Each year we celebrate Armed Forces Day as our unit has close ties with the military community. We have Brownies with serving parents, uncles, aunties and brothers plus lots of parent, grandparent and great-grandparent veterans. We also have 2 leaders serving in the RAF and 4 leaders with husbands currently serving in the RAF too.
We had a very special guest, Warrant Officer Michelle Rees-Martin who is the Station Warrant Officer at RAF Waddington. She is the first female to hold this very high and prestigious role during the station’s 108 year history! Michelle is also a former Brownie leader so knew exactly what to expect from our girls. After introductions and an explanation of what Michelle’s role entails, we went outside.
Once we’d gathered into rows of 3, Michelle showed us how to stand easy, stand at ease and come to attention. These were simple commands and easy to learn. The next few commands were a little trickier but with lots of practice, we soon got the hang of them. We learnt how to salute (which Daffodil forgot to show us last year!), about turn and finally how to march. We broke into smaller groups and with help from the leaders, practised our moves. We finished by getting back together and put our new skills to the test. The Brownies had a smashing time marching up and down and were fascinated by Michelle’s pace stick and several Brownies took turns to salute using the stick! We finished by thanking Michelle with our traditional Brownie thank you and Daffodil presented her with a card signed by everyone and a thank you badge.
Back inside for a well-earned rest and drink. The Brownies also had to opportunity to vote for what activities we would do next week. They had 3 choices: games night, favourite craft night or a teddy bear’s picnic. The teddy bear’s picnic was the overwhelming favourite. The Brownies were also asked to pick a skills builder badge for next term; they had a choice of 4 not already covered with a brief explanation of what each badge would cover. Results for that vote to follow in September!!
Time for some games before our weekly awards: 10th birthday for Bobbin. Weekly best Brownie was Marlee for excellent marching skills and enthusiasm during the activity. She picked the penguin mascot to take home for the week alongside the trophy; Isabel was awarded the Brownie dolly mascot for her excellent saluting. Well done to both.
That’s it for now, see you next week (or Saturday for those coming to our Brownie weekend).