This Sunday is the 100th World Thinking Day, celebrated every year on 22nd February. But how did it start and how can you get involved?
The Scouting movement was started by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who enlisted his sister Agnes a few years later to start the Girlguiding movement. The UK was not the first country to have a movement for girls, and there were already thousands of girls already signed up to Scouting, but they founded the Girl Guides movement. This was named after the guides in Europe and India who faced challenges head on and helped other people. This was described by Robert:
“Well, I think it is the case with most girls nowadays. They do not want to sit down and lead an idle life, to have everything done for them, or to have a very easy time. They don't want merely to walk across the plain, they would much rather show themselves handy people, able to help others and ready, if necessary, to sacrifice themselves for others just like the Guides on the North-west Frontier.
And they also want to tackle difficult jobs themselves in their life, to face mountains and difficulties and dangers, and to go at them, having prepared themselves to be skilful and brave; and also they would like to help other people to get over their difficulties also. When they attain success after facing difficulties, then they feel really happy and triumphant. It is a big satisfaction to them to have succeeded and to have made other people succeed also. That is what the Girl Guides want to do, just like the mountaineer guides do among the mountains.”
In 1912, Robert met a lady called Olave Soames, who was 32 years younger but was keen to meet him. They married, and Olave took over the Girl Guides movement from Agnes, who has mostly been forgotten by history as a result. Olave became the World Chief Guide while Robert was the World Chief Scout, the only people to ever hold these roles. By coincidence, they shared a birthday, 22nd February.
By the 1920s, Scouting and Guiding had grown and people from all over the world were sending gifts to Lord and Lady Baden-Powell. They decided that it was better to celebrate the movements, rather than themselves. Thus, delegates at the 4th World Conference in 1926 agreed to make 22nd February a special day for girl guides and girl scouts around the world. This was to be a day when girl guides and girl scouts around the world would think of each other and express their thanks and appreciation for the movement. In 1999, the delegates at the 30th World Conference decided to change the name of the day from Thinking Day to World Thinking Day to emphasise the global nature of the celebration. It has been a day to fundraise for the movement since 1932. This is also known as World Founders Day in the World Scouting movement.
How are GATE celebrating?
Our 100 for 100 campaign has been launched to celebrate the centenary of World Thinking Day, but will extend beyond the actual day. We have created 100 challenges to complete, such as sending 100 emails to Girlguiding or doing 100 Promise renewals. These are split between three themes: Speak Up, Show Up and Be Heard. So far we have completed 15 challenges!
However, we still need your help.
There are a huge range of ways you can contribute, ranging from 30 second actions to larger efforts. We also know many of the challenges will have already been done, we just need you to tell us it’s done! You don’t have to complete anything 100 times yourself, each entry counts.
This week we are putting a spotlight on challenges with no entries:
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Letters to the King, because it’s a Royal Charter issue
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Emails sent demanding inclusion (we know there have been many sent to the wellbeing email, just tell us!)
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Letters of concern to Girlguiding (get out your stamps!)
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Informative conversations about bystander intervention and allyship
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Informative conversations with people who have questions
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Letters of support to trans youth
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Donations to trans charities
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Letters to libraries encouraging queer literature (check out this post for suggestions!)
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8x8 inch quilt patches
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Bookmarks made with quotes from trans writers
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Reasons I belong
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Letters to the Charity Commission (England & Wales), OSCR (Scotland) or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland urging for inclusive guidance
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Badges sent back to HQ
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Messages of support left on trans led or trans supportive content
You can find the full lists of challenges on each of the theme pages as well as more explanation of what to do for each challenge. Many of the challenges can be done in a unit setting, but don’t worry, we’ll still be supporting everyone taking part beyond this Sunday! We’d love to see your young members’ efforts, especially as Girlguiding is a girl-led movement. Add your efforts via our submission page, via email or on social media.
Next week we’ll be hosting a virtual sleepover event to celebrate everyone’s efforts and complete some challenges together! Keep an eye on our social media channels for more info on how to get involved.
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