Sections - Ranger Weekend 07

National Ranger Weekend

16th - 18th November 2007

One of the most exciting events of the Guiding year!

The programme for the weekend included some adventure and lots of fun!

It was an opportunity for Rangers to be involved with the future development of the Ranger Section.

On Friday 16^th of November, 23 Rangers (along with a few leaders) from Dublin, Cork, Wexford and Down & Connor travelled by car, train and bus to come to Newgrange for the Ranger Weekend.The venue was a first for us and Newgrange Lodge was to be our base for the weekend. It was a great setting with plenty of space for everyone to sit down and get to know each other during what free time there was, although there wasn’t too much of that. The weekend consisted of a mixture of fun activities along with some time being spent on the updating of the Oisin Award, along with a presentation by the Girls that took part in the Asgard Adventure during the summer. We also had a presentation on the many opportunities that are available to girls as groups or individuals.

I hope to see you all and a few new faces at next years Ranger weekend, be sure to put the date in your diary now, 14^th - 16^th November 2008.

Below are some of the Rangers own accounts of the weekend.

Yvonne

National Ranger Commissioner.

On Friday 16th November 2007, 23 Rangers from all over Ireland, along with our leaders met at Newgrange Lodge in Co. Meath for the ranger weekend.When we arrived at around 9pm, we checked in and ate supper. While eating, we got to know some of the rangers we didn’t really know and continued our introductions in our rooms after. Then we did some ice-breaking games like the card game where you sit on people. On Saturday morning, we went to breakfast at 8:30 and then where pleasantly surprised when we were told we were going to be learning about Aromatherapy. We learnt about the essential oils and made up our own mix to give each other hand massages with. We also learnt shoulder massages and did a meditation that was very relaxing. In the afternoon, we went clay-pigeon shooting which was really fun. Then we went bowling and it was brilliant! After which we had a lovely meal and went to mass and finally back to the lodge.All of us got into our PJ’s for a quiz and to watch a DVD; after we were all so tired we fell asleep really quickly. Sunday was our third and final day and we watched some presentations on Ranger Trips available. Soon after it, the buses arrived and everyone made their way home, but not before we got each others email addresses and said our goodbyes.This was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time and I made many new friends and learnt some new skills. I would recommend it to everyone as it was BRILLIANT! Thank-you so much Yvonne!

Rachel Mooney, St. Oliver Plunkett, Lurgan

I attended the Ranger weekend in Newgrange Meath. I really enjoyed it. It was great fun and my ranger group and I made new friends. I was expecting something totally different from this weekend. The place we stayed in was lovely.
We learned how to do new things and try new things. I would encourage other Rangers to come to the Ranger weekends as they are all different. You meet so many new people, try new things and it changes you completely.The trip to Meath form Cork was well worth it.
The part I most enjoyed was doing the clay pigeon shooting talking to the girls and the forum because it gave us a chance to discuss things that affected us, like the Oisin Award.

Tirsha Murphy, Cork

I would have almost brought my Mum on this weekend with me. But only almost! As I stepped on to the bus, I knew no other Ranger there, in fact, I knew nobody at all. I took a seat. Almost immediately, people started talking to me and that friendliness set the theme and the scene for the weekend.

We arrived at Newgrange Lodge at 9pm. Rangers from Dublin, Antrim, Wexford, Cork and Armagh were there. Yvonne organised some fun ice-breaker activities. We were then assigned to our rooms. We knew that we were with a sound group of girls.

We were up and at breakfast by 8.30am. After breakfast, we had workshops on Aromatherapy and Shi-Itzu. The Aromatherapy was very enjoyable as each person was allowed to make up their own mix of oils. In the Shi-Itzu workshop, we learned how to do massage. We also did some relaxation, some of the girls got a laugh out of this as one or two of us fell asleep, to be rudely awakened at the end.

After lunch, we got our rain stuff ready and headed of Clay Pigeon shooting. I don’t think anyone had ever been Clay Pigeon Shooting before. The words pigeon and shooting made me and I’m sure others extremely scared! I soon found out that it was amazing fun! Once you got used to it, you were flying!! I was keeping score for a lot of it.

Next it was bowling! We stayed in the same groups as for the shooting. The next hour was all fun and laughs, some of the laughs were on me as I tried to improve my awful score by throwing two balls down the lane at once! It didn’t help! Everyone had a laugh and no-one cared about the score in the end. Then it was upstairs to a lovely dinner, during which, we got to laugh at “You’ve Been Framed” and listen to the people in “X-Factor”! On our return to the Hostel, we attended mass and we were allowed into the shop afterwards so all were happy.

Back at the Hostel, we were given an hour free to stay in our lovely comfy sitting room or to go back to our rooms. At 9pm, we all trooped back in, many of us in our PJs! We had a nice easy first round to our quiz, but moved quickly up to top gear for the other rounds. The quiz was extremely enjoyable and a good time was had by all! The final round was very different to other quizzes! We were given fifty small cuttings from different sweets, drinks and crisps packaging to identify! Some were difficult, while others were easy but regardless everybody enjoyed doing it! The team that won the quiz were the Pikeies in Nikeies! Congrats to them. We then all sat down to watch Love Actually, during this, I made a fool of myself again, by falling asleep on the very comfy corner sofa!!

I had to leave early Sunday morning for a music rehearsal. When my parents arrived, I didn’t want to see them - almost. I had to pull myself away from an amazing group of girls who are now all my friends! I hoped they enjoyed the remainder of Sunday and their journey home. It was one of the best weekends of my life. Thank you everyone who came and to the leaders who made it an amazing weekend loaded with memories for all involved!

Claire Curran, Dublin.