SEAXE Summer 2015

The Great Girlguiding Essex North East Bake Off Final

It was a delight to witness the time, effort and planning that finalists had put into the County final. The task was

to decorate a cake with a theme of ‘Guiding’. Senior Section and Adults were expected to show their skills of a

variety of techniques and icing types. During the whole final, judges were carefully observing the decorating

skills, organisation and tidiness. It was a tense time with entrants having just one hour to complete their

masterpieces.

The finished products were amazing.

The standard and quality of work

produced was worthy of ‘The Great

British Bake Off’. The imagination

and creativity in interpreting the

Guiding theme was fantastic.

The judges had the difficult task of

selecting one finalist from each

section to go forward to the Regional

finals.

Everyone received a certificate and specially designed apron and badge and in

addition the winners received a trophy.

Thank you to all of you who took part in your unit, district and division events.

Congratulations to all of our finalists and particularly our County Star

Bakers (right), Katie Finch from Braintree (Guides), Alanna Goodwin from

Witham (Senior Section) and Francesca Down

(Adult) who will now go on to represent Essex

North East

in the

Region

Final in

November.

Baddow & Danbury Rangers treated their Canadian visitor to a thoroughly British Day out when they were lucky

enough to get tickets for the youth enclosure at the Trooping

The Colour. Bethany and Rachel said “We travelled up to

London bright early at 6.45am on Saturday. We knew it was

early because they were still cleaning the streets of London.

The youth enclosure is for youth uniformed organisations and

is situated between The Mall and Horse Guards Parade so it

was a prime position to see the parade go past…. We couldn’t

believe our luck when the police opened up The Mall

specifically for the VIPs and the youth uniformed

organisations before the public. We then skipped down The

Mall, waving our flags trying to get as close to the front as

possible. We ended up in front of the open Buckingham

Palace gates about 5 from the front, the perfect view! They

even managed for Imogen to make her promise as a Ranger.

Alana Taylor from

Frinton District

organised a fun day

for Brownies as part

of her fund raising

for the Haarlem

Jamborette in

Holland.

Girls completed

the Holland Challenge badge as part of

their day. They enjoyed the Dutch food

especially the hot chocolate with hot

waffles and the toast and sprinkles. They

had an afternoon of crafts, games and

songs, including walking in real clogs!

The Dramarama Baden Powell Adventure Weekend challenged

the girls to stage a pantomime for their parents and invited guests

on the last day. Costumes, sets and front of house opportunities

gave everyone a role they could enjoy even those reluctant to go

on the stage.

Senior Section Leaders

Ginny Lawrence &

Kathryn Morrison were

delighted to be selected

to attend a garden party

at Buckingham Palace in

June.

1st and 3rd Stanway Brownies "jumped aboard” the

pirate ship and chased Captain Hook with their

crocodile through Colchester town centre as part of

the Carnival Celebrations. A large crowd gathered in

the blazing sunshine and were sprinkled with fairy

dust as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan passed by.

A wonderful opportunity to show the fun and

friendship of Girlguiding Essex North East and a

potential leader was gained from an

interested member of the public!

Chelmsford Divisions

enjoyed a fun filled day at

Chessington World of

Adventures.

Thrill seeking Leaders and

girls from all sections

spent the day on a

selection of white knuckle

rides and a trip to the zoo.

9 activities, 90 girls, 24 hours of fun, very little sleep, lots of happy memories

10 girls from 4th Chelmsford Guides travelled

to Dublin in May. During their stay they visited

two local Guide units, enjoyed the tour bus,

learnt how Guinness is made (the girls idea),

visited the zoo and attended an Irish Dance

Party, learning 3 Irish Dances in the process.

Their favourite activity however was the

Leprechaun Museum with story telling and

oversized furniture.

9 Senior Section members and 4 leaders battled the elements during the worst Summer storm the Netherlands has had since records began to attend Haarlem Jamborette however they quickly got into the spirit of the event. Over the following 10 days, they participated in wide games, zip wires, hikes, sailing, skirt football, cooking stroopwaffels, drama, giant marble runs, backwards cooking, trips to Walibi theme park, Haarlem and Amsterdam visiting the dungeons and science museum. Great friendships were made in the group and with Scouts and Guides from all over the world.

County International Trip to Peru After nearly 2 days of travelling, 3 flights, amazing views of the

Andes and lots of queuing we finally made it to Cusco. The altitude of 3,400m was noticeable and some of us were huffing and puffing before we'd left the airport. We spent 2 days in Cusco under the

watchful eye of Jorge we visited an old people’s home and tried to entertain and help out - not easy when you don't speak the

language. There was lots of laughter, not sure if this was at our singing, our photos or our attempts to communicate, but we left them happy. Of course there was lots of shopping and eating. We spent day visiting the Inca sites around Cusco before moving on to

the community House at Huyro – Establo a disused coffee plantation. Here we entertained young children,

ran activities in the Library, played volleyball and visited a school. We picked fruit and coffee beans, cleared ditches, sorted Inca pottery and collected stones for building from a local stream. The atmosphere was

amazing and the scenery awesome. Machu Picchu was my highlight, a moving and magical sight. We stopped off in Lima on our way home to spend the afternoon with the local Guides, before the long flight home. Nikki Bird, International Advisor

Amy Edwards of Coggeshall Rangers attended “California Dreamin 2” at Pleasanton, California with Anglia Region where she went whale and dolphin watching in San Fransisco Bay where the girls also enjoyed a scavenger hunt including China Town. The second week included home hospitality where they

went to Red Wood State Park and the Jelly Belly Factory tour. At the end of the 2nd week all the girls went on the Duck Tour and visited Alcatraz and cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Congratulations!

The following girls have

completed their Baden

Powell Challenge

14th Colchester Guides

Olivia Johnson

5th Braintree Guides

Menolly Cook

1st Wivenhoe Guides Elizabeth Wise

Ellie Beckerleg

2nd Wivenhoe Guides

Sophie Pemberton

1st Thorpe le Soken Guides Georgia Rose

Rebekah Murray

18th Chelmsford Guides

Kirsten Brown

4th Moulsham Guides Ruby Creak

Chloe Roberts Alice Haynes

Ella Falltrick

1st Heybridge Guides

Emma Vaughan

1st Tiptree Guides

Erica Greene

80 girls aged from 9 to 12 years came together to enjoy a afternoon of

outdoors fun at the Transition Dabble Day in May. The Brownies and Guides

learnt compass skills, lit a fire with a flint, played a hilarious wide game,

enjoyed crafts using sticks, stones and leaves and explored during a Forest

School session. The afternoon was rounded off with a campfire.

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public relations purposes.

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necessary permission to reprint photos has been given.

Direct Mailing: Please advise us of any alterations to the direct mailing of SEAXE by filling out a form at

www.girlguidingessne.org.uk

Susan Leng and Carole Ratcliffe our County Archivists, both received their 50th Long Service Award from the County Commissioner, Helen Venner in July. Susan and Carole have been friends for thirty three years, firstly as Brownie Guiders when Susan moved to West Bergholt where a new Brownie Pack was looking for more helpers. Since retiring from Unit guiding, both have both been involved with looking after our County Archives.

3rd Frinton Brownies & 1st Thorpe

Brownies enjoyed a How to Train

your Dragon Brownie holiday. The

girls made Hobby Horse Dragons,

Viking helmets and a shield before

they held a Dragon Training

Academy Assault Course. Contributions should be

emailed to:

seaxe@girlguidingessexne.org.uk

Deadline for next issue:

9th December 2015

Congratulations to 1st Rowhedge

Brownies who registered with the

British Heart Foundation's 'Jump Rope

for Heart' programme and raised a

whopping £248 with their Sponsored

Jump Off. 20% of the money raised is

to be used by the unit for a special

activity later this year.

2nd Halstead Brownies enjoyed a

camp at Skreens Park in June. They

enjoyed climbing, caving, archery,

traverse wall and a camp fire as well

as some thunderstorms!

Witham Trefoil Guild’s speaker in June this year

was Mary Everitt who designs and makes

costumes for the Dame in the Mercury Pantomime. She gave us a fascinating insight into the processes

with examples of costumes which have been worn by

the Dame.

Early in June, thirteen of our members travelled to

Londonderry for the National Annual Meeting. Whilst

there we had time to explore the city including the city

walls and the Millennium Bridge. We passed the Hands

Across the Divide statue on our walk and saw the first of

'the marches' as it was the beginning of the marching

season. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and

blowing a gale and the marchers were struggling with

their hats and banners!

Six of us joined ninety

members from around

the country for a few

days at Lorne before

returning home. We

were lucky enough to

visit The Giant's

Causeway, the Titanic

Experience and the

Ulster Folk Museum as

well as walking a

beautiful stretch of the

Ulster Coastal Path.

This year's County Outing saw

us catching a ferry from Tilbury to Gravesend where we

boarded the Princess Pocahontas which took us up the Thames to the City. The commentary was informative

and entertaining and the lunch served on board was excellent.

In spite of the occasional shower this was another

memorable outing.

The 50+ members who arrived at the Henry Dixon Hall for the County Trefoil Summer Social were transported to December and Christmas. They were met at the door by an Elf and a Snowman and served seasonal drinks by Mother Christmas! Father Christmas and a Fairy were on hand to send them to their tables. After

making Christmas trees from toilet roll middles the ladies shared a seasonal supper before competing in a Christ-mas themed quiz. We rounded the evening off by singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

On the hottest day of the year we hosted the annual Three Essex County Trefoil Fun Day at Prances,

the Scout Site in Wickham Bishops where, luckily there is lots of shade! Activities on offer for the ninety members

present included climbing, abseiling, archery, wide games, quizzes and craft. Following a ploughman's lunch Janis, our County President, organised an Inter County Challenge

which included making a tower from spaghetti and marshmallows, decorating a straw

hat and constructing a train from swiss rolls, mini rolls, icing and Liquorice Allsorts. The winning team came from South East. We served a Cream Tea before finishing with camp fire singing.

Stour Valley Guild celebrated St. George's Day with a "special hat" competition which was won by Joy Rolfe with an Easter themed hat and Maureen Scott with a pretty flower trimmed

hat in navy.