Taking Care of You and Me - 2003 National
Link Service Challenge
(updated
January 18, 2004)
In spring 2003, Link members across Canada
were challenged to carry out service projects united by the common
theme of health –
taking care of herself, or helping girls and others learn to do the
same. The Challenge was purposely left
very flexible, to allow for the varying circumstances of
Link members and their local communities. General suggestions
included the following:
- service to Guiding such as helping in a girls' unit
- community service such as helping an existing
health-related charity
- or perhaps both (coordinating girls' participation in a
community service project for instance.
Topic ideas included incorporating
the WAGGGS' Initiative on Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy, working on
the new Bone Building Challenge with girls, or covering other
health-related challenges in the girls' programs.
Thanks
to all of the participants, most of whom were recognized in the Fall
2003 Link Connections
national newsletter (some information came to me after the newsletter
deadline). Challenges like this help to promote Link within the
Guiding community, so your participation is valuable. Specific
information about the projects that were carried out is below (in
chronological order based on when I received information from the
participants).
Les Stubbs, Rolling Hills Area -
worked with a local Brownie group to help them to compete all of the
health living sections of the Brownie program.
Special thanks to the Task Group who
helped organize this first Link Service Challenge: Tirian Eynon (AB),
Nancy Ferguson (NS), Sunita Mathur (BC),
Kara O'Brien (ON/PEI), Jennifer Walker (National Link Adviser).
back to Link
Information Page
Victoria Potluck Link SHE Sleepover for
Senior Branches
On
November 30, 2002, the Victoria Potluck Link hosted the SHE (Sex,
Health, and
Exercise) sleepover at Bowker Hall for all SVI Area Senior Branches. Link is currently undertaking a national link
service project which is called "Taking Care of You and Me", and
encourages
Link members to undertake service projects that will improve the health
of
girls and women within and outside of Girl Guides of Canada. Link is a flexible branch of Guiding for women
aged 18-30 which allows those who wish to continue with Guiding but
cannot work
with a unit to participate in any way that they so desire.
So, the Potluck Link decided to take part in
the service project and have a little fun as well.
On
the night of the sleepover a total of 17 young women took part. There were 8 Link members and 8 Rangers from
the 1st Victoria and the Klahanie Ranger units and 1 guest.
The
night was a rejuvenating and invigorating fruition.
After a few introductory health games we made
our own pizzas and then waited for them to cook. While
waiting for supper and munching on raw
veggies, Nina and Emily read stories from the Vagina Monologues. Afterwards, while waiting to fully digest we
finished the sexual education portion of the program and played a few
“hands-on” games, including condoms on cucumber relays.
Next
we went into the physical fitness portion of the night.
We split into two groups. Downstairs
a group of us sweated with our
video Tae-bo instructor who made us jab, kick and undercut our way
through and
exhausting half-hour. Some of us were
sore for days after (like me!).
Upstairs, my sister Adria lent some of her time to teach home
strengthening and stretching exercises.
These exercises, which can be done while watching your favorite
TV
program, are very effective if done on a regular basis.
Afterwards we all joined together again to
take part in Nutrition Jeopardy where questions like: “What vegetable
is high
in protein, calcium, iron and Vitamin C?”
“Broccoli!” were posed. After we
had a popcorn snack and watched a movie.
I
think everyone would agree that they had a great time and would
definitely do
it again. We hope to host more fun
events in 2003 and hope to have the full range of SVI Senior Branches
including
Cadets and Junior Leaders participating.
photos: relay 1,
relay 2, Tae-bo
Participants: Chloe
Faught, Allison Fleischer, Jessie King, Kristen Milburn, Nina Lidkea,
Emily Barnewall, Kristal Atkinson, Jena Croft.
Da Hon Neh Area Link Bone Building Challenge
by Julielynn Wong, Da Hon Neh Area Link member and Guider, 2002
Recipient of Roberta Bondar Scholarship
Having been selected as one of this year's recipients of the Roberta
Bondar Scholarship, I was determined to give back as much as I could to
Guiding. The back page of the Fall 2002 issue of Canadian Guider that
described the
new "Bone Building Challenge" caught my attention. As a medical
student studying at Queen's University, I thought, "This could be a
bridging event between all levels of Guiding and the medical community!"
