A Girlguiding group in Alsager has warned that it could be forced to close this summer unless volunteers come forward – despite a waiting list of more than 100 children.
Lydia Dickinson said that unless more people offer to help run the sessions before July, one of its Brownie units would fold.
She said: “We want to give parents enough notice. We will try to accommodate them into other units but with so many girls on the waiting lists, it’s going to be difficult to absorb them. Some will lose their places altogether.”
Girlguiding Alsager, which includes Rode Heath and the surrounding area, currently has 170 children across five age groups: Rainbows (ages four to seven), Brownies (ages seven to 10), Guides (ages 10–14) and Rangers (ages 14–18).
Rainbows leader Mrs Dickinson said Brownies was the most popular group, with 41% of its members.
Founded in 1910, Girlguiding UK is the largest girl-only youth organisation in the UK. The organisation said it was dedicated to empowering girls through fun, adventure and skill building and provided a safe space to encourage girls to develop confidence, leadership and friendship.
Mrs Dickinson said: “We’re a really active district within the North West region. We support lots of community events and the girls get plenty of opportunities for international travel.
“We’ve got some girls going on a week-long trip to Malta over the summer, and last year some of the leaders went to Switzerland.
“We also had a leader who went to Madagascar, helping with community projects.”
But due to one leader’s retirement and another parent leaving the group as their daughter moved into Guides, Mrs Dickinson said one of the Brownie troops now needed new volunteers.
She said: “It’s also going to impact some of the girls in Rainbows who are ready to move up. Eight of my 20 are ready, but there’s such a backlog that we can’t move them because we’re so short of volunteers.
“We could open another two Brownie units if we had the support; there are more than 100 girls on the waiting list.”
Mrs Dickinson explained that the team would welcome volunteers from any background, age or level of experience.
She said: “We have parent helpers who come on the nights, but we really need people to be involved in planning and running the sessions.”
Using ideas and guidelines set out by Girlguiding UK, she explained that volunteers planned activities to help the girls achieve badges, which represented skills useful for everyday life.
She said: “In Rainbows, we do ‘skills for my future’, where we look at things like money, or how to change a battery, and that carries on into Brownies, where they develop those skills into budgeting for a holiday or using basic tools.
“You can put as much or as little into planning the sessions as you like. We try to have three volunteers working together in each unit, so that shares the workload.
“It can be as little as an hour of planning a month, and then just your time on the evenings, which would be around an hour and a half to two hours a week.”
Mrs Dickinson said it could be the perfect opportunity for someone retired who wants to keep their mind occupied, or a younger person looking to get more involved with the community and meet new people.
She said: “We love to role model a wide range of ages and experiences and a diversity of backgrounds. It’s great to show children that different people can come together and work as a team.”
To find out more information on becoming a volunteer, contact Mrs Dickinson on: 07791 426 332 or visit the Girlguiding website.
(Photos: Lydia Dickinson)
