Preparing for the Opening Ceremony

22nd of February saw the girls forming teams, choosing their team names and creating their flags.  It took much longer than we expected - but we weren't about to rush them, they were having fun being creative.  The 2nd night of GB for the year and we have 31 girls on the roll, 4 spaces left!  See photos below of the 5 teams creating their flags - prepare for the unveiling next week!

Precious - our newest leader with a future GB'er

Youth Olympics

With summer starting late this year we are blessed with beautiful nights for Girls' Brigade. Lets get out there and make the most of it. Being the year of Olympics, this has inspired us to hold our own.

Girls could name their teams and make banners/flags for their countries.  Idea is to have some combined events (all girls together in their teams) and separate events (teams separate rotating around activities) each night.

Ideas so far:

• Discus - with a paper plate or frisbee
• Shotput - with a peanut or cotton wool or rolled up toilet paper
• Javelin - with a plastic straw
• Long jump - standing jump i.e. no run up
• Running - 3 legged race
• Volleyball -  Blind!  Set up the net and put the sheet over it so each team cannot see the other team and tell the kids to play volley ball. Pretty funny to see the reactions as the ball comes over the net. Also, you can have the kids stay on their knees or make them sit down to play. if inside you can use different types of balls like nerf stuff but I would not recomend balloons it does not move fast enough.
• Ideas are endless for any type of Relay's - since its summer a water transfer relay would go down well
• Frisbee golf
• Archery -  Tie up the toilet seat on a beam or a tree so that it will move if it is hit with something. Have the "athletes" stand pretty far away and try and make as many "bulls eyes", which would be throwing the toilet paper through the hole of the toilet seat as many times as they can during a certain time slot.

Traditional games that you can play without getting silly:

• Petanque / bowls
• Hockey
• Soccer
• All swimming events (try your local schools pools)
• Cycling / BMX
• Tennis

Some foodie categories that would be fun that could be run at any event:

• Blender of Doom - a bunch of gross food pureed together and each team have to eat it - play that one outside! 
• Grapes and Onions - make a large tray of jello and drop in peeled grapes and baby onions before it sets. Kids run across the yard, stick their face into the tray, grab one of the balls of food with their mouth then come back to the team and spit it into the appropriate bucket labeled onion or grape. Hilarious to see the reactions.

Devotions - discuss the values held by the Olympics
The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius." These Latin words mean "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." Again these can be admirable goals. A similar motto of the Christian faith would be "Faith, Hope, Love".

“Run the race with your eyes fixed on Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Should it rain:

Bible trivia quiz

Name that song - with Christian songs

+ some of the above activities can be done inside if need be

First Night @ GB Pt. Chev 2012

First night of Girls' Brigade @ Pt. Chev for 2012

Beautiful pink and white marshmellows arrived for an evening of relays, games, and roasting.

Officially 29 on the roll the first night - only 6 spaces left!

We completed the activities as in previous post, with some minor adjustments.  Megan and Sue did well to rustle up a tree to burn - a perfect end to the night eating roasted marshmellows as the sun set.

Marshmellow Moments

This fun night comes to you courtesy of Megan Connolly, and tested by Blockhouse Bay Company. We are going to do this as our fun first night at GB this week, with roasted marshmellows to finish the night. 

I think the marshmellow drop is going to be lots of fun!

Enjoy xx

 

In advance ask everyone to bring along one bag of marshmallows and collect these at the beginning of the evening. Girls to come dressed in marshmellow colours.

 

Marshmallow Relays

 

• Transferring marshmallows from one side of the room to the other using different means e.g.
• Using suction from straw
• Pushing along the floor with nose
• Balancing on chin/forehead/nose
• Between knees
• In pairs hold marshmallow between hips/stomach 

 

Marshmallow Toss

See who can throw a marshmallow the furthest

 

Fluffy Bunnies

Each participant must first insert one marshmallow into their mouths and say the phrase "Fluffy Bunnies." Each time the individual says it understandably he must insert another marshmallow and say it again. As the game progresses, participants will begin to bow out until there is only one remaining. This game can get messy so be sure to have something for each person to spit out their marshmallows on/in.

 

Marshmallow Structures

See which team can create the tallest/biggest/most creative structure using only a bag of marshmallows and raw spaghetti (or toothpicks).

 

Marshmallow on a String

Four contestants are each given a marshmallow tied to the end of a string. The other end of the string has a knot on it. The knotted end of the string is placed in the student's mouth, with the marshmallow dangling freely. The game is a race to pull the marshmallow to the mouth, without the use of hands. The first student to get their marshmallow, eat it, and spit out the empty string wins. Certain rules against cheating would include that against swinging the marshmallow up in the air and catching it the mouth, letting the marshmallow rest on the ground and picking it up with the mouth, etc.

OR

Hang pieces of string from the ceiling with marshmallows tied to the end. Participants must eat as many marshmallows as possible without using their hands.

 

Marshmallow Drop

Divide group up into teams. Have an adult or leader for each team lay on the ground with protective eye covering like sunglasses. The teams line up about 15 feet away from the leader that's on the ground. Have a bowl of miniature marshmallows and a bowl of chocolate syrup for each team. On go, each player one at a time will pick up one marshmallow, dip it in syrup and run to their “leader” that is on the ground with their mouth open. They will drop the chocolate covered marshmallow in the leaders open mouth while standing over them and go to the end of the line. If the player misses the target he/she must leave it. The winning team is the one that has the least number of marshmallows on the face of the leader or floor.

Youth Alpha

THIS IS A FANTASTIC RESOURCE!

Ever struggle with great spiritual badge subject ideas for your pioneers and older seniors?
We ran this course for the first time with girls 12+ last year - it took 2 terms.  The girls had a great time and those that weren't Christian learnt a lot and everyone opened up.  Plus teenagers love to talk and eat and watch videos - couldn't be more perfect.

The book is only $50 - it is huge!  Has all the instructions you could need, you download all the videos etc from youtube, and the youth alpha website, it also has lots of fantastic games to use - which you could also run any GB night!

http://www.alpha.org.nz/youth

http://youthalpha.org/

Thinking about running Youth Alpha in 2012? Want to see your young people go deeper in the Christian faith? Want to see lives changed?
Well then come along to the Training Day!

Wellington: Salvation Army Johnsonville - 2nd March
Auckland: Greenlane Presbyterian Church - 9th March
Tauranga: St Peter's Presbyterian Church - 16th March
Dunedin: East Tairei Presbyterian Church - 30th March

Bring your laptops and hopefully we will have all our techy stuff work and have a wireless network so you can work on the resource yourself!
Vital to come and be trained before running the course, if you cannot make it but would like to sit, chat, have a coffee and be trained on a one on one basis let us know and we will see what we can arrange!

Cost: $20. Morning tea included.
Register by emailing your details to: office@alpha.org.nz

Social Networking

If you are not using online social media yet, chances are it’s for one of two reasons – either you don’t know how to or you don’t understand why you should bother. Trust me – it’s worth overcoming them both.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to keep in touch with lots of people all at
once. You can keep clients, supporters, sponsors and volunteers up to date with what you’re up to, all while
marketing to new stakeholders at the same time. Just like ‘real-life’ networking, social media provides an
opportunity to make new contacts, share resources and develop working relationships with people you may not
otherwise have the chance to meet.

So I've been making sure I'm up with the 21st century, its meant some learning but good for promotion.  Now all fingers crossed I now have my blog, twitter, and facebook pages all interconnected.

Funding and Marketing Resources

Meetings coming out my ears!
But loved last nights company AGM and planning night - lots of debate and opinions shared - so productive.  Love to have such a great team involved in an awesome ministry.

Like all of you not only are we looking at our programme for the year but also looking at fundraising and grants.
So a couple of links for you:

• Fundview - you can access it free at your local library.  Below is the link to the Auckland Council site, if you're an Aucklander and have a library card you can use this from the comfort of home.  http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/DigitalLibrary/resourcepages/fundview.aspx

• Exult - I have the The Seriously Good Guide to Fundraising, Top 40 Checklists for Community Groups, and 40 Marketing Must-Do's.  Absolutely fantastic resources - they have been a huge help and I definitely recommend Exult.  An excellent company dedicated and passionate about the not-for-profit sector.  I have just signed up to receive Tonic magazine for a year and also their Sustainable Funding workshop on DVD.  So I will bring you some info from these wonderful resources during the year.   http://www.exult.co.nz/