First Aid Badge

You and Others: Learn About Safety (YaO4)

Beyond You: Discover Your Community (BY1)

First Aid badge (FA)

Our sister Guide unit contacted us about how to complete the First Aid badge. We brainstormed together and came up with a 2 meeting plan--one night at our meeting space on Tuesday and then the second meeting at their meeting space on Monday. It all came together quite nicely!

Meeting #1:
With 40 Guides expected, we needed a bigger room to fit everyone, so we requested a room change at our school and were in the gym instead of the Family Studies room.

6:30-6:50--Since we were going to be sitting and listening, we thought a good opening game that could be joined in progress would be Hospital Tag. Everyone is IT and when you get tagged, you cover the spot you were tagged with your hand. When you get tagged a second time, you cover it with your second hand. When you get tagged a third time, you sit down. We played with a variation that if you're sitting down, someone (anyone) can run around you twice to "cure" you.

Be Prepared Kits from the Guide Handbook

6:50-7:00--We had a huge horseshoe! We had them line up in their patrols, so we did Horseshoe with 8 Patrols! They did well.

7:00-7:45--One of our leaders is a Dietician, so she recruited 2 nurse friends of hers to come present. They covered all of the requirements of the badge, except the first aid kit. (FA#1, FA#2, FA#3, FA#4, FA#5, FA#6, FA#7, FA#9, FA#10)

7:45-8:30--We moved to the cafeteria, after the Sparks had left, because  we wanted tables to make our Be Prepared kits. We call them Be Prepared instead of First Aid because we add more than just basic first aid things.

We used plastic containers from the Dollar Store and filled it with lots of good things. The book has a good starting point for what to put into a Be Prepared kit. (FA#8, YaO4#2)

MEETING #2
6:30-7:00 For our arrival activity, we had them use their Be Prepared kits to play Kim's game. They laid all the elements out on the table and everyone got a chance to study it. Then they covered it and tried to remember everything that was in it. Once they did this, we suggested that they have one person remove an item and everyone else had to try to figure out what was missing.

7:00-7:45--This was a great bridging meeting! The Pathfinders meet in the same building and they planned this portion of the meeting for us. They worked in groups and presented various First Aid scenarios for the Guides to try to help them with. They had 5 different scenarios for the Guides to cycle through. (YaO4#1)

7:45-8:15--Building Audit: The International Day of Persons with Disabilities Instant Meeting had an accessibility audit with pre-made forms to fill out. We had 8 groups so we sent 2 groups to each location and had them audit the locations. Then we got back together and each group reported their findings. This went fairly well and the girls had some great thoughts on what was provided and what would be needed to improve. (BY1#4)

It was better for us to use their building for the audit--we meet in a school that was built in the last 20 or so years, so it is quite accessible. The other Guide unit meets in an old church hall, with lots of stairs. It is partially accessible but it has lots of things you can think and talk about with regards to accessibility.

Meeting #27: First Aid badge

You and Others: Learn About Safety (YaO4)

First Aid badge

Fit for Life challenge (FfL)

Guest speaker night! We invited the EMS to come present at our meeting. We gave him the First Aid badge requirements and he did a great job going over them with the girls. He complained a little that the badge is out of date, and I told him to just cover what is relevant. (FA#1-10, YaO4#1)

After his presentation, he took the girls out in groups to see the inside of the ambulance, which was exciting.

Once he was done, one of our leaders did a short presentation on Disease and Injury Prevention, and then we put together Be Prepared kits with the girls who haven't done that yet. (YaO4#2, FfL:G).

Fairly easy night and a lot of programming covered!

Meeting #7: Fire Station

Fire Safety

We found out that we didn't have the school for this night, which was supposed to be our Remembrance Day meeting. We'll have to do Remembrance Day next week, after the fact. But one of our Guiders stepped up and booked the fire station for us.

We sent them the requirements for the badge before we got there, but the fire fighter who had planned to lead the session wasn't going to be there, so when I arrived first, they had just found out we were coming! But I gave them my book and they did an awesome job!

We started upstairs in a classroom where the two fire fighters who were leading discussed most of the aspects of the badge that they needed to learn. They spent about an hour going over the badge requirements, interrupted numerous times by questions! We have a couple of girls who, I swear, had their hands raised almost the whole time. As soon as a question was answered, they raised their hands to ask another.

(Funny side note--before we started, I told them to make sure they had questions and no stories. A few minutes in, one girl raised her hand and started to tell a story. Before the leaders could say anything, the girls sitting behind her gave her a little poke and said, "That's a story." Hee!)

Then we went down to the station bay where the trucks are. The fire fighters put on their gear and masks, then they turned out the lights and got down to crawl around, to show the girls what they would look like if they were in a fire and coming to rescue them. It is a strange sight and a good thing for girls to see if they were ever in a bad situation.

Finally, they got to go on the trucks. They went in five at a time and I don't know what he was telling them, but he explained a bunch of things about the truck. When they came out, they had water fire extinguishers set up and the girls got to try to spray the extinguishers, which they really enjoyed.

We had an activity planned, in case they finished early, but the fire fighters really seemed to enjoy talking to the girls and telling them all about what they do, that they used the whole 2 hours!

Meeting #9: First Aid badge

First Aid

You and Others: Learn About Safety

Another easy night--we had a guest speaker from St John's Ambulance come to help the girls earn their First Aid badges.

6:30-6:45: Patrol Time--We asked the girls to list the Christmas songs that they know and like to sing, for when we visit a Senior's Center in two weeks.

6:45-6:55: Horseshoe

6:55-8:15: St John's Ambulance led the girls in learning about first aid and helped them put together personal first aid kits that they can take with them on our hikes. We purchased most of the supplies: Lock and Lock containers, bandaids, tape, gauze, alcohol wipes, safety pins, pencil, notepaper. Our presenter supplied them with gloves and a triangular bandage. (FA#1-10, YaO4#1, YaO4#2).

8:15-8:30: Updated Program books and closing