Caroline Hitchcock, current Chair of Awards and Wendy Colson, County Commissioner welcomed members of the county, recipients’ families and friends together with invited guests, who included: Mrs Caroline Nicholls, DL the Deputy Lieutenant of West Sussex; Jo Shiner, Chief Constable of Sussex Police; Gary Ball, Assistant Chief Fire Officer of West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service; various local mayors & councillors; Girlguiding ambassadors and the guest speaker, Laura Fitch, Watch Manager at West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service.
For the first time the youngest members of the county, Rainbows, had been included, receiving their Gold Awards.
Over 100 young people & volunteers received, certificates and awards.
These included 14 Rainbows, 46 Brownies, 27 Guides & 1 Ranger from Burgess Hill, Crawley, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Parkminster, South Down and Worth divisions. who received their Programme Gold Awards; the highest award given in each age group for completing all the appropriate clauses in their respective programmes.
Recognition was also given in various other categories;
Charlotte Searle (Worth division) received both a Hero Award and her Gold Guide Award. The former was awarded to Charlotte because she helped encourage and support her guiding friend with badge work and challenges, selflessly thinking of her friend before herself, for her continued commitment to Girlguiding & being an inspiration to others.
Ruby Tharby & Kathryn Blake (Guides, Crawley & South Down divisions), received their Commonwealth Award; which is achieved by completing a variety of challenges associated with the Commonwealth. Both girls read their poems which was one of the clauses.
Freya Carpenter & Emily Kinahan (Horsham division), achieved their Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award.
Chloe Smith & Olivia Mansbridge (Worth division) received their Young Leadership certificates having recently qualified.
Katie Tyson (Leader, Crawley division) was presented with her Queen’s Guide Award by County President, Clare Brittain. This is the highest award in Girlguiding and typically takes several years to complete with a number of sections and challenges to undertake, each containing multiple elements and including community action work, for which Katie served a meal in a homeless shelter and undertook a Christmas charity shoebox appeal.
Long Service Awards for adult volunteers were presented to Diann Johnson (Leader Haywards Heath division) for 30 years, Helen Dowling (Leader, Crawley division) was presented with her 50 years long service award, an exceptional achievement by both volunteers.
Surprise presentations were made to five volunteers; Louise Anstey (Leader, Haywards Heath division), Karen Norris (Leader, Parkminster division) & Amanda Fisk (Leader, Haywards Heath division) who all received the Good Service Brooch, which is given in recognition of excellent service which has made a difference within Girlguiding Sussex Central. Diann Johnson & Vicky Cobb (Leaders, Haywards Heath division) were presented with the County Good Service Bar in recognition of continued outstanding commitment and contributions not only to local Girlguiding but in other roles within the county.
Wendy concluded the evening by thanking Laura for her inspiring presentation. Laura had told the audience how she had always wanted to be a firefighter & although she initially failed, she never gave up on her dream. She explained how through hard work, determination & pushing the boundaries she finally achieved her ambition. Her advice to the girls was, have confidence to make decisions based on the information available and ‘Just Do it’ and prove ‘Girls Can Do Anything.’ Finally, Wendy thanked Caroline & her team for organising the event.
