Guides awards

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 493, 6 July 1993, Page 8

Guides awards

An awards night was held recently at the 27th Manawatu Girl Guides Group based in Waiouru to recognise the efforts of the 20 girls who have earned 83 Challenge Badges over the past few months. Three of the girls were awarded gold badges. They were Alex Masson for outdoors, Tania Shields for fitness and Kimberley MacGibbon for leisure. Debbie Smart was also made a warranted leader for her contribution to the Girl Guides in programming and planning meetings. The Girl Guides have undergone many changes this yea'- in order to ensure that girls involved in the association's programmes receive relevant, interesting and useful training. One aspect

of those changes has been the relaxation of uniform regulations. The Girl Guides Association has recognised the fact that uniform costs may have placed financial pressure on some parents, or even prevented some girls from joining and has sought to alleviate this problem. Emphasis has also been placed on low cost activities for the girls. The girls are encouraged to gain Girl Guide credits through their school activities and to become independent achievers, making their own decision as to which challenges to undertake. In order to achieve this parents are discouraged from attending meetings with their daughters, so that the girls can be free to act on their own.