Girlguiding Celebrates 

On Saturday 11th October 2025, Girlguiding hosted it’s annual Girlguiding celebrates an event held to celebrate the highest guiding awards and thank volunteers who have done amazing things. 

I was lucky enough the be invited to attend to celebrate achieving my Queen’s guide award and Diane was nominated by a parent to attend for supporting her daughter when she first joined Rainbows. 

On arrival at the Odeon in Manchester we were greeted by volunteers and senior Girlguiding members who checked us in and gave us our wristbands. Up the escalators we went to begin our celebrations! There was an immediate sense of pride, celebration and appreciation with volunteers all chatting and enjoying themselves. 

During the afternoon there was lots for us to do; there was a red carpet where we could have our photos taken, mine was by the assistant chief guide- very exciting! On the other side of the photo wall was a photobooth with big fancy cameras taking our photos and printing them out. We were well fed with canapes galore- I personally enjoyed the mini scones. We were also served fizz and soft drinks. We were then ready for the show to begin. 400 members of Girlguiding joined together in the cinema screen for the celebration show. 

The show was hosted by the Chief Guide Tracey, her deputy Sally and assistant Mhairi. What a great bubbly trio to keep us all entertained. During the show we heard from 2 guiding ambassadors; Anna McNuff who inspired us to have an adventure whether that be big or small and from Laura Young who spoke about the environment and the new eco badges released by Girlguiding. 

We then had 2 performances from the National Scout and Guide big band- wow! They were incredible, they performed lots of pieces of music for us and even got us involved with some of the lyrics.  

We then had an interval where we could stock up on popcorn, a drink and some canapes before the second half of the show. 

Congleton gang show were the feature during the second half, they performed a dance routine, a sketch about witches and did some fantastic singing. They were a really enthusiastic group of young members who kept us well entertained. 

Throughout the show we also heard from all of the Region chief commissioners including our own- Karen Johnson who congratulated all the members from their Regions. 

It was then time to cheer for our Region and the Queen’s guides. Our wristbands lit up when we were called and the clapping commenced. Tracey, Sally and Mhairi read out each of the 68 Queen’s guides names and amazingly the audience managed to sustain the clapping for all 68 names! 

It was a very enjoyable afternoon which flew by- we were all made to feel celebrated and thanked for all the time we put into guiding! 

We were also told nominations are open for next years’ event at the Odeon in London so if there’s a volunteer you’d like to nominate- go for it!