ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
By ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
FOUR members of Traralgon Girl Guides have been recently recognised and awarded for their achievements by the national Australian Guide Girls. Adelle Sayers, Year 9, has just completed her challenges to be awarded a Baden Powell Award (BP). Adelle has been in the Guide Girls for nearly nine years and loves the community for the fun, social and engaging ways the girls are taught valuable life lessons and skills. Twelve-year-old Saige Prigg was also among the latest at Traralgon Girl Guides that have been recognised for her work. Saige was awarded a Junior BP, after completing her 12 required challenges. Each week Saige looks forward to her Girl Guide meetings, as they have helped her make friends and feel more confident within herself. Group leader and district manager of Traralgon Girl Guides Amanda Clark, has just been awarded the Flowering Gum Award, the National Guiding Award for good service at a regional and state level. Ms Clark said she loves seeing the personal growth and development of the girls in her unit. “It brings me joy in my life, this is my hobby and most of the time it is good fun,” she said. “When I came on as district manager we only had 16 girls, we only had three units and we only had three volunteers.” Since then, Clark has recruited a team of volunteers and fellow guide leaders to get the Traralgon Girl Guides to 45 members, with impressive numbers and even more impressive fundraising. Adelle’s mother, Veronica Sayers, has been in the Girl Guides for two years. Veronica was recently awarded the Banksia Award in recognition of her good service at the unit district level. Both adult awards are high-level awards and they recognise the hard work of local volunteers within the district to deliver guiding to girls. Veronica spoke about the important work that Girl Guides do. “For me, I moved to the region about three years ago and I was looking to connect with other people. But the reason that I keep coming back and more specifically working with the older girls is that I really like to empower girls and young women to make really good choices and to advocate for themselves,” she said. “Most industries have really successful, really high-quality women, but just having that ability to negotiate wage and know your own value is necessary and is something that I want to teach the girls … that they’re valued and they’re worth putting up a fight for.” Ms Clark said she wished to inspire the next generation of women. “We want them to be leaders… we do that by following the girl-led principle … [The Girl Guides] are an organisation where we will accept anyone at any level.” The Traralgon Girl Guides offers four age groups over three nights during the school term. Girl Guides Australia’s mission is to empower girls and young women to discover their potential as leaders.
