Cooking Up a Storm

Blizzard Senior Section opened in Feb 2015.  The idea was to provide the Guides who were 14 with the opportunity to join the next section within Guiding and to reach out to those who had left us. Whilst there are other Senior Section groups in the area, the girls were used to attending Guides on a Monday night, plus there was space available at the venues, plus leaders keen to facilitate the group, so it made sense to open a new group.

A scoping exercise was carried out, whereby all those who had left Guides in the last year and were 14 or over were contacted. Local Young Leaders were also invited to come along. Together with the 14-year-old Guides, a group started to evolve.

The idea was to provide an opportunity for members to follow The Senior Section programme, which is a diverse, personal development programme which individuals tailor to their own interests.

The first meeting involved a lot of games, food and chatter, with the group discussing what they wanted to call the group and what the broader aims were.  It was attended by a mixture of current and former Guides, local Young Leaders and friends, all of whom were keen to find out more about joining The Senior Section.

We'd put together a display of resources to show the breadth of opportunities for members of The Senior Section, which include Look Wider, a wide-range of qualifications, opportunities and a lot more.  

The first suggestion for a name was 'Athena', but I pointed out that there is a Senior Section with that name elsewhere in the County. We considered 'Card Factory' and 'Clintons'.

One particular name evolved from the discussions - "blizzard". A blizzard is strong and has direction.  It cannot be stopped.  And so it was born - '1st Chislehurst "Blizzard" Senior Section'.

The idea of this blog is for Blizzard members to share what they are doing with Blizzard, whether as a group or as individuals. We hope that it will inspire you.

In the last year, Blizzard members have been to Parliament, been to national Girlguiding events, tried self-defence, bowling, ice-skating, Go Ape, signed up to do DofE, become Young Leaders of various local groups, helped run local events and much more.

Thanks for reading - keep checking for updates!