Thatcham girlguiding goes around the world in 'Thinking Day' event
Kennet Vale district celebrated thinking day, an annual event, at Spurcroft School this month – a first since Covid.
Around 250 attendees from 16 Thatcham girlguiding units, including the young girls, unit leaders and special guests went around the world through art.
Tapping into their creative side, the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers, took to various classrooms to create different art pieces to represent different countries.
Rainsticks were made to represent Australia, with cheer-leading for the USA. The girls block printed traditional designs for India, enjoyed tracking for Kenya, as well as making tulips to represent the Netherlands and drama performances for Eduador.
County commissioner of Girlguiding Royal Berkshire Jane Tork was in attendance with county president of Girlguiding West Berkshire Jane Bingham, who said: “I so enjoyed the Thinking Day event. The girls had a lot of fun, learning about different countries and being with their friends, which after the last two years is so important.”
The event finished with a gathering of everybody in the school hall, bringing with them their Unit flags, mascots and the lanterns they had made earlier.
The girls renewed their promises and some long service awards were presented, with three-years awards going to Jan Stowell and Julie Dunwell.
The mayor of Thatcham John Boyd also attended, calling the event “lovely”. He said: “It is nice to see, from my point of view, an event that otherwise wouldn’t have been on my radar.
“I loved to be invited to see how much effort was put in by the people who build the community that we live in.”
He added: “How generous of Spurcroft to offer the school. I was at the same event nearly three years ago now, it was nice to go back there.
“They were in lots of classrooms doing different activities, looking at different parts of the world.
“Then we went into Covid restrictions so it’s nice to see things like this. Everything is starting to get back to some degree of normality for the young people.”
Organiser Val Madden said: “They had a good time. Last year didn’t happen in this way so it was so much fun for them to meet face to face.
“The girls were having fun learning about new countries and being with their friends which, in the last two years, is always important.”
She added: “We did have the windows open at the end but just to meet up as one really big group was great. It felt great that everybody could be together.”
