Support OUR COMMUNITY through voluntary service to Guiding and the wider world.
As individuals in today’s society, participants of the Olave Program are members of
multiple communities, including their local community, Guiding and family communities, as
well as the global community. All members of a community have rights and responsibilities
within their communities. One of the key responsibilities of every Guide and Olave
Program participant is to provide service to their community.
This challenge focuses on voluntary service, an important aspect of Guiding.
Participants of the Olave Program are encouraged to be agents of change within their
communities by speaking out, doing and educating on the issues about which they are
passionate.
To satisfy this component, you are required to participate in sustained regular
community service involving a minimum of forty hours over four months. This may
involve commencing a new service role, extending an existing service role (for
example, if you are currently a Leader you may consider running an event
involving unit(s) other than your own) or undertaking a variety of service projects.
For this aspect of the Olave Challenge, I have decided to run a bra drive to support the work of Operation Uplift.
As I have not received approval to begin my challenge yet, I have just came up with a few ideas to make the drive as successful as possible, as well as easy to fit within the award guidelines.
- I plan to run the bra drive, along with Olave members, at the end of May. We have ANZAC Day, followed by May as biscuit selling month, and I would like to get lots of publicity for the drive.
- I will need to start saving boxes and baskets to take to different location drop offs. The two Units I work at will help me collect bras, but I would also like to include other Units in our area, Guide House as well as some local schools or businesses nearby.- I imagine this will take a lot of co-ordination on my part, and think I will get well over my forty hours in terms of community service!
- In October we are running an Olave Conference and intend on running a service project during our time. Bra sorting is a timely process and this would be an ideal activity because many hands make light work.
- After the Conference I will take the sorted bras to a transport company in Cavan who then take them to Tennant Creek to be distributed in the Northern Territory. Operation Uplift also services counties in the Asia Pacific Region, but given our location (and the fact we don't live on the Eastern Seaboard), this makes perfect sense.
For now this is about all I can do, other than do some research and get well informed about running a bra drive. I have some very eager people alongside me. I'm excited!