The other Guiders in my District and the Dean and other faculty members
at Queen's University Medical School were very supportive of the idea
and entire project. So I contacted the Division Commissioner to
invite all
Units of all levels in the Kingston Division to participate. I
also spoke to various members of the Queen's University who generously
offered their assistance in providing resources and expertise. I
then began designing an enriched program that went above and beyond the
requirements of the Bone Building Challenge and covered other areas of
the Guiding Program, especially the sections that relate to active
living, health, nutrition and career awareness. I also began
recruiting volunteers, including several Link members, to help lead
this Challenge for individual Units.
During the weeks of Nov. 18th to 21st, 2002 and Jan. 27th - 30th, 2003,
approximately 450 Sparks, Brownies, Guides, Pathfinders, Senior
Branches, Link members, Leaders, parents and siblings met at the Glaxo
Wellcome
Clinical Education Centre at their usual meeting time. This
centre is a new state-of-the-art facility that has large, bright
seminar rooms and is used to train Queen's University health science
students. Each Unit was assigned a Challenge Leader, all of whom
were Queen's university students with an interest and/or education in
health sciences and who could provide career awareness about health
profession careers. Each Unit had the opportunity to see and
examine real human bones, spine models and a life-size skeleton that
were loaned from the university anatomy department and also compare
bone density microscopic images. The Guides, Pathfinders and Senior
Branches Units also visited the computer lab in the science library to
calculate their daily calcium intake. After learning about common
sites for osteoporotic fractures, some Pathfinders and Senior Branches
were able to make fake casts using the same techniques that are taught
to orthopedic surgery residents!
Each Unit also used the gym located inside Kingston General
Hospital. All Sparks, Brownie and Guide Units were able to
participate in an obstacle course using equipment from the Queen's
University Physical Education
Centre. Most Units participated in a funky hip-hop dance session
with a Queen's dance instructor. After their physical fitness
session, everyone was able to quench their thirst with a calcium-rich
drink of refreshing milk! Calcium-fortified orange juice and
lactose-free milk was also made available to those individuals who
could not consume milk products.
Also, one District in our Division was too far away from Queen's
University so we took the program on the road and brought the Challenge
to them on Jan. 20th, 2003! Approximately 80 Sparks, Brownies,
Guides and Pathfinders attended this event that was held in the
basement of Grace United Church in Gananoque, Ontario.
The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive! So what's
coming up in the future? More Guiding members are registered to
participate in the Bone Building Challenge at Queen's University
in 2003 and some Units are
even making it a mother/daughter event! Also, as a special treat,
an obstetrician/gynecologist has offered to give a special lecture on
the benefits and drawbacks of hormone replacement therapy for
preventing osteoporosis to members of the Trefoil Guild in March
2003. Overall, these Units can look forward to a night of
fitness, physiology and fun!
Participants: Julielynn Wong, Glenna Harris, Melanie Colpitts,
Julie Cooke, Bronwen McCurdy, Frances Ue, Alison Aiken, Sarah Rauth,
Eileen Suwanda, Christina Rivers, Jen Walker, Amy Whitehorne, Helen
Jhung, Caroline Mariano, Alison Holliday, Kelly Batten, Genny
Lesperance, Katrina Petrik, Pam Woolner and Clarissa Leung.
Calgary Area Link Health Fair
Taking Care of you & Me Link
Bridging Event Final Report - "Adventures In Guiding''
-by Tirian Eynon
The Taking Care of You
& Me service project was an initiative of
Girl Guides of Canada‑Guides du Canada National Link for 2003. Over the
National Link e-mail group, discussions were had. The project aims to
have Link
units across the country doing service projects on the same theme. This
year's
theme was chosen as health because of the tie‑ins to the Guiding
program, and
various health related initiatives and challenges put out by the
different
levels of Guiding from WAGGGS on down. The Calgary Area Link members
planned
and hosted an interactive one day Health fair to help younger girls
learn about
important health issues and work on the Guiding program, while
"bridging" and showing them that they can continue on in Guiding as
they grow, as well as helping to educate the Pathfinders and Senior
Branches on
important health issues and enabling them to complete appropriate
program work.
