From Community Correspondent Steve Wicks: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and their Leaders from Richmond, Barnes, Kew and Mortlake recently celebrated the Centenary of Guiding with a special World Thinking Day service in Mortlake Parish church.

This was a very colourful event with numerous flags being paraded including the County Standard.

The event was even more special for Di Sharp, retiring Division Commissioner who was presented with a Good Service Award for her services to Guiding in the area by County Commissioner Christine Wicks. Christine said ‘Di has been a District and Division Commissioner for a number of years as well as continuing to run her weekly Brownie meeting we are so grateful for all that she and so many of our volunteers do for the girls’ World Thinking Day is an opportunity for the ten million Guides and Girl Scouts in 145 countries around the world to remember each other and their commitment to international friendship and understanding.

The guiding movement began in 1909 when a small group of young women ‘gate crashed’ the Boy Scout rally at Crystal Palace Park in London and lobbied Robert Baden-Powell for ‘something for the girls’. The Centenary is an opportunity to celebrate the impact that the organisation has made on the lives of girls and young women and how modern guiding continues to support over half a million members around the UK to make new friends, develop skills and achieve their full potential in a unique girl only space.