2011 Stories

These stories appear by month in which they were put onto the website, starting at the most recent month at the top of the page.

August 2011

Celebrities Cake It 4 Guides

On July 9, South Waikato ran an event to help girls fundraise for jamboree with a cake decorating event held at the Putaruru Plaza.

It began with the idea of the girls icing and decorating cakes and then auctioning them off. But we didn’t want the parents to have to fork out the money to buy the cake back that they had paid to make. So the idea was expanded into a fun filled evening with the public coming to spend their money instead.

We got 10 local celebrities to ice and decorate cakes that were also auctioned. Some of the big names were Cameron Petley and Tracey Lee Hooton from Masterchef NZ, our local MP Louise Upston and Florence Kerr the editor of our local newspaper (that was to ensure we got some good reporting in the paper the following week and it worked - front page!)

We also ran a silent mystery bottle auction, had a raffle, sold tea, coffee, cold drinks and slices and had a $5 door entry to help cover costs.

The girls had to ice and decorate their cake at home and then bring it by 5pm on the night. Some girls made cakes. The celebrities were there by 6pm and judged the girls’ 28 cakes.

At 7pm the doors were opened to the public and the girls could see whose cake had won. Because the girls’ cakes were not iced and decorated in a registered kitchen, we could not legally sell them, but auctioned off an item of Jamboree memorabilia instead. Whoever bought an item from a girl got her cake for free. The memorabilia ranged from things like ditty bags and camp blankets to a bag of kindling, beanies and backpacks.

The celebrities were invited up on stage donned with chef’s hats and aprons. The 10 cakes donated by local cafes and bakeries were all hidden under mystery boxes with a celebrity behind each one and they had an hour to ice and decorate the cakes.

At 9pm, just as the celebrities were told to put down their equipment, the power went off. Fortunately the plaza had emergency lighting and, although it was a bit dim, the show was able to go on with the help of a few torches and phone lights. The winning girls’ cakes were auctioned off and then the celebrities’ cakes. We also had the added bonus of a bottle of port that had been autographed by John Key that Louise Upston had bought with her, so that was auctioned off as well.

The power came back on just as we were discussing how we were going to manage the
clean up.

It was a very successful evening and we heard reports about how professional it all looked. The calibre of the girl’s decorating skills was amazing. The most expensive cake sold for $80 and the least went for $25. The celebrities had a blast. Approximately $3000 was raised on the night with half of that being from the girls’ cakes alone.

Although there was a lot of organising from the taskforce, it was well worth the effort, not only for the funds it brought in for the girls, but also the exposure it gave GirlGuiding in our district.

Matariki Term Challenge

The Lake Taupo District Pippins have been doing activities from the Term Challenge. We made poi’s, flax flowers and kites. We now just need for it to be windy enough to fly the kites.

Michelle Barnett
Lake Taupo Pippin Leader

June 2011

Campfire Cooking

Pippins Brownies, Guides and Leaders from the Mamaku Lone Guide Club enjoy cooking a sausage over the fire at the end of the Guide club afternoon Wednesday June 1 2011.

May 2011

Biscuits, biscuits, biscuits

Like everyone else we have being going bananas with biscuits. We have had an extremely and successful biscuit selling session. We sold out three times and had to organise extra biscuit supplies for us to continue selling. We all created posters to advertise our new 'best ever' biscuits and their prices. We learnt how to sell using our manners and cuteness at the post shop in Ngongotaha for two Saturdays in a row. Each and every girl in our club (17) came and helped and we sold over $3000 worth on the stall alone. We also sold heaps of other biscuits to family, community members and friends (oh and our own families we live with of course!!!-yummy).

Mrs Josephs has saved two cartons of plain as many of us are going to participate (along with other kids from our school) in the 20 hour famine, and this year instead of doing it with barley sugars and juice that we normally have, we are going to do it with GG biscuits and chocolate milk!!!

We all made thank you cards for the post shop to show our appreciation for letting us set up our stall outside their shop. Go Ngongotaha Post Shop-you ROCK!!!!

Kind Regards
Stella

March 2011

Big Jungle Camp

On Saturday 13 November, 16 girls, 2 parents and 2 leaders arrived at Whakaipo Bay camp ready for a Big Jungle adventure. First up was a quick run down of the day’s activities and then a bite of lunch. While waiting for a few girls to arrive we had 14 girls up our lovely old tree. The girls then had to do a bark rubbing picture, collect natural things to make a nature picture (a quick walk to the lake to gather materials was needed).

They had a bit of free time to play big snakes and ladders outside, collect and identify bugs and insects.

Afternoon tea was of course s’mores, yum, then back into the activities flying fox and sitting quietly to identify sounds.

After dinner they had a quick game of Jungle stalking and Jungle chaos, then a night hunt looking for glow sticks around the camp. After that it was off to bed - all totally exhausted.

The next morning it was of into the jungle to build lodges (flash bivvies). On arrival back at camp Grant from DOC had arrived to paint the girls faces into a wide range of animals. It was fantastic. While the girls were waiting the others made sock puppet animals which they performed a little play with back in the unit on Monday.

To say it was a busy camp would be a bit of an understatement but it was absolutely fantastic. The girls finished their outdoor challenge, big theme and the jungle theme. Superb way to almost finish the year.

Michelle Parsons
Brownie Leader 4th Taupo Brownies

Lake Taupo District
Waiariki Region