After 12 months we have grown to over 200 virtual campers, shared 300 daily challenges, completed 6 challenge badges, held 6 virtual quizzes and shared a LOT of cake and plenty of laughs!
For something that was meant to be a bit of fun during the first lockdown in March 2020, our campers have said that seeing the activity on the group has really kept them going through the pandemic, even if they haven’t been able to join in with many of the activities.
Over the weekend of 20th/21st March we celebrated our 1st birthday - not an event we’d even imagined at the start! The weekend was filled with birthday-themed activities including a birthday cake bake off, with the winning cakes being chosen by our County Commissioners. We decorated our ‘camps’ for a party, made a party hat, had a party/camp themed scavenger hunt, held a fantastic virtual disco (listen to our playlist here) and a lovely campfire which even included some videos recorded by our campers who shared their favourite songs. The weekend finished with a party on zoom where we played party games and watched a presentation of highlights from the year at virtual camp.
Looking back over the last 12 months and thinking about the many and varied challenges we have done, from setting up our camps to finding out about animals with blubber, has been a real reminder of the positive parts of the pandemic.
We’ve brought leaders together from across the county and beyond, seen our younger members move up to new sections, link girls whose units haven’t been meeting with units who are (at opposite ends of the county - thanks to the wonders of zoom!).
We’ve done real guiding at it’s girl-led, creative and adventurous best, safely throughout a pandemic and I’m so proud of what we’ve done!
To celebrate our unexpected birthday, and continuing camp into 2021, our campers have designed and voted on 2 new badges (always important!) with any profits being donated to Cornwall Air Ambulance.
We are aiming to finish virtually camping in the summer, hopefully ending with an ACTUAL camp if we can!
Laura, Camp Organiser