to collect their daughters early.   The police and a coroner had to attend.     Our extended Guiding family came to support.   Only three Guiders went home that day.

Our friend had died in her sleep.   There was nothing we could have done although we still tried.   She was only in her early 50’s.   She had given up her weekend to help me at camp and was having a great camp like the rest of us.   Such a lovely person taken too soon.

It’s still strange.   This doesn’t happen at Guide camp.   This just doesn’t happen.   This shouldn’t happen.   Even after 2 weeks away on holiday, it’s still unbelievable.   This is why it’s not been ‘business as usual’.   This is why it’s been quiet.

On 31st March, I took 17 Guides, 2 leaders and a parent helper to Birmingham’s LG Arena for Girlguiding UK‘s Big Gig.   The Big Gig is a music event at a major venue exclusively for Guides which Girlguiding UK has been running for 12 years.   In the past, it’s also been held at Wembley Arena, Manchester’s MEN Arena and The Millenium Dome.

I’ve taken Guides to Wembley and Birmingham in the past, but it was the first time I’d gone to Birmingham on the train.   We come from Hertfordshire so it meant a 9am start to travel into London and out again.   9am on a Saturday is unknown to most 10-14 year olds, so they must have been keen.

Getting the tickets was a lottery to start with.   Leaders have to apply and send payment when no acts have been announced, and with no certainty of getting tickets.   Every week at Guides, the girls kept asking if we had tickets, and when I was able to tell them that we had them, I was the most popular person in the world!

And so we ended up in Birmingham with around 13,000 other Guides and leaders to see The Saturdays, Rizzle Kicks, Olly Murs, Matt Cardle, Alexandra Burke, Rita Ora, Conor Maynard, Charlene Soraia and presenter Helen Skelton.   The atmosphere in the arena was amazing.   Loads of flashing bunny ears and thousands of phones held up recording video and taking photos and looked amazing, and the sound of all the screams was deafening.

Even amongst that many people, I even managed a wave at fellow Guide tweeter @CazzyPie.   This is her image that she tweeted showing me somewhere!

The next event at the end of this year will be in Sheffield.   That’s probably a journey too far for us, but hopefully it will be back to Wembley in 2013 and I’ll be first in the queue to apply.

Thank you so much Girlguiding UK for organising another fabulous Big Gig.   It’s another showcase event to make Guiding relevant to today’s girls and something they can be proud to say they are a Guide for.