Year of the Girl Guide – 2010

The Australian Government today announced that 2010 will be designated ‘Year of the Girl Guide’.

For 100 years the Guiding movement has supported Australian girls to grow into confident and inspiring young women.

The Government acknowledges the invaluable contribution of Girl Guides Australia and will support the centenary through a range of initiatives.

The Royal Australian Mint will produce a circulating one dollar coin to commemorate the Guides and their centenary year. The Reserve Bank of Australia will determine when the coin enters circulation.

Australia Post will issue three stamps, one domestic and two international, in September 2010.

The Government will provide $600,000 to help Girl Guides Australia celebrate the centenary year. This funding will support:

• Girl Guides Centenary Launch, Brisbane, 4-6 September 2009.
• Helping girls and young women from disadvantaged backgrounds participate in the launch.
• Go Girl, a series of workshops about obesity.
• World Environment Day activities that will help Guides work out their “Carbon Footprint” along with how to reduce carbon emissions.
• Australian Service Challenge, a disability focused service-wide project to help Guides understand what it means to have a disability.

The Government’s announcements will not only benefit the Guiding movement but Australia as a whole.

The Guiding movement reaches out to thousands of Australian girls and young women each year and encourages them to actively involve themselves in matters of national and global concern.

From humble beginnings 100 years ago, the Girl Guides have grown into the largest worldwide voluntary organisation for girls and young women with an estimated 10 million members worldwide.

Over one million Australian women have been or are still Guides.

The motto for the centenary year is “Let’s celebrate our past, live the present and power into the future”.

The program of activities planned by Girl Guides Australia will put this motto into practice and the Government is proud to be able to help.

The Centenary of Guiding will be celebrated around the world and celebrations in Australia will begin with the official launch from 4 to 6 September 2009 at Kindilan, Redland Bay, Queensland.