#EarthDay. Heroes: 7th Ashington Brownies.

24/04/2020

Rarely am I overawed meeting anybody but I was when I met the Brownies of 7th Ashington (St Andrew’s) Brownie Unit.

When troop leader, Pauline Mitchley, realised we have a ‘difficult to recycle’ plastics service; contact lenses, blister packs as well as broken glasses and spectacle lenses, she asked if we could let the Brownie troop visit the practice. I was delighted to be asked but was inwardly nervous about entertaining a troop of young ladies.

I shouldn’t have worried as I was somewhat surplus to requirements. The four leaders Pauline Mitchley, Rachael Docherty, Amanda Tennant and Dorothy Gilchrist along with my colleagues Andrea Carroll, Laura Wood and Gayle Purvis had already put plans in place.

Every Brownie came armed with some old spectacles to recycle.

The Brownies seemed to love being introduced  to the ‘Quokka’ , a beautiful little marsupial from my homeland, which loves having ‘selfies’ taken. We also gave them all one of our recycled environmental keyrings :

But we were each awarded a ‘Future Girl’ badge. I wear mine with pride on my ‘Sea Shepherd’ cycling jersey!

I feel the rest of the blog should be devoted to what the Girl Guide organisation advocates. I learnt so much from those 18 young protectors of our planet. To quote Emmeline Pankhurst: “deeds, not words”, something politicians should consider before they get swept away by the young people who may not have a vote but certainly know what their generation demand!