WHARFEDALE Brownies and Rainbows gathered in The King's Hall & Winter Garden to celebrate their annual World Thinking Day.

The event marks the joint birthday of Lord and Lady Baden Powell and activities were centred around the theme ‘Thinking About Our World’.

Representatives from Fair Trade, Water Aid, and Shelterbox demonstrated what their charities do to help people in disadvantaged and war torn countries and consideration was given to how oceans are mistreated and resources wasted.

The girls were given the opportunity to discover issues for themselves whilst at the same time having a fun day. To learn about Fair Trade they explored the journey from cocoa pod to chocolate bar when the farmer harvesting the pods doesn’t earn enough in a week to buy a bar of chocolate.

For Water Aid they found out how far a young girl the same age as a Brownie may have to walk to fetch water, sometimes several times a day and how heavy a container of 20 litres of water is.

Shelterbox saw them examining the wide variety of items in a box which will help a family to survive in the wake of a disaster. One of these which particularly interested the girls was a plastic pouch with a solar panel which provided several hours of light. Included were water pumps and carriers, blankets, bandages and even soft toys to comfort young children

The Reduce, Re-use and Recycle message was learnt and cardboard boxes were used to make temporary houses and items of clothing were made from discarded bin bags to illustrate how materials can be recycled. Jewellery was created from discarded bottle tops and the extent of destruction in the sea from plastic waste was considered with astonishment.

Representatives from the local bee keeping society helped the girls to create bug boxes from recycled card and they loved setting flower seeds to later plant in their gardens in the hope of attracting bees.

The day was facilitated by a fantastic team of adult and young leaders who rounded off the day by leading a session of riotous songs and finally renewing the Rainbow and Brownie Guide Promise.

If you would like to be part of Girlguiding and experience the satisfaction of helping girls to have fun and enjoy learning to be part of the community,visit the Ilkley pages of www.ilkley.org/girlguiding or www.girlguiding.org/joinus