This year Staines celebrated Thinking Day with an aftenoon of crafts and activities for all ages, and during the afternoon the opportunity was taken to present our out going District Commissioner with gifts and cards and to wish her well in the future in her new role as warden of Paxmead.  A change is as good as a rest apparently!  The day finished with dinner for the Guiders, a selection of meals being brought and shared. 

In April our new District Store finally arrived in the form of a lock up garage erected in the grounds of a local Scout group’s HQ.   At last the District camping and holiday equipment could be retrieved from various ‘homes’ and kept in one place again.

The summer term saw a flurry of activities – a Guide shield competition held at Herons Wey at the beginning of June, followed by the refreshment tent, run by Guiders, at Spelthorne Festival children’s day. The end of June brought the Brownies together in a local school for Brownie Revels and July found the Rainbows celebrating Rainbow Rumpus at St. Peters Church hall.

After a short break, but not forgetting Pack holidays and summer camps,  many Brownies set off for Hayling Island to take part in the Millenium Pack Holiday being held there.  They all returned having had a brilliant time and one Brownie Guider is now working towards her Pack Holiday licence so she can take her pack away again!

In addition to the above District activities a Guide unit held an evening of games to raise funds for the BBC’s Children in Need and a Brownie pack held a sponsored walk to raise money for Anandgram and Deep Griha both of which are supported by Surrey West and are to be visited again in 2002 with two girls from Staines included in the team.

Staines now has two District Commissioners running the district as a job share – so far so good – we are still talking and more importantly still laughing together.