Bridging Ceremony for Brownies to Girl Scouts

If you are from near Canal, one thing we did was go to Chestnut Ridge. There is a little ampihtheatre ajacent to the picnic area in the woods where the parents can sit---a very charming atmosphere, and a little stone bridge the girls can cross to come onto the stage area and receive their stuff and be congratulated. Then you can have a picnic and play games right there at the shelter with the girls and their families.

Our Service Unit usually holds a bridging ceremony that includes all levels that are moving up. That way, the adults welcome the oldest girls then each level welcomes the level below it. Try to have a small bridge for them to walk across (check with the Service Unit or Council- they might have one you can borrow). Decorate the bridge with flowers or balloons in different colors. Have each leader announce their troop members as they bridge. After they go across the bridge, the older girls welcome them (either by shaking their hand or saying something)and the leader can can either pin on their year pin or hand them a bridging certificate. Certificates are available at your council shop as well as pins. There are many websites that give sample ceremonies- check it out. Use one, combine a few or make up your own. The point is to honor the achievement of the girls. Good luck!

I am a co-leader and there are websites that have alot of good info on them. You can pretty much do what ever you want with the ceremony. Check out www.gsneo.org or just google brownie bridging ceremony. Good Luck, i'm sure you will do fine.

Or if you don't have a small bridge to use indoors or to buy, pick up a large box from UHaul - cut it out so that it looks like a bridge and reinforce it so it doesn't collapse, then have your future Juniors (the next level after Brownies) decorate one half of one side of the bridge in the brown, orange, and whatever comes to mind about their brownie years with words, pictures of cookies, drawings of troop activities; on the other side, have decorated in green and white and with their ideas of what they expect to find in junior girl scouts. If they are changing troops, maybe have the old and new numbers on the respective sides.

There is a book from the council that can give you ideas about several types of bridging types. Good luck

If you go online to google or another search engine and type in brownie bridging ceremony there should be a few to choose from. That's what our troop leader did. :) I'm an assistant brownie leader. Good luck with your ceremony.

I remember my bridging ceremony! It was so cool! My leader built and actual bridge (just a small one made of 2x4) and before we crossed, we took off our Brownie vest/sash. When we got to the other side someone handed us our Junior (do they still call them that?) sash/vest. I think she used that reflective paper under the bridge so that it looked like water. She decorated all around it with potted plants. Afterwards there was a little reception for all the girls and their parents. We just had snacks and punch and I think cake.

Whatever you decide to do, just make it memorable. This is a BIG deal for the girls. I remember thinking that I wasn't a kid anymore!
BTW: I'm 30 now and I still remember it...must have been pretty memorable! :)

Not much is required for a bridging ceremony. It is basically left up to the troop. Our girls do a small flag ceremony, sing a couple of songs and then do the actual bridge. Our council has a bridge that we can use, so call your council. We had the all of the girls stand on the "Brownie side" of the bridge and the girls who were actully bridging would take off their vest and hand it to those girls. Their mom/dad waited on the other side of the bridge and handed them their new vest/sash as they came over the bridge. Then they shook hands (GS handshake) with the leader and co leader, then much cheering and hugging and of course pictures and some tears from moms! Some troops use this time to hand out badges earned also. We give out badges as they earn them, so it shortens our ceremony tremendously! We have refreshments and that's the end. Not every troop has access to a bridge, so you can use a pretend one, make one, or like others have mentioned, go some place with one. This is your ceremony so make is something special for the girls involved. We only had two girls bridge last year, my daughter and her best friend, so we didn't have a big to do, but next year we'll have about 6 girls bridging, basically the rest of the troop, so we'll have a big deal then. If the whole troop is bridging, it's definitely cause for celebration. Good luck and have fun.

S.,
there is usually some time of little bridge involved for the girls to walk over, many times homemade, but you might contact a nearby troop to see if you could borrow whatever they use-there should be words to use/modify in your leaders handbook and it is usually a big deal for the girls when they move up to girl scouts, helps to teach the kids about ceremony and the procedures involved is usually pretty formal and all relatives involved, some sort of refreshments and the meeting area or ceremony area is decorated-divide the girls into committees to work on the different things-invitation committee, refreshment committee, clean-up and have them get their folks involved

Where are brownie girl scouts meeting in CW?

I am a Girl Scout leader and we now have 6th grade Cadettes so I have been through the bridging and all of that a couple times now. What I have done is just do an internet search for Girl Scout bridging ceremony and there are a bunch of sites that have suggestions. I also borrowed a book from our council one year. Our county service unit also does a combined bridging every year so you could even combine with other troops in your area to make it an even bigger event. One year we had the families do a potluck and we brought sloppy joe sandwiches for after the actual ceremony. The parents all liked the time to get to know each other better and now we do that at the end of every year.

I was a Girl Scout for 12 years!! So I had lots of ceremonies. I remember for ours, there was a little bridge we crossed. If you can't make a little wooden bridge in time, maybe have the ceremony at a park or similar place that already has a small bridge to cross. Provide refreshments.

I would reccommend calling your local council. I am sure they have lots of ideas. is there a leader handbook? Also the GS website would be a good resource to start with, too.

Good luck!

L.

Hi! My daughter is a junior and has been in Girl Scouts since Daisy's....we are in Gahanna and she has had two bridging ceremonies. The first was held at Blendon Metro Park and the leaders used a bridge in the park. It was close to the picnic tables and each family brought a dessert, paper product or beverage. Her second ceremony was held at Creekside, here in Gahanna. They also have a bridge, but the ceremony was held in a big opening to accomodate parents & siblings. Again, we did dessert. If I remember the time it was scheduled, it was 1-3 or 5:30-7:00, to not interfere with meals. Our leader also polled the troop's families to find the best date and/or time. If there aren't other troops in your school to offer advice, you may try other schools or districts for ideas. The web is a great source also. Also, the leaders waited until the end of the year to give the girls their badges they earned and stapled them on a wide piece of ribbon-like a sash-and presented them at the ceremony. The girls also held a flag ceremony before the actual bridging ceremony began. Good luck!!! Debbie

Hi. I'm J. and we have 4 children, 3 are girls so I'm still a Girl Scout leader and all three of my girls bridged. We did borrow a bridge for them to walk over. You can find the ceremonies online by google. Also we had juniors shake their hand when they crossed over. One thing I liked was they received their Junior pin after they crossed. It was very memorable and sweet. You could have small potted plants to decorate and then each child gets one.

you can pretty much do whatever you want we did our bridging as a service unit at camp so all the girls were there and the ones bridging crossed over a stage and the older girls were on the other side shoke their hands and handed them a pack of junior mints candy..the girls love this

I've not seen what anyone else has said, but my Mom was a Brownie leader and then became a GS leader for many years. It's sort of like a graduation from one grade to the next. Elementry school to middle school type thing. Talk about their adventures as Brownies and moving into new exciting areas in the Girl Scouts, talk to the Girls Scout leader to see alittle about what they will be doing their first year, trips, etc. I hope this helps, I was a GS for many years.......have fun with it. If you have any questions further, ask me I would love to help.