CROYDON COUNTY REVIEW 2023

Welcome to this review of Girlguiding Croydon County’s achievements in 2023.

A heart felt thank you to each one of you for all you do, especially in our fast paced, often crazy world!

Girlguiding Croydon County Acting Commissioner and Trustees

Judy Morris, Valerie Apps, Marie Burgess, Pauline Mason

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1 OUR MEMBERS

At the time of writing this review there are 91 units with 1,658 girls, young women,  Leaders and members, across Croydon as shown in the table below. 

2 ACHIEVEMENTS

Within Girlguiding Croydon all our volunteers are important to us and we would like to recognise and thank everyone for the fantastic work they are doing. 

Our award system is just one way of recognising members.  

During 2023 the following people received awards

Queens Guide Award:

Fairfield Division: Rebecca Clery and Anna Cleary completed their Queens Guide Award.

Jack Petchey Leaders Award:

The following Leaders were nominated and received the Jack Petchey Leaders Award 

Purley Division: Imogen Cale and Julie Urquhart 

Fairfield Division: Piper Swaine and Michelle Pereria

North Division: Katie Stevens 

Long Service Awards:

During 2023 the following awards were achieved

5 Years 

Purley Division: Beth Keyzer, Natalie Burmiston, Lucy Best, Carol Clisby, Tracey Yates, Isabel Dudman, Janet James, Cara Miles, Sasha Breen, Karen Ray.

Fairfield Division: Piper Swaine, Sarah Richardson, Mary Brown, Stanza Nicholas

North Division: Katie Knot, Ashley Maslin, Natalia Ciesielska, Frances Bullen

Huntingfield Division: Dave Jones, Kerry Weatherill, Linda Gipps, Katherine Holden, Rachael Wheeler, Rachael Maynard, Becky Watt

10 Years 

Purley Division: Imogen Cale, Louise Keyzer, Audrey Saunders

Fairfield Division: Gill Harris, Ellen Mitchell 

North Division: Sapna Patel

Huntingfield Division:  Jatinda Bonner, Rachael Callan, Kayleigh Hackett, Vicky Keohane, Heather Tuck, Frances Lambert, Julie Brown, Kevin Davies, Pat Granville Overton

20 Years

Purley Division: Katherine Turner, Kirsten Flett.

Fairfield Division: Cathy Heath

Huntingfield Division: Jennie Bartlett, Leanne Davies, Cheryl Fairchild

30 Years

Purley Division: Jackie Sidwell, Katie White

Huntingfield Division: Doreen Jones, Andrea Ville 

40 Years

Fairfield Division: Barbara Nalty

Going Away With: (Camps and Holiday Accreditation)

Guides – Sarah Richardson, Charlotte Bush

Brownies – Carole Franklin

Hero Awards: (An award for members or friends of Guiding who have done something very special)

Purley Division – Donna Nunn, Sarah Ward and Jill Kyne

County Good Service: (Awarded for valuable service to Girl Guiding)

Jill Kyne – Purley Division

Thanks Badge, for Outstanding Service:

Sandra Coppock – North Division

Leadership Awards

We are pleased that the following leaders completed their Leadership Qualification.

Alison Storey, Nicola Haswell, Anca Stan, Lucy Best, Lauren Grimes, Eclipse Harris

Laura Smyth

Leadership Development Programme (introduced 2023)

Emily Hunn

3. ACTIVITIES

Camps, Holidays and Activity Days

• Giving our Girls the opportunity to take part in activities to encourage them to explore and to enjoy the outside world.  In 2023: 

33 units took part in camps and holidays both in the UK and abroad. 

6 Units travelled to Europe, 2 Units went to Austria, and 4 Units went to Belgium taking part in (Take over Belgium) a LaSER (our Girlguiding region) initiative.

Croydon North Division held an activity weekend at Radcliffe and 98 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers attended along with 30 Leaders.

• Giraffe Trail – Croydon Stands Tall – London Borough of Culture 2023

2023 has been the Year of the Giraffe with each of the four Divisions taking responsibility for designing and painting a giraffe that joined the herd on the Giraffe Trail. Thanks to everybody who gave up their time to paint giraffes across the County.

      Fairfield     North   Purley                 Huntingfield

Over 850 rainbows, brownies and guides took part in the trail and/or the giraffe activity sheet. With 300 plus girls and leaders joining us at the Radcliffe Centre for pizza on the day of “Girlguiding takes over the Trail” on 30^th September 2023. 

The County Trustees have decided to continue with the ‘Walk Taller’ theme for the coming year as we celebrate 50 years as a Guiding County in Croydon.

• Fairfield Division held a Silent Disco for all their Brownies and Guides.

4. SOCIAL ACTION

Girls and Leaders within the County have always been generous with their time and donations to the many and various charities that have welcome our involvement. Below are the social action projects we have been involved with in 2023.

• We collected 184 sets of pyjamas for the charity ‘Childrens Hospital Pyjamas’ for them to deliver to children who are in hospital and who have insufficient pyjamas.

• We took part in the Race for Life with 86 girls and leaders taking part raising £4,380 for Cancer Research UK.

• The Giraffe Challenge introduced us to Crisis in Croydon, and we have developed a relationship with them, and have provided over 100 items of winter clothing including coats, jumpers, hats scarves, gloves etc., together with over 55 packs of toiletries and personal products.

 In addition, the Units provided sufficient chocolate, sweets, and biscuits for 200 members of Croydon Crisis to have as a Christmas treat.

Crisis sent the following message to us in December:

‘We wanted to thank everyone involved in the donations of Christmas treats and the organising of all the Treat Bags. What a mammoth task it has been for you all and we really appreciate it.

We have started giving out the Treat Bags to members – they are perfect. They are really brightening up a member’s day and it is so nice for the reception team and Lead Workers to be able to give members something nice before Christmas.

    An industrial lift full of donations to Crisis

We are looking forward to developing a plan for 2024 to see how we can continue our work with Crisis.

• Children in Need. Selsdon raised £100.00

5. ENVIRONMENTAL

Within Girlguiding we are strongly encouraged to support environmental activities and the girls are encouraged to work towards badges that support their learning about the environment.

• The 3^rd and 9^th Selsdon Units have been involved in planting trees in Selsdon and we are looking at how we can be more involved with the local environment and associated projects.

6 COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

As an organisation we have always been encouraged to support community activities and our local communities. Below we show some of the activities we have been involved in during the last year.

• 35 members of Girlguiding Croydon were invited to take part in the wreath-laying ceremony on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph,

In addition, a small group of Guide Leaders took part in the Croydon Parade for Remembrance Day.

• Supporting Food Banks. 2^nd Purley Rangers supported Purley Food Hub as part of a Volunteering badge.

• Working to support refugees.

Childrens Clothing was collected by 3 units for the Refugee Women’s Refuge Centre in Calais for the children living in the 

Refugee camps. 

• Project YOU (Youth Organisations in Uniform). 15 Guides and Rangers with 3 Leaders took part alongside Naval and Army Cadets, Scouts, Police and Fire Cadets in mixed teams using the climbing wall, rifle shooting and an activity from each group.  Deputy Lord Lieutenant Ray Wilkinson, the Mayor Jason Perry and Sarah Jones MP all attended.

What a brilliant year, congratulations to everyone mentioned in the review. We look forward to seeing many more of you in our 2024 review.

Have an amazing Guiding 2024!