Girls from Ashley and Loggerheads have made 2010 a year to remember by raising thousands of pounds for charity.
Around 100 members of Tern District Guides, Brownies and Rainbows were involved in a 10-month project called Changing the World to help mark the 100th anniversary of the GirlguidingUK movement.
The project include a sponsored walk round the Burnt Wood nature area in Loggerheads, a secondhand stall and chocolate tombola outside the village’s Coop store and sponsored bag packs at Morrisons in Market Drayton.
The girls, aged between five and 16, eventually reached their £2,010 fundraising target and the money will be shared equally between four charities, including Save the Children and the World Wildlife Fund.
Guider-in-Charge Liz Bladen-Hovell said: “It was a national project that started last year and had links with 18 charities, some local, some national and some international.
“The idea of it was to make the girls aware of other people in the world and there were a whole string of activities to show them what problems there were in other countries.
“Another thing was to raise money and because it’s our centenary this year, we decided to raise £2,010 for charities chosen by the girls.
“I thought it was an ambitious target at the beginning, but everybody said they would go for it and the girls were fabulous.”
The group plans to celebrate its success with a tea party in Ashley on May 8, followed by a “get-together” at Keele Hall in October.
District Commissioner Janet Bourne said: “We’ve never done anything before on this scale but because it’s the centenary of Girlguiding UK, people made more of an effort.
“We usually do some fundraising as a district but I was quite amazed by how much was raised.
“The girls hadn’t noticed it so much because it was a little at a time but when we told them the final amount, they thought it was fantastic.
“We’d like to thank the people of Market Drayton and the surrounding area for their extraordinary generosity and Morrisons for allowing us to organise events at their store during the year.”
By Winston Brown