No more of the imagined camp fires with a cooking pot suspended precariously over it. A grant of £750 from the Bovey Tracey Freemasons has enabled Bovey Tracey Girl Guides to buy 3 ‘Bermondsey’ portable cooking fires to replace their old patrol fires! Although sturdy, each one weighing 37Kgs, these are ‘flat-packed’, easier to store and transport and consist of a minimum number of components for ease of construction in just a few minutes.
Their Leader, Judy, said “The Unit currently has 24 girls aged 10-14 with a few more joining in January 2025. They participate in a range of activities at the weekly meetings through the Guiding Programme which is the foundation of what girls do in Girl Guiding, providing a range of activities and ways to develop new skills. The girls particularly enjoy going to camp, learning backwoodsman skills such as fire lighting and cooking on open fires. We can take 4 patrols to camp with 5 or 6 girls in each patrol. We have 4 patrol tents and enough other camping equipment for 4 patrols. Each patrol cooks for themselves on wood fires. Our old patrol ‘altar’ fires needed replacing as they are rather flimsy and small so we are hugely grateful to Bovey Freemasons for their generous support”. However, they still need a fourth fire.
The photo includes many guides from the unit, together with their Leader, Judy (centre, obscured) who is also the District Commissioner. She is supported by two qualified assistants, Kirsten and Yvette, the latter in the photo. Also in the picture is Paul McCormick, the Charity representative of Bovey Freemasons. Using their limited funds, the Bovey Masons have recently donated a further £900 divided between Bovey Cricket Club Youth for new equipment and Bovey Tracey Youth Café; in addition, the Café has just benefitted from a Grant of £1,500 from a charitable fund operated by the Freemasons Devon central office.
Richard Baker
Bovey Tracey Freemasons