[I]t is not every day that you receive a card from a fellow Brownie in the Falkland Islands, but that is exactly what happened to the Windermere Brownies as part of Girlguiding’s “World Thinking Day”. Each year, this is celebrated by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts across the world as a day of international friendship and solidarity, ensuring that guiding members think of each other and celebrate their sisters from across the globe.
This year, Brownies and Guides were invited to exchange postcards with other girls in the country, by writing brief messages about themselves and their favourite activities and then having these cards redistributed at random.
19 girls from 5th Windermere Brownies, aged seven to nine, wrote cards in early February and were delighted to receive messages from the region, but also Scotland and even the Falkland Islands. Assistant leader Karen Bateson was very pleased: “The girls were fascinated by the fact that they had made a connection with someone who they would never meet but who had similar interests. I had hoped that they would get a sense of other girls, just like them, enjoying Brownies elsewhere in the country, and that is exactly what happened. “
24 girls from 24th Barrow Vickerstown Methodist Brownies received messages from the region, but also Scotland, Wales, Kent and the Isle of Man. Brownie leader Helen Taylor explained: “On Thinking Day we usually focus on international games to experience guiding from a foreign country but the Postcard Pals has shown the girls how much guiding is thriving here in the UK.” The girls immediately looked at maps and marked where their postcards had travelled from. They thought it was “cool” that so many Girlguiding members from all over the UK are doing activities just like them.
