How the Brownies Got Their Name Participation Story
Thanks very much to Helen DeBruyn, who wrote this story and shared it with the Guiding Mailing List.
Split your girls into groups, and assign each group one of the following roles. Each time they hear their character's name called in the story, they need to do the accompanying action:
- BROWNIES: jump up and say "Hooray!"
- GIRL GUIDES: march in place and say "Guides rock!"
- ROSEBUDS: crouch down, jump up and say "What about us?"
- LORD BADEN POWELL: salute and say "He's our founder!"
The Story:
Once upon a time, quite a long time ago, there was a young girl named Anne. Anne lived in a country called England. She had an older sister named Joan, who belonged to a very special group of girls called the GIRL GUIDES. Joan and her GIRL GUIDE friends would go hiking and camping and learn all sorts of fun and exciting things. Well, Anne and her friends wanted to join the GIRL GUIDES too, but they were too young. Well, that just wasn't fair! So the younger girls all got together and formed the ROSEBUDS, a younger group of the GIRL GUIDES. They were able to go camping and hiking and learn their own special crafts and skills, so they were very happy to be doing all of that.
But the ROSEBUDS didn't really like the name of their group. Maybe they thought that their name didn't say what their group was all about; maybe they didn't want to be seen as delicate little flowers; maybe they wanted a name that sounded cool like the older girls. Whatever the reason, LORD BADEN POWELL agreed to think of a new name for the ROSEBUDS. He thought for a long, long time. The name had to be just right! It had to tell the world that the group of girls were helpful and happy and eager to learn new things.
Then LORD BADEN POWELL remembered a fairy tale he had read when he was a young boy. In the story, there were magical people who were called BROWNIES who did many wonderful things for people. They would secretly do good deeds just for the joy of helping others! LORD BADEN POWELL knew he had the perfect name for the younger GIRL GUIDES. From then on, the ROSEBUDS would be called the BROWNIES! And that is how the BROWNIES got their name!
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