The event was held on Saturday
April 26th from 11:30 -4:00 pm. It turned out to be a true adventure in Guiding. The
day of our event ended up being the day that Calgary had a
huge snow storm (20+ cm in one day). Because of
the snow, wind and ice, many of the people registered to attend
couldn't make
it though the weather. Despite all that, all 10 Link members who said
they'd
come were there and while over 50 girls were registered to attend; only
3 girls
were able to make it. We had 7 of our 15 booths come and even though it
was
small all that attended had a good time and the feedback was positive.
Every
one thought it was well planned and would have been awesome if Mother
Nature
had cooperated. But what can we do in situations like that? Make tea,
hang out and
make the best of it. After all, we are Girl Guides after all. At the
end of the
day we really showed our skills, teamwork and resourcefulness as we dug
out and
pushed 6 cars on their way.
We had also encouraged girls
who are not already members of Guiding to come out (we have advertised
our event
on the youth website http://www.calgaryurbanvibe.ca . The booths
invited ranged
in topic from Sexual and reproductive health, body image, hygiene,
violence
prevention, suicide, and osteoporosis, to fitness, nutrition, yoga and
Addictions. And the Link members provided many good healthy snacks to
munch on,
Each participant received a goody bag filled with fun items we had
donated from
agencies such as the Alberta Egg producers, Alberta Milk Board, Youth
Week and
Canada Health.
We look forward to next year's
event. We now have practice in planning, and have many people and
agencies
ready to participate again. Perhaps we'll do it on the new WAGGGS
triennial
theme of "Our Rights and Responsibilities".
photo of Link display
participant booklet (summary) - PDF
file - right-click to save, then open with Acrobat if you get an
error message.
Participants: Tirian Eynon, Therese Lynch, Michelle Olfert, Amie
Hutton, Eleanor Stoddart, Heather Ainsworth, Mandy Rempfor, Erin
Ardagh.
Dawn MacNeill - Nova Scotia
I organized my Brownie Unit's completion of their level of the Bone
Challenge and helped/participated with a Guide Unit's completion of
theirs.
My Unit participated in the Global Youth Service Day by making tray
favours for seniors in the Haliburton Wing of the local hospital
(mental health boost).
I also presented 2 sessions at our Provincial Workshop in May on the
topic of water activities with the focus on stream invertebrates
(insects). These insects can be used to help assess water
quality.
In my session we discussed using them to assess water quality and I
had Guiders go into a stream to help assess the water quality of
that stream.
Erika van Putten, Scarborough ON
I worked with two units last year. I was with the 527th Toronto
Brownies in
the fall. I organized for them a Bone Building Challenge meeting
night.
However it was not scheduled until a winter meeting night, so I worked
with
the lead Guider by E-mail to help her with the events for the night ( I
could not attend as I was away at school). Since it was brownies it was
more games and activities on exercise. I then returned after they had
completed
the Bone Building Challenge and took them all skating on my reading
week to
do a winter exercise.
In the winter I worked with the 13th Waterloo Guides, and had a great
time helping the unit. But with them I did 2 nights of activities
learning about osteoporosis, and the proper way of doing exercises. We
played a series of
games, looked at pictures I obtained on the density of bones, drank
chocolate milk, calculated their dairy intake, and made posters on
physical
activities. I then took them swimming for a meeting night, were we
organized
races, and other events to promote physical activity before they got to
just
exercise and have fun on their own.
White Oaks Area Link, Ontario
(from Terri Dale, Area Link Adviser)
At the Hershey Centre's 5th anniversary, we ran a car wash, where
monies went to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. (Shinerama @ The
Hershey Centre). We helped out with Barbequing and participated in a
'Bedrace' to raise funds for bedkits for Sleeping Children Around The
World. Link also helped serve a Turkey Dinner to needy families where
216 attended, this was held in our local High School.
Entertainment was also provided. The extra food was all given to
the families to take home.
Within Districts, Link members helped organize Christmas Stockings for
needy children and teenagers, along with a Toy Drive, Mittens for
the Mitten Tree and for the Salvation Army, Toss A Toonie, Christmas
Kettle Campaign.
This is some of the Community Service we do, what a great bunch,
these Link Members jump in with their time & talent whenever they
can. We have a lot of fun doing so, and appreciate the
opportunity to help when needed.
