2[nd] Portstewart Rangers report for 2023/2024 

We currently have 9 Rangers 2 leaving in January because of exams, but not before they earned their Gold Ranger award along with another member who has continued coming to meetings! We have one girl who is a Young leader with a Brownie Unit and one who is a Young Advocate on the national Guiding council. 

3 members helped at the District Christmas event. 

We’ve been continuing to follow the Guiding programme working on Unit Meeting Activities and Skills Builders as well as enjoying other activities and lots of cooking! The Rangers joined the Guides on the Lorne Walk doing the Portstewart Art Trail. They also attended the Remembrance Day parade and took part in the service that followed. 

The Rangers started the new year with doing the Trefoil 80[th] Anniversary challenge - holding a CSI evening; drawing their family trees; teaching the Guides some yoga; holding a ready steady cook evening where they made quite a feast and even cleared up after themselves! 

They completed the Communicate, Live Smart and Explore skillsbuilders. Interest badges completed were Cooking - hence the Ready Steady Cook - Costume and Travel - the latter 2 were helped by the Rangers attending a Diwali Celebration evening at the Riverside Theatre. They had their hands and wrists decorated with henna in some beautiful designs, enjoyed Indian food and were entertained by dancers and musicians in traditional celebrations. 

They devised a Pegasus challenge - holding a finger Olympics, puppet shows of Greek myths, Medusa and Trojan horse games and mummifying each other - not literally! They made such a good job making up this challenge badge that the Guides then did it later in the year! 

They held a movie night complete with popcorn and then an 80s themed party for their Christmas meeting. 

They tried their hand at pyrography and really enjoyed making their Plantation Village as part of the Ulster Scots challenge. Also as part of this they made 15s and shortbread, designed their own tartan, had fun with the new words and joined the Guides in singing traditional songs - some of which they already knew. 

3 Girls have gained their Commonwealth Award, 4 finished their Bronze D of E award, 2 their Silver and 3 their Gold. 

One ranger had a great time at the World Scout Jamboree in S. Korea despite the many challenges. She give a wonderful presentation of her experience to the local TrefoilGuild.