Sallins Girl Guide leader spearheads national campaign to find new recruits

By Kim O'Leary

A Sallins Girl Guide leader is spearheading a nationwide campaign to recruit new leaders to Irish Girl Guides (IGG), with young Co Kildare girls also encouraged to join the organisation.

Julie, who volunteers as National Treasurer with IGG and whose day job is senior quantity surveyor with Concast Precast Group, features in a #becomeavolunteer video campaign that IGG will launch today to tie in with International Women’s Day (8 March).

Volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and have different skills to offer, as can be seen in the video, which also features a Garda, a farmer, a mum, a solicitor, a teacher and a scientist. IGG currently has 1,800 volunteers and always has room for more.

IGG equips and empowers girls and young women from age 5-30 years to grow in confidence, independence and resilience and to develop essential life-skills. Volunteers find that they benefit in the same way as the girls and they enjoy the safe, non-competitive, fun atmosphere of Guiding. Many volunteers make friends for life with people they wouldn’t otherwise meet.

Irish Girl Guides has approximately 12,000 members. Guiding started in Ireland in 1911 and operates throughout the 26 counties with 1,800 volunteer leaders providing an informal educational programme of fun and challenging activities that foster confidence and leadership skills in girls and young women, enabling them to develop to their full potential and to become responsible citizens.

Girls from age 5+ can choose to earn a wide range of badges, including Community Action, Cultural Diversity, Disability Awareness, Drug Awareness, Online Surfer, Science Investigator and Global Traveller.

With 3,000 girls waiting to join the organisation, Julie is hoping that women throughout Ireland will step forward to volunteer. Julie’s two daughters enjoy the fun and friendship of being members of IGG and Julie, who has been involved in the organisation since she was a child, also enjoys “the huge amount of friendship and just being around such fabulous women has been inspiring”.

Julie says volunteering has taken her out of her comfort zone (e.g. public speaking) but that she has found it challenging in a good way. “It is great fun and rewarding on every level,” she says. “I also want my girls and son to see how amazing volunteering can be.”

What does she see girls get out of Guiding? “A safe and fun place to be and experience,” she says. “I think the Guiding programme throughout the branches is a model to be so proud of.”

To find out more about Irish Girl Guides, see www.irishgirlguides.ie, email [email protected] or tel: 01 6683898.