BP Awards for Ballarat

BP Award Presentation

This week the 11th Ballarat Guides held a special presentation night for 3 local Guides who have recently completed the BP Award.  Earning the peak achievement for their age group was

• Emily Shearer-Cox
• Nyajima Reath
• and Tiana Collins

The event was attended by parents, Unit Leaders (Margaret Littlehales, Laura Shearer and Sue Damon), local Guide Leaders and Ms Juliana Addison, Member for Wendouree.

Unit youth members served supper, formed the colour party and presented the ceremony.

The BP awardees all renewed the Guide Promise,  presented supporter badges to their parents or grandparents and cut their special cakes. The awards were presented by the Leaders who started the girls on their Guiding journey when they began Guiding, Cherie Brown, Rosemary Garth and Laura Shearer. The certificates were presented by Ms Juliana Addison.

BP Award

The BP Award is one of Guiding’s peak achievement awards and is named after the founder, Robert Baden-Powell. The Guides worked on the syllabus over a period of several years, hampered somewhat by the restrictions necessitated by Covid lockdowns  They each completed challenges from the 7 fundamentals of the Australian Guide Program.

• Promise and Law
• Guiding traditions
• Service
• Patrol system
• Outdoors
• Leadership

Some of the challenges undertaken by the girls collectively included:

• discussing their evolving understanding of the Promise & Law with their Leaders
• attending church confirmation classes to explore their beliefs
• visiting and touring the mosque to compare with their own religion
• making a collection of prayers, reading, stories, sayings and music based on the theme of friendship
• discussing how the Guide Law applies to real life situations
• making a Be Prepared kit and comparing the contents with items used in these kits in the 1960s
• training younger Guides in flag etiquette
• leading a campfire
• constructing a lightweight ballista as part of the GGTV YouTube program
• obtaining first-aid certificates and Emergency 2 badges
• participating in Anzac Day parades and selling badges for the RSL
• removal of weeds from local bushland
• packing back-packs with school supplies for children in the Pacific Islands
• acting as Santa’s Helper during a Christmas festival and helping with craft activities
• performing the traditional Flower Dance at the 34th Assembly of Cornish Bards
• hosting a Tupperware party to raise funds for Riding for the Disabled
• abseiling, hiking, canoeing, rock-climbing and sailing
• participating in Zoom sessions with girls from 14 different countries from the Asia-Pacific region
• teaching the younger girls about the 5 Guide World Centres and cooking African, Japanese and Indian food
• performing roles as Patrol Leaders and Patrol Seconds, organising unit activities, creating wide-games, organising Zoom sessions

During the night, many other girls were presented with a variety of interest badges earned throughout the year. Karen Chatto, Leader of Choc-Chics Ranger Guides presented Emily Shearer-Cox with the esteemed Rebekah Watt Award.

This award is presented each year to a Guide in the Eureka area of Guiding who is deemed to have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills and been a positive role model for other Girl Guides.  This special award is in memory of Rebekah Watt, a well-respected Leader who passed away at a young age.

Well done to everyone involved on the night.