Iron Chef!

Posted on November 3, 2023 by Carissa

Happy Fall and welcome back to another year of Guiding!

To kick off the Guiding year, the 14th Burnaby Mountain Pathfinders were excited to participate in this year’s annual West Coast Area Iron Chef event! The theme of this year’s event was Fall Fest. The Pathfinders competed against 14 other teams from West Coast Area, and together they were tasked with creating an appetizer, main course, and dessert using fall-themed ingredients.

The Pathfinders did an amazing job, and took home two awards for their creations! They were awarded both the “Best Main Course” and the “Best Presentation.”

It was a great afternoon, and congratulations again to the Pathfinders!

Camp Olave Adventures!

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Carissa

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of another Guiding year! To celebrate, the 1st Sparks recently went to one of our favourite camps, Camp Olave!

The group stayed at the waterfront cabin, Brock. It was the first camp for every single Spark who attended, and they all did great! The camp was an “Under the Sea” theme. The Sparks mentioned that their highlights included the beach time and low ropes. There was a campfire ban so they couldn’t have a campfire, but they did make oven s’mores. They also travelled with fellow Burnaby Mountain group, the 47th Sparks/Embers and spent some time with them on Saturday night.

They also did crafts, including making a wind chime. They got to take advantage of all of the fun attractions that Camp Olave has to offer, including the blind trail, the fitness circuit, and the enchanted forest. They enjoyed exploring the nature house.

The Sparks got really lucky with the weather since the forecast had a high chance of rain. It was dry all weekend, if mostly overcast, but magically the couple of hours of nice sunshine happened while they were at the beach!

We are so glad that we are able to go to Camp Olave again! Have a wonderful summer, everyone!

Introducing our new District Commissioner!

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Carissa

Burnaby Mountain Girl Guides is very excited to announce that we have a new District Commissioner! Bethany Suvak has recently taken on the role of leading our District. We are very excited to have her leading our District for the next 3 years!

The role of being the District Commissioner is not new to Bethany, as she previously held the role from 2015-2018. Bethany has been in Guiding for 30 years and started as a Brownie. She had the chance to travel to Europe with Girl Guides in 2001, and can be seen in the photo above touching the Atlantic Ocean. She is currently a Spark Guider with our 1st Sparks Unit, where the Sparks call her Sparkles. Most of Bethany’s Guiding experience has been as a Spark Guider, but she has also worked with Embers and Rangers.

Bethany has been a trainer since 2013, and is passionate about supporting Guiders through training and mentorship. In 2018, she was a “Girls First Champion” and helped implement our new program.

Outside of Guiding, Bethany is a Mom to a three year old “future Spark” and teaches English at a local college.

We are very excited to have Bethany’s experience, passion, and knowledge in the District Commissioner role! This is a very important role in our District, as the Commissioner leads the District team, supports our Guiders, ensures Guiding is visible in our community, and does so much more! Bethany’s priority for this position is to strengthen bonds in Burnaby Mountain District. She wants to see more collaboration between members both at the unit and district level. She also wants to support our Guiders as much as possible, and part of this is an emphasis on recruiting more adult volunteers. She looks forward to welcoming more members onto our team very soon and can’t wait to start planning some of the events and activities that she has in mind!

We also wanted to thank Sandra Berry, who is our outgoing District Commissioner. Sandra took on the role during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped keep Guiding strong in our District throughout. Thank you so much, Sandra, for all of your service to Guiding and Burnaby Mountain District over the last 3 years!

Congratulations, Bethany, and thank you, Sandra!

Sparks go to Tumble City!

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Carissa

One of the cool parts about Girl Guides of Canada is getting the chance to try new things with your friends!

Recently, our 1st Sparks Unit had the chance to try something very new, and go to Tumble City! They went for an introduction to Parkour. Parkour is a sport where participants try to jump from point A to point B in the fastest way that they can. The Sparks got to practice running, jumping, and tumbling over all kinds of obstacles. The program leaders were young and energetic. The girls loved chasing each other, doing races, and some free time play. Some of them were really little ninjas.

It was such a cool experience for everyone! Thank you, Tumble City, for having us!

Burnaby Mountain District Needs Volunteers!

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Carissa

Burnaby Mountain District is so lucky to have many incredible volunteers in our District that make all of our Guiding activities possible. Volunteers run our Units, plan activities and camps, come up with fun event ideas, and so much more!

Burnaby Mountain Guiders and former girl members Katrina Berry, Andrea Berry, Carissa Konesky, and Eliesse Harpaz at the West Coast Area Guider Appreciation event.

Right now, our District needs volunteers more than ever! Now is the perfect time to consider joining Girl Guides as a volunteer and becoming part of our amazing team!

