A SOUTH Shropshire woman who helped spread the Guide movement across former communist parts of Europe has been given a top award.
It all started when Judy Ellis, from Bitterley, joined the Brownies in 1953.
By 2010, she had been awarded the Silver Fish for her working with the Guide Association.
Judy was a Brownie, then a Guide, a Land Ranger and she even joined the Scout and Girl Guide Club at university.
During her teaching career, Judy become an adult Guide in 1968.
In 1976 she started the Guides in Cleobury Mortimer and three-and-half years later began the Rangers in the town.
She continued her links with the Cleobury group until she retired when she turned 65 years in 2009.
Judy was County Commissioner for the Guides in Shropshire for three-and-a-half years.Judy’s work with the Guides took her all over Europe.
She said: “I’ve been extremely lucky to have had a lot of international experience with the Guides.”
Judy was International Commissioner from 1986-90, working to help establish the Guides in former communist countries such as Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Croatia.
She even travelled to Russia two or three times a year over eight years to help train locals to start their own Guide groups.
She said: “Guiding has been popular in communist countries.
“I’ve done a lot of work in Europe. One of the biggest issues in former communist countries was teaching girls to make correct choices and to think for themselves, and also how to cope if they didn’t make the right choices.”
Judy also worked on the European Committee with the Guides for six years.
Judy said the Guide concept was proving very popular among Muslims, because the single sex meeting could be attended by unchaperoned girls.
She spent some time working to established Guide groups among Muslims in Telford.
Asked for the secret of the enduring popularity of the Guide Association, Judy simply said: “It’s fun!”
Judy added that the single sex groups still give modern girls the chance to be themselves, under no pressure to compete with or impress the opposite sex.
She said: “If you go along to Rangers, it’s like they are enjoying a girlie night.
“The girls are running around playing silly games, without having to worry about what the boys will think.”
