22nd February: Thinking Day

Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Scouting Association, was born on Feb 22 1857. His wife, Olave, had the same birthday but was 32 years younger, and is primarily associated with the Girl Guide Movement. Thinking Day was inaugurated in 1926 as a day for Girl Guides and Scouts to think about their counterparts throughout the world. 

10 facts about scouting, guiding and Thinking Day.

1. Thinking Day always has a theme. In 2014 it is Providing universal access to primary education. Past themes have included food, water, adolescent health and saving the planet.
2. Although Olave Baden-Powell is well known as the head of the guiding movement, the first time she offered to help with it, she was turned down! At that time, she was working as a Scoutmaster and also as her husband's secretary, and later, driver.
3. Olave Baden-Powell is one of only two people to receive a gold "silver fish". The silver fish is the highest accolade in guiding, awarded for outstanding service to the movement. The only other person to receive a gold silver fish was her daughter, Betty Clay.
4. Brownies (girls aged 7-10) were originally known as Rosebuds.
5. Robert Baden-Powell had written military manuals for army scouts, and was responsible for training boys aged 12 - 15 as messengers. When he learned that his books were being used in schools to teach non-military skills, he re-wrote them, and called the new book Scouting for Boys.He tested the ideas in the book at a camp for boys on Brownsea Island in 1907. This camp, and the book, were the beginning of the scouting movement.
6. Baden-Powell was influenced by Rudyard Kipling's books. The name "Akela" for the leader of a group of cub scouts was derived from the name of the wolf pack's leader in The Jungle Book.
7. Girls who live too far away from any Guide troop can become "Lone Guides" who connect with other lone guides and adult leaders by mail or radio (and presumably, these days, e-mail and Facebook although my source only mentioned the old fashioned ways!).
8. Young people over the age of 18 can become Rover Scouts or Ranger Guides.
9. Every 4 years the movement holds a "Jamboree" which is attended by tens of thousands of scouts from all over the world. The first was held in 1920 at Olympia in London; The next, the 23rd, will be held in Japan in 2015. The word "Jamboree" means a noisy, joyful gathering.
10. When not scouting, Robert Baden-Powell was a keen artist and enjoyed amateur dramatics.