Four of our volunteer leaders – Katrina, Andrea, Carissa, and Eliesse, have been involved with Burnaby Mountain District since they were girls themselves! They went through Guiding together and had the chance to attend camps, sleepovers, and events. Even after they became adults they stayed with the District to become leaders and give girls the chance to have similar opportunities that they had.

Girl Guide leaders have a lot of fun and learn many new skills that look great on a resume! All volunteers with Girl Guides have access to trainings, support, and mentorship. Girl Guide volunteers also have access to scholarships to support with education, travel opportunities, and the chance to meet so many amazing fellow Girl Guides from across the country! There are also opportunities for recognition! Recently, many Guiders in our District attended a special event at Van Dusen Gardens.

Doesn’t this sound awesome? We’d love to have you join our team and make Girl Guides possible for even more girls. Apply now to volunteer here: https://www.girlguides.ca/WEB/AdultReg

Bridging Activities!

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Carissa

Recently, Burnaby Mountain’s 1st Sparks Unit connected with our 14th Pathfinders to do a fun Unit building activity together, and to earn their “How To” badges! The Sparks each received their own building kits and made their own penguin goalie game, where you flick a ball and a little Foosball style penguin tries to kick it.

The Pathfinders were a huge help with the big project! They helped the Sparks put together their games, and the Sparks were so proud of the finished projects. The Sparks couldn’t have done it without the help from the Pathfinders, so the Sparks and Spark leaders were very grateful that they came!

Bridging is a fun opportunity for Girl Guides of different age groups to come together and work on fun activities. It allows our older members to take on a leadership role, and the younger members to see what Girl Guides is like when they get older!

Everyone was so excited about the finished project!!

Frozen at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra!

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Carissa

On Sunday January 22, the 1st Sparks and 47th Guiding (Sparks and Embers) went on a very exciting outing to see Frozen with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra!

First we rode the skytrain all the way downtown and made our way to the Orpheum theatre. There, we found our chunk of 44 seats and watched the musicians warm up. The movie Frozen played while the VSO played the music. It was really interesting having the music play an even larger role than normal. In some parts it got very loud!

It was a pretty exciting outing for the Sparks and Embers! Thank you to the VSO and to the Guiders for making this wonderful afternoon possible!

Guides Go Skating!

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Carissa

Winter is the perfect time to try some new and fun activities! In December, the 56th Burnaby Mountain Guides decided to get active and go ice skating for one of their Unit meetings!

The Guides had a great time skating around, laughing, and trying some tricks. The skating rink even had nets to play hockey with and chairs to slide around on. For some of our Guides, it was especially exciting as it was their first-ever time ice skating.

There’s still time to participate in Girl Guides for the rest of the Guiding year and join our fun adventures! Did you know that from now until the summer, the registration fee to join Guiding is 50% off? A lot of our Units in Burnaby Mountain still have space, so join now by visiting register.girlguides.ca

Meet the Guiders of our District!

Posted on December 11, 2022 by Carissa

Each month, we will be featuring one of the amazing Guiders who make Guiding in Burnaby Mountain District possible.

To start off, meet our amazing District Commissioner, Sandra! Sandra leads our District. The District Commissioner acts at the main support for Guiders in the District, and provides mentorship and feedback. She also has a large administrative role, making sure that records are kept and contracts are signed. Not to mention, she chairs the District Council and sits as a member of Area Council.

Not only is Sandra a District Commissioner, but she is also a Guide leader!

Sandra started Guiding in Brownies as a girl. She had some fantastic leaders and great memories of being a girl member, so she decided to stay in Guiding as an adult. Her favourite part about Guiding is that everybody is accepted, and it is a different experience for each member. She has met many fantastic people through Guiding. She also loves taking girls camping at Camp Olave, which is our Girl Guide camp on the Sunshine Coast.

Sandra’s favourite part about Guiding in Burnaby Mountain District is the wonderful, supportive Guiders in the District. They are all fantastic and have done wonders ensuring that the girls in the District have a memorable Guiding experience, as well as feeling supported as they grow.

Thank you for everything that you do for Guiding and Burnaby Mountain District, Sandra! We are lucky to have you!

STEM Fun!

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Carissa

In Girl Guides, one of the badges that all branches can work on is the “Science Lab” badge. There are so many fun things that girls can do to learn about STEM!

Recently, SFU Outreach visited the 56th Burnaby Mountain Guide Unit to talk all about engineering and to make bath bombs! The Guides first learned about all of the different types of engineers that there are – including chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, and civil engineers. It was then time for the group to become engineers themselves, but first, they did an activity to learn all about the scientific process.

Once they had learned about the scientific process, it was time to make bath bombs! Each Guide got to choose the colour and scent of their bath bomb, and each one turned out very unique.

Thank you very much to SFU Outreach for taking the time to visit the Guides and put together such a fun activity! We loved learning about STEM.