My Program Events
What's on this page? In addition to training, I volunteer for my council's Program Department, particularly in outdoor skills areas. I've helped plan events for all age levels of varying lengths, and helped put them on. On this page, I offer descriptions of the events I've been involved in as well as links to planning documents and outlines for them. Please feel free to use them!
Brownie Camping Skills Day
This half-day program consists of five stations in a traditional "Wide Game" format:
- dress for the weather relay
- duffel packing relay
- fire safety
- setting up a tent
- outdoor flag ceremony
- some sort of outdoor craft
- knives and knots
The actual content seems to vary from year to year, which explains why there are more than five stations in the list. I've become the resident volunteer/senior instructor for the fire safety session. The current outline I work from is available in Word and PDF format.
When doing this station, I am frequently given 1, 2, or 3 Program Aides (PAs) to help me. Since the high point of this station (as far as most of the Brownies are concerned) is lighting a wooden match, I first have to make sure that the PAs have been allowed to do this and know how. (I'm regularly amazed at the number of girls who have never lit a match and are extremely nervous about the idea of doing so.) I have them watch the first rotation, following along on the sheet. For the second rotation, we'll do it together. By the third, they're doig it and I help them with the demonstrations as needed. After all, a Brownie KNOWS she'll never be as old as I am, or as old as her leader -- but if she lives long enough, she MIGHT someday be as old as these 8th or 9th grade girls!