2nd St. Issell’s Brownies are celebrating being 50 years old this month and as part of the celebrations will be holding a service of thanksgiving in St. Issell’s Church on May 12 at 2 pm. It is hoped to find as many people as possible who have been associated with the unit over the years and invite them to attend.

The service will be led by Rev. Marianne Osborne, who is the Girlguiding Pembrokeshire county chaplain and until recently was also a leader with the Brownie unit.

Mrs. Monica McDowall, who was the first Brownie Owl, and Mrs. Jean Picton, also one of the original leaders, will be present at the service and it will certainly be a time for reminiscing.

If anyone has any old photos of the Brownie unit, we would be delighted to display them in the church and you are asked to contact the unit to arrange this. Refreshments will be served in the church after the service.

During the service, there will be a collection taken which will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust Unit in Cardiff who are currently treating a young local lady who was a 2nd St. Issell’s Brownie. Please do come along and help us celebrate 50 happy years.

The Brownies have enjoyed many activities over the years and seen many local girls joining the unit and then progressing onto Guides and into the Senior Section. Two of the present leaders have been with the unit for the last 15 years and have enjoyed taking the girls on pack holidays, giving them camping experience, and it has been very satisfying to welcome in new leaders, seeing them through the Girlguiding Training Scheme and indeed some of them have gone on to lead their own units in other parts of the district.

However, like other voluntary organisations, it is becoming increasingly hard to find new volunteers and sadly it may be that this Brownie unit will not get the chance to celebrate another 50 years!

In September, there will be one leader in training and one unit helper left to run the unit and without new volunteers it won’t be possible to keep the unit going. Traditionally, over the last few years, it has been parents who have come forward to become Brownie leaders and indeed the current unit team is made up of either current parents or mums who have had daughters go through the unit and have enjoyed it so much that they continued to lead.

There must be someone in the local area who can come forward to help keep this unit alive and so offer even more girls the opportunities which Girlguiding affords. Perhaps there is someone who used to be a 2nd St. Issell’s Brownie who can now give something back and keep the Guiding traditions going in Saundersfoot.

The unit can be contacted via email: [email protected]. Please get in touch if you can offer help in any way and if you were involved with the Brownies you will be more than welcome at our celebrations.