Centenary Camp
Where could you find a beautiful stately
home, thousands of UK Guides and their international guests,
exclusive Centenary Camp tents and the most amazing choice of
activities? Girlguiding UK's Centenary Camp of course!
This was a
once-in-a-lifetime chance to BE THERE at Girlguiding UK’s biggest
ever Guide camp. Held on the Harewood House Estate in Leeds from
the 31 July – 7 August 2010, this event saw over 5,000 members
enjoying a fun-filled week camping in the grounds.
Themed around gemstones, each of the eight
sub-camps was named after different precious stones - Amber,
Amethyst, Emerald, Jet, Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz and
Tiger's-eye.
Special Centenary four-man tents were produced by Outwell
for the event and attendees were given tents to share.
Girls had the choice to select activities that
they would prefer to take part in and many had the chance to travel
off-site, making use of some of the local attractions and activity
centres. These included most of the snow activities, scuba diving
and a visit to local attraction, Diggerland.
‘The camp
was busy and exciting with new things around every corner. I did so
many activities. On my third day, I went scuba diving! It was so
scary but really cool. Of course, I didn't get to do all the
hundreds of activities but I did do kayaking, quadbiking, fencing,
hip-hop dancing, bungee-trampolining and many more.' Laila, 11,
16th Bethnal Green Guides.
The camp welcomed nearly 700 guiding guests
from all across the world. The Antiguan Guides had an extra special
day as they saw and played with snow for the first time when 45
tonnes of snow was delivered to the site for a snow slide.
At the camp’s opening ceremony, all
participants gathered on Sunnyside and joined together for the
first time at this once-in-a-lifetime event. Then the fun
really began!
Over the course of the week, campers took
part in a range of challenging adventures including an assault
course, bungee trampolining, caving, mountain boarding, cosmic golf
and korfball. They also welcomed children from Martin House
who toured the site for the day. Located in nearby Wetherby,
the centre provides care and support, free of charge, to children
and young people with a life-limiting condition and their
families.
On the
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings two sleepovers took place for
Brownies and Guides. Together with all the camp participants,
they also had a fun-filled day at Fusion, Girlguiding UK’s largest-ever open air
performing arts festival, also held at Harewood House Estate. Over
600 girls slept over each night and enjoyed the camp’s evening
activities alongside the participants.
‘I loved going to the Centenary camp for the
day. It was fun to see what I will do when I am a big blue Guide. I
want to do more badges like Brownies and I want to meet Rainbows
from other countries like Teddies in South Africa.' Isobel, 4, 3rd
Barnstaple Rainbows
The finale of the camp was marked with a
spectacular evening light show across the lake at Harewood House
and all sub-camps took part, contributing their own lines to the
special camp song that they had been practicing all week! .
Senior Section members played their own
special part on the camp team, acting as the event media team. The
team, who had taken part in a number of training weekend with media
professionals, were responsible for producing the camp daily
newspaper, podcasts and TV shows.