GGEW Spring 2012 | Page 2

PAGE 2 GGEW NEWS SPRING 2012 PAGE 7 he county commissioner, Jan Knight, and her assistant, Chris Skinner, came through the frozen roads on Monday night (6th Feb) to visit 2nd Epping (St John’s) Brownies and to present their Young Leader, Caroline Sundberg-Downey, with her Chief Guide Award. Caroline’s former Brown Owl, Sylvia Hepton, was also present and she was surprised when Caroline turned the tables and presented her with her 50 year long service award. The Brownies and visitors then tucked in to two special celebratory cakes which had been baked specifically for the occasion. T At the end of the autumn term 1st Newport Rainbows and 2nd Newport Brownies held a cupcake themed coffee evening to complete the Cupcake Challenge badge. They invited family and friends and raised £100 in just under one hour. In order to “Spread a little bit of Guiding Happiness” they purchased craft materials for the childrens wards and clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Sarah swapped her nurses uniform for her Guiders uniform in order to present the craft materials to the play therapist leader and one of the younger patients in the Paediatric Day Surgery Unit. Sarah Connell Rainbow and Brownie Leader Opening of the new Hallingburys Scout and Guide Hall in Little Hallingbury by H Sally C Bentley. n the 3rd of March 2012 the new Scout and Guide Hall was opened by John Salmon who before retiring was Hatfield Forest Scout District Chairperson. Helping John out in cutting the ribbon were Eleanor Cox; a Little Hallingbury Brownie and Thomas Harding a Hallingburys Cub, the hall is in memory of Pearl Hutley Cub Scout Leader in the village for many years. Cliff Pedder gave thanks on behalf of the Hallingbury Scout & Guide Supporters Committee to all of the organisations and individuals for the donations given to them towards the new building plus the Pantomime Group who over a period of 29 years raised funds for the maintenance of the old building and subsequently for the future hall. The Scout Association was represented by Peter Lambert who is the Acting District Commissioner for Hatfield Forest District’s, Anne Matthews from GirlGuiding Essex West plus Jo Stewart, Division Commissioner for Harlow. Peter gave out two Scouting Merit Awards to Cliff Pedder - Chairperson of the Supporters Committee and Anne Row – Secretary of the Supporters Committee. Sally Bentley in her position of Group Scout Leader – even though she was in her Guiding uniform – gave out three Thanks badges to Lionel Britton, Ann Hooker and Julie O’Brien for their involvement in helping to raise funds via the Panto group for the last 29 years. A little history about the old building, it was already second hand when it was put up in 1974 and had been a canteen for contractors of a stadium for a London Premier football team; the previous hut was a small corrugated building just big enough for around 15 children who sat on various bits of camping equipment as there were was only a couple of chairs and very little room to hold games inside. The building which the writer of this article remembers attending the Hallingbury Guides there - was erected in 1958 on ECC ground but was the property of the Boy Scouts Association and was administered by Trustees in the village. As the population in the village grew so thoughts of a larger building became more urgent and were resolved in 1974. Everyone involved in Scouts, Cubs, Brownies – and maybe Guides again one day plus the Supporters Committee - would like to thank everyone for all of their help and support whilst we were homeless for six months, particularly Stuart Padfield who loaned us the use of one of his stables to store all of the tentage and various other bits of equipment. O SPRING 2012 County Commissioner visits Epping for presentations Christmas Boxes for the troops Our troops overseas were not forgotten by youngsters in Corringham who together filled more than two dozen shoeboxes which were shipped overseas in time for the Festive Season. Contributions were made by all sections at the 2nd Corringham Group who clearly enjoyed playing their own version of Father Christmas GGEW NEWS Hi my name is Chloe Capp, I am 13 years and a member of the 1st Elsenham Guides In August 2011 my mum, dad and I went to Africa for 3 ½ weeks. Whilst we were out there we went and visited two different orphanages. One of them, Lioness Cubs Childrens home, has a sponsor back here in England and has many people go and visit them they also have a nice house with a large garden for them to play in. The second orphanage, Cannan Childrens home, has nothing. They have a tiny little house which includes a school and they don’t even have a garden just a patch of mud where all the locals live. We went and visited the Cannan twice as we felt that they would benefit from our help more, we brought them loads of food and water both times, after our first visit we found out that not all of the children had mosquito nets to cover them at night, I asked dad could we get them for them and he said yes. This was a very moving experience for both me and my parents; we have all learnt a great deal from this and appreciate the things we have at home. We as a family also support Felstead Aid, throughout the year and have been for several years now. It is a small, local charity. Their aims and objectives are to help sick and under privileged children throughout the world, but more especially the children who are still suffering from the results of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. I turned 13 in January this year. Both mum and dad decided that for my birthday I could have a party to help celebrate. As my birthday is so close to Christmas and I got everything I wanted, and more, there was nothing that I wanted or needed, I wanted to do something different; that would help someone else. I decided to make a “wishing well” and ask my friends and family to donate money to my “wishing well” and I would then split the money between the two orphanages and Felstead Aid. My mum and I made a beautiful “wishing well” for the donations to go in and sent a text to my friend’s parents an d our family and told them what we were doing. She got many messages back saying “what a wonderful thing your daughter is doing!” One lady said “That’s very commendable at her age – what a lovely idea” another was “Let’s hope its starts a trend”. Mum and dad were so proud of me. My party was held on the 14th of January, it was a great success; I had many friends and family turn up. I really enjoyed myself and I can honestly say it was the greatest night I’ve ever had. The following evening I counted up the money that was in the “wishing well”. We had an amazing total of money, £280 pounds which we then split between my three chosen charities. Dad got the bank details from the two orphanages and sent the money off to them out in Africa. Allan, the man who helped form Felstead Aid, came round to my house and I gave him the £100. He gave me a lovely certificate. About a week later a parcel came through with my name on and I was a bit shocked as I never get anything through the post! In the parcel was a little letter from Lioness Cubs thanking me for my kind donation with a little lucky elephant to keep in my school bag and a wonderful secret ‘African’ box, named because it was in the shape of Africa, you can remove ‘Kenya’, a little peg, which then lets you remove the lid, I also was given a wonderful DVD of all the children in the home. On the letter with the box I was told about Milly, the youngest of Lioness Childrens home, had just started kindergarten school, Milly is the youngest at this home, she followed me everywhere I went whilst I spent time with them. I also received a wonderful email from Zach, the caretaker of the Cannan thanking me for the money and telling me what the money was going to be used for, they were going to buy some school shoes, water and water purifier, medicine, books, food and some rent. Mum and I sent a thank you message to all of my friends and family, to let everyone know what a wonderful thing that they had helped me do by donating the money. I hope that one day in the not too distant future we will be able to go back to Kenya and revisit the orphanages to see how they all are. Here is a photo showing my “wishing well” and the picture board I put with it, a photo of my little African box and certificates.