A practice holiday not too far from home...

To get Peggy used to travelling, she has been heading round the UK meeting other Brownies and Guides. This weekend, Peggy visited Lizz in High Wycombe! She had a busy week which included going for a walk as the sun set, going to a gig (aptly called Scouting for Girls - maybe it should have been renamed scouting for ducks?) and attending Brownie Pack Holiday where she became the protector of seven tearful little girls.

Pack Holiday was definitely the highlight of her week as she was very much loved by the Brownies and many of them were asking for hugs with Peggy and asking where she was! I'm sure all of the Brownie Parents will be quite surprised when they recieve a DVD with photos and videos of the weekend to find it is dominated by pictures of a duck! But then I think even the pack holiday assessor was quite surprised in February when she found at that a group of 16-26 year olds had a soft toy duck as their mascot!

On saturday evening all of the Brownies were rather tearful after a rather tiring day. After sharing a few ghost stories and a suspected sighting of what they thought was a rat, things became a little too much for the little Brownies. Peggy came to the rescue though! She was placed in the centre of the bedroom with Brownie bear and the Brownies were told that if anything came into their bedroom than they would have to get through Peggy first. And it worked! Soon all of the Brownies had fallen asleep and it was definatly Lizz's favourite moments when one of her youngest Brownies came up to her in the morning and told her that Peggy had scared of all the monsters. GO Peggy!

All in all a very eventful week but she has now been packaged and parcelled and is speeding towards Gem in first class at this very second.

Exploring the start of it all...

In 1907, Brownsea Island hosted the beginnings of a worldwide social movement. Boys from different social backgrounds participated from 1 August to 8 August 1907 in activities around camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Recognised as the world's first Scout camp, the event is regarded as the real origin of the worldwide Scout movement. Following this experimental camp, Baden-Powell published "Scouting for Boys". Small groups of girls, undaunted by the title, started 'Scout' activities too. Girls then 'gatecrashed' the first Boy Scout Rally at Crystal Palace, attracted the attention of Baden-Powell and asked him to offer 'something for girls too'. Thus the Girl Guide Association was formed in 1910, led by Baden-Powell's sister Agnes, and has gone from strength to strength since.



In 2010, Brownsea Island hosted the beginnings of an adventure for a little duck. Rowbarton Rangers took the Iceland Muddles Stampede team mascot, Peggy Bucket, with them on their day trip to the birthplace of scout and guiding as a practice for her stampede across Europe. Peggy captained a boat, took part in the Baden-Powell Challenge; building shelters, fires, seats and flagpoles - and somehow ended up in the cooking pot!! Luckily she was rescued, and in true centenary style she ended up featured in 100 photos. Such a hard life for a duck! She is now looking forward to her travels further afield.