WITH more than 100 youngsters on the waiting list, the girl guide groups of