Become a volunteerStarting your Queen’s Guide award during a pandemic is not something I would advise. There aren’t many opportunities going on, events aren’t happening and you can’t even see your county coordinator or mentor. But that is exactly what I did.
I wanted to earn this award, this badge more than any other. My mum did hers as a Guide (as it was a Guide award then) and this inspired me to do mine. I wanted to be like my mum, as she is one of my heroes and someone I look up to.
The first year was probably the hardest. Zoom meetings are not great for planning how you want to do your award, and the unknown doesn’t lend itself to getting plans in place especially when you need events to be running and travel to be allowed. But I was able to start some planning and doing some of my Service in Guiding (SIG) virtually.
Girlguiding was amazing in helping keep us going, publishing flexibilities to help make the award doable during the pandemic. It led to me doing a virtual 18-30 residential for my outdoor challenge element 1 and getting all my Service in Guiding Element 1 hours virtually.
As the world opened back up I was able to attend Go for GOLD 2021 for my residential experience, my first in-person event since 2019. In 2022 I was able to visit Liverpool for a week with three amazing young women also working on their award for my outdoor challenge element 2 and SIG 2 volunteering at Wellies and Wristbands.
Though I hadn’t finished with video meetings, I continued working on other parts of the award via video meetings and emails. This was the method used to complete parts for my community action project on disability, inclusion, accessibility and games, my SIG 4 growth and retention project and some of the planning and assessing of my SIG 3 and personal skill development, where I ran a Rainbow activity day (in-person) and learnt to sew competently.
When I began my award in August 2020, I genuinely wasn’t sure I would get it completed, the pandemic seemed a big hurdle to get passed. Come May 2023 and it was almost complete, just a few signatures to collect and then to compile the evidence. To get the email from Girlguiding Headquarters to say I was a Queen’s Guide was a relief, after all that work and unknowns. I am now able to celebrate what I have achieved and hope to inspire young members to do their Queen’s Guide award in the future.
My Top Tips
- Keep trying; if it doesn’t work the first time or that original plan needs changing, that is ok, it will work out in the end.
- Use your mentor and county coordinator; they are there to help you and keep you on track, to soundboard your ideas and bring them to fruition.
- Social media can really help; I would have been lost without social media. I used to discuss ideas, meet and connect with people who attended parts of my award and for my outdoor challenge element 2 helped plan and deliver it on the Queen’s Guide award Facebook group.
I wish you all the best with your Queen’s Guide award journey.
