Author: Lynn

Over 340 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers and their volunteers descended on Cambridge city centre on 7 June to learn more about famous amazing women linked to the city. Girls were raising awareness of their own amazing women volunteering across the county to run weekly groups letting girls know that they can do anything.

Girls learnt about a range of amazing women with links to the city, including astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, publisher Margaret Busby, and actor Emma Thompson, showing them that girls really can do anything!

Members of the public signed up to find out more about volunteering with Girlguiding: a leading charity for girls and young women, providing great experiences and fun for over 3000 girls across the county.

Girlguiding Cambridgeshire East has 230 units across the county, and we would love to recruit new volunteers to support these existing groups as well as open new ones. With over 1000 young members on our waiting lists, we need volunteers to work directly with our young people, inspiring them to take on new challenges, learn new skills and have fun. We also need volunteers who love to get accounts in order, organise events, and make sure the administration to run all these groups get done. We have a range of flexible volunteering roles to fit around study or work, with support from experienced volunteers to help you settle in.

“Volunteering with Girlguiding is a great way to meet new people, develop your own skills and learn new ones,” says Growing Guiding coordinator Cara Cooper. “As well as developing your leadership and teamwork skills, you can build your confidence in new situations, learn to communicate with a wide range of people, and have a lot of fun doing it!”

Guides in Cambridge have been busy fundraising for Addenbrooke’s Charitable trust and have raised £273.12.

26th Cambridge Guides have been learning how they can make an impact in their local community. Representatives from 5 local charities visited the Guides, aged between 10 and 14 years old, to inspire the girls to fundraise and raise awareness of local causes. The Guides chose which charity to support and then undertook independent challenges with the support of their leaders.

Two groups of Guides chose to fundraise for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust. They were keen to raise funds due to personal experiences of using the hospital as well as to support the new children’s hospital.

The Phoenix patrol fundraised by completing sponsored sporting challenges, including running, ice skating and swimming long distances over a two-week period.

The Sprites patrol made and sold cakes and other baked goods to neighbours and friends. They collected orders using an online form, baked the cakes and biscuits and then spent an evening fulfilling orders in teams delivering around Romsey and Petersfield areas of Cambridge. A parent told us that “everyone said the cakes were delicious!”

One of the Guides, Mia, independently raised £25 by challenging her friends to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar!

“The Guides have been able to support causes they really care about and learn that everyone can make a difference to their local communities. They worked as a team to think of ways to fundraise and we are proud of how much they have raised,” says Guide leader Cara Cooper. “Community action is an important part of Girlguiding and making it fun and engaging helps our Guides to develop new skills, build their confidence and think about the wider community.”

ACT’s Head of Community Fundraising, Donna Lee-Willis, said “We are thrilled that the Guides have chosen to fundraise for Addenbrooke’s. The funds raised through their numerous challenges will make all the different for patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital. We can’t thank them enough for their support!”

1st Orwell Brownies celebrated their 50th birthday on 25 April 2025 with a party.

They made owl wind charms, played a Kim’s game based around the number 50, brownies and the 1970’s. Every Brownie also had a go at pinning the badge on the Brownie and the closest to the correct place won a prize.

Everyone signed their names on a piece of card as a memory to who was there, which will be framed and hung in their meeting place for everyone to see.

As it was a birthday party all the Brownies sang Happy Birthday to themselves and ate cake!

Histon Brownies, for girls aged 7-10, have been putting the “serve my King and the community” part of their promise into action this term.

1st, 2nd and 3rd Histon Brownies each spent an evening with the HI Trees Action Group helping to mulch and weed the trees growing along the slip road to the A14 from Histon near the Holiday Inn. The leaders said “we are so grateful for the volunteers for taking their time to allow the girls to help”.

For VE Day 80 the 1st Histon Brownies focused on peace. They took part in the VE Mail project organised by the /together coalition which united children with veterans from World War 2. The Brownies received a letter from Bombardier Tom Jones about his experience in the war. They then wrote him back thanking him for his service. Afterwards they made lights of peace so that they could light them on 8 May in remembrance of the Victory of Europe. It also made the girls reflect on current world events.

Ely is the Isle of Eels – it was once surrounded by water with the Cathedral known as the Ship of the Fens. Eels were used as currency as well as a main source of food. In 2004, the Eel festival was created to celebrate the history of the city and be a fun day for locals and visitors.

The eel (a bit like a Chinese dragon idea) moves along the high street, supported by lots of children’s legs underneath – members of youth organisations including Scouting and Guiding.

At the riverside fete it disperses, then entertainment such as dance and singing groups, bands and eel throwing competitions (not real eels!) keeps the crowds amused. This year, the 80th anniversary of VE Day was also celebrated. So with the splendid help from our County Archivist, some Brownies, Guides and Rangers were able to dress in vintage (wartime) uniforms. Our stall included a tombola and other games organised by some of the girls selected to represent the county on international trips to Norway, Iceland and Cambodia in 2025/26.

Witchford, near Ely, is very lucky to already have a book and seed share scheme and the Guides decided that board games and puzzles would be a fantastic addition. They applied for a grant with the Ely events team which they used to purchase the boxes and a waterproof container. The Guides then set about getting donations of games and puzzles from various sources.

The Guides got to build the container from scratch, paint the boxes and sort through the donations. One of the Guides, Sophie, said “I really appreciated having the choice of what to do because I much preferred getting to use tools rather than painting”. Others were super excited to use their creativity with proper outdoor paint. The leaders of Witchford Guides, for girls aged 10-14, said “we love the range of young people we have in the unit and that we get to allow them to indulge all of their interests”.

There have been many visitors to the games and puzzle container since it opened and the Guides have even left a notebook inside so people can leave them messages. The villagers have supported them with more game donations and the Guides hope they are all enjoying getting to try new games!”

The 5th Cambridge Brownies celebrated their centenary with a party at St John’s Church, Hills Road – where the unit have held their meetings for almost all their 100 years – with former leaders and volunteers joining the festivities.

The Brownie unit, which first met on 31 May 1924, has a full complement of 24 current young members, aged 7 to 10. The 5th Cambridge Brownie unit has a strong history of adventurous activities, community service and providing diverse opportunities for girls and young women.

Former leaders who attended the 100th birthday celebrations included Gail Stephens, known as ‘Orinoco’ who was a leader from 1999-2010 and Sarah Martin, known as ‘Squirrel’, who was a young leader from 2002-2006, then an adult leader until 2010. Allison and Tracey, who were both young leaders with 5th Cambridge Brownies in the early 1980s and then adult leaders until early 90s, and Zoe Cundy, known as ‘Hedgehog’, who was a unit helper from 2017-2020 were delighted to be part of the celebrations.

Alison Lawlor was ‘Brown Owl’ at 5th Cambridge Brownies from 1982 onwards, giving 35 years of volunteering service to Girlguiding in total (including a stint at 39th Cambridge Brownies before returning to 5th Cambridge). We were also delighted to welcome Nell Whiscombe, who was a unit helper circa 2016 for 2 years, and is now assistant curate at St John’s Church, Hills Road, (where our Brownies meet), after being ordained priest in 2023.

Other guests included district president Phyllis Mills, who recently received the first ever 70 year long-service award for volunteering in Cambridgeshire East. Phyllis, who first became involved in guiding when she joined the 26th Cambridge Guides in 1954, has been a dedicated volunteer ever since, attended with her husband John.

Daphne Johnson, ‘Brown Owl’ in the 1970s and 1980s, and her daughter Fiona Johnson, (known as ‘Woodpecker’), who was a young leader at 5th Cambridge Brownies in the 1980s were disappointed not to be able to attend the occasion, but sent their best wishes, reflecting on some great memories of their time with the unit.

A wonderful 100th birthday video message was received from children’s author and former 5th Cambridge Brownie, Polly Faber, reminiscing, and telling us of her happy memories of 5th Cambridge Brownies.

Unit leader Shelly said: “It has been great to celebrate 100 years of our unit, with previous leaders and girls attending. The unit started strong and is still thriving, lots has changed but we are still here showing these girls that they can do anything they want to do and be anything they want to be. We aim to get them involved in planning what they want to do, from having exciting adventures to learning new skills and having lots of fun. I am proud to be part of the unit and of Girlguiding.”

One of the Brownies, Miriam Thackray, age 9, said, “Brownies is so fun because we get to do so many different things. My favourite event was sleeping under the aircraft at Duxford IWM with 500 other Brownies when I got my aviation badge.“