In February, a group of Young Leaders and Rangers from across the county came together for our third annual MNW Ranger and Young Leader Winter Weekend! The weekend was held at Willow Tree and was a mixture of activities inside and out to complete the Rangers Selfcare interest badge and the LaSER Take 10 Badge. We had a great mixture of Rangers and YLs, with 17 young members joining us from across the county.
The young members arrived on the Friday evening, chose their dormitories and decorated both notebooks and positivity jars before a dinner of fajitas. After dinner the young members had a mixture of different things they could do before bed including board games, playing bingo, building blanket forts or just having free time to chat and get to know each other.
“I look forward to these events every time, it’s so lovely to meet new people, try new things and create amazing memories, and we couldn’t do it without our incredible leaders!” – Ranger/Young Leader (Hatch End District)
On Saturday morning, we had a relaxed wake up and breakfast and then started on some self-care activities. First up was some meditation to practice mindfulness and then some guided journalling in their newly decorated notebooks.
The group then split in two with half the group going to the Willow Tree shop and the other half of the group creating Self Care bucket lists/bingo cards. Once the groups had swapped over, everyone headed outside for a Speedy Scavenger Hunt with everyone racing to find certain things in nature. We then had some team challenges including making the best jewellery out of natural materials and pretending to be a spider! Everyone then had some free time outside to do a much requested activity – the adventure playground!
After Lunch, the young members did some candle painting which is achieved by dipping paintbrushes into the melted wax of coloured tealights and painting onto tapered candles to create designs. They then headed outside once more to play a very competitive wide game!
Next was snack time and more crafts, this time they made embroidered pencil cases. There were some wonderful designs created by some of our more experienced sewers and some inspiring perseverance shown by others who were less experienced with amazing results from all! Whilst they were doing this they also headed into the kitchen to make their own pizzas ready to be cooked up for dinner.
After the sewing session they had some free time before dinner with lots more relaxing activities such as some mindful colouring, playing board games and even some knitting.
“Attending these events is such a great way to relax and have fun, I love being able to get to know people more and enjoy such a great range of activities. I’m so grateful to all the leaders for taking the time to organise these events and making them so memorable!” – Ranger/Young Leader (Hatch End/Northwood District)
After our pizzas and lots of garlic bread and salad, we headed down to the campfire, where everyone enjoyed lots of singing and Smores! They also got to do sparklers and enjoyed sitting looking at the stars.
In the morning, we had a light breakfast before heading out on the morning woodland walk. Everyone enjoyed getting outside and walking in the very muddy woods, we even came across a stream that everyone had a ‘paddle’ in wearing their wellies and walking boots. After this it was all hand on deck to tidy and clean the building before a much-deserved brunch of pancakes! After brunch, Clare, Young Leader advisor, held a session for our Young Leaders who attended the weekend and the we all said our goodbyes and everyone headed home, exhausted but having made new friends and
having a great weekend.
“This was my first weekend away with Rangers and it couldn’t have been any
better. We’re so lucky to have such great leaders, everyone was just so lovely,
and the activities were all so fun!” – Ranger (Hatch End District)
A massive thank you to Jenni and Piper for volunteering with me over the weekend and all the amazing young members who attended and got stuck in to make it a truly great time, we could not have done the weekend without you!
“I really loved the atmosphere around all the Rangers and I loved the company we received from Alice, Piper and Jenni who were just awesome so thank you very much “ – Ranger (Hatch End District)
Alice, Ranger Advisor – Girlguiding Middlesex North West
