Report from City Chase event

My husband and I participated in an event called the City Chase yesterday (then as a team in the Coronation Triathlon today, which was somewhat tiring and painful after yesterday's activities, but we finished!). Seeing as discussion that Guiding participation in such events (adventure-type races) would be excellent PR has occurred on several lists I'm on (or at least, I tried to suggest that it would be good PR - there was more of a response on the National Link list and that's actually where I heard about the City Chase event), I thought I'd post a report about it here. (that's my justification, that it is in fact Guiding-related).

Unlike in the Vancouver event a few weeks ago where over 80% of teams completed the event (by reaching 10 of 15 Chase Points and completing the activity there within the allotted overall time), in Edmonton only 35 of 114 teams finished. Ed and I managed to finish 7 Chase Points, and had a lot of fun in doing so. Even if it was rainy, windy, and only about 10 deg. C all day... (probably part of the reason more teams didn't finish - also we think they probably overestimated the abilities of Edmonton's transit system). Participants had to walk/run or use public transit to get from place to place.

To start, after completing a brief scavenger hunt, we were given a cluesheet with clues to the 15 Chase Points. We spent a few minutes to read through the clues and figure out where we thought they were (some were really obvious, others less so), then headed for the express bus to West Edmonton Mall. There, we got to busk in the food court to raise money for Junior Achievement (the designated charity), and do this new "helmet-dive" thing they have near where the dolphins used to be (almost like scuba but not quite - and your hair stays dry). When they mention in the last participant e-mail prior to the event that perhaps you should consider bringing a swimsuit, it means it's a good idea to do so ... although there were some suits available for men (really skimpy Speedo bikini types) they ran out of women's suits so there were participants in their bra and panties doing the "dive" in front of all sorts of gawking tourists at the mall.

We went back to the Provincial Museum grounds by bus where we had to solve a puzzle (and we were glad we weren't at the end of the table where the tarp decided to dump its load of rain and soak the participants underneath), then to a school for a trivia test (where it was encouraged to use your cell phone, particularly if it was a Bell Mobility phone, to call friends for answers). We then went by bus to the U of A, where we got in our longest walk/run stretch: from the U to the 109 St Running Room store (another sponsor - if it had been nicer weather there might have actually been spectators on the street to watch us sing "I Will Survive"!), down the hill to the Kinsmen Field House to do gruelling physical activity (my arms still hurt from the 50 3-legged pushups in sync with my husband), across the LRT bridge (nasty in the driving wind and rain) to the Royal Glenora club (nice heated outdoor pool to dive into to retrieve marbles, not so nice to come out of and have to dive in again when Ed missed the hula hoop with the soccer ball), then up one of the infamous River Valley staircases to the LRT station where we realized we were out of time to get to any other stations before 5 pm.

Strategy-wise: once we realized there were 2 Chase points at WEM, we probably should have left immediately to get there and figured out other things while on the bus, that way we would have avoided the 30 min wait to do the dive station. I heard some people who avoided WEM altogether because they thought it was too far out - my husband suggested to the organizers that they spread out the points a bit more so that everyone would have to get on the bus at least once. We thought the dive was really neat, so we're glad we went to the mall even though it was time-consuming. And if it had been nicer weather, we would have been wearing lighter shoes (runners not waterproof hiking boots) and carrying less stuff so we would have been able to get around a lot more quickly and do more running. We did get a number of comments about how dry we looked compared to some other participants (the joys of Gortex rain jackets and nylon quick-dry pants), and my husband now believes in the merits of technical fabrics rather than thinking it's just a sales pitch from Running Room and MEC.

Total estimated distances: probably just over 10 km on foot (mostly walking, some running), plus 22+ km on the bus.

Overall a lot of fun, and we hope to sign up again next year. Maybe I'll convince some Guiding people to do this event wearing Guiding logos and colours ... it would be good PR I think, as I mentioned.

New Spark and Brownie program - transition guides

These transition guides were just posted to the national Girl Guide website, to help Spark and Brownie Guiders transition to the new programs coming out this fall.

Recommendations from an unfortunate incident

Here's an article (no longer available in July 2005) about recommendations from a coroner's inquest on an unfortunate incident that occurred last year in Ontario. And this link has the complete recommendations made to Girl Guides of Canada.

(saved recommendations)

Supporting Scouting in Iraq

Here's an article from FOX News about the efforts to support the redevelopment of Scouting (and Girl Guides) in Iraq.

"Often meeting furtively, with no communication with fellow councils throughout the country, Iraqi scouts remained active despite oppression under Saddam Hussein's regime and subsequent war with Iraq — a miracle say Arab scouting representatives."

(saved article)

Studio 2B - new GSUSA program for 11-17 year olds

On the GSUSA website, they have a volunteer profile of a 20 year old Studio 2B advisor . There is more information about Studio 2B on its specific website - girls work on the "four B's": become, belong, believe, and build. "Specifically, it's a place where girls become who they want to be, feel like they belong to a safe place, are comfortable expressing what they believe in, and build a better world." (from the GSUSA website).