How to Put on a Mini Bridging Ceremony with Your Troop

January 15, 2016

Time to read 2 min

Over the years as a leader I have tried a number of different unique ways to run events and/or meetings to make it more exciting for the girls. One year I turned every meeting into a theme, sometimes just having girls dress up other times we did games and activities around that theme.

How do you mix up your meetings and add a little more excitement?

Below I will cover ways to put on a mini ceremony during meeting instead of a large ceremony with reception. If your looking for other ways to change up your meetings check out these other great ideas to make your troop meetings more exciting:

Mini Bridging Ceremonies

We have always had a very large multi-level troop. With so many girls it is almost impossible to have everyone attend a ceremony. Someone will be sick, have other commitments, or forget about the meeting. Rather than the girl missing out on the ceremony completely we started having mini bridging ceremonies at the following meeting so the girls that missed are not completely left out.

We don’t pull out the big bridge or have a extensive ceremony, instead when we do our opening flag ceremony and song, we also include the bridging for the girls who missed the original ceremony.

The girls come together and create the bridge. (like London bridges) and the girl walks through. To go a step further if you have a multi-level troop like we do you can have the girls stand together in the order of levels. Then the girls can walk through each level as they bridge up to level they are going to. In the picture to right one of our Ambassador girls who had been with us since she was a Daisy was bridging to adulthood.

If the girl started out in Scouts as a Daisy then she will walk the whole line, the daisy’s, brownies and Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors. If a girl started later she will walk just through that level. Most of the girls that walk the timeline started out as Daisy’s or a Brownie. This is a very emotional walk it is like watching time fly as they walk through each level.

I always stand at the end and get a shot of the girl walking through the bridge. Always with tears rolling down my eyes as the girls move on with their life as a adult. But nothing makes me happier and prouder when I hear about the successes of my girls, some have come back to help with the troop, others graduated college started a family and brought there daughters back to our troop when they started kindergarten. This is the reason to be a leader!

If your looking for other great ceremonies I have done with my troop check them out: Troop Ceremonies

If you have Brownies Earn the Celebrating Community Badge as part of your Ceremony.

Earn the badge using the Complete activity booklet. It has everything you need to earn the badge for every step. The girls will learn more about symbols in their community, learn new songs, how to fold a flag, there are crafts and a number of interactive worksheets and added games to reinforce the subject. Purchase the Brownie Celebrating Community booklet now.

Do you have any suggestions to make a mini bridging ceremony even better? comment below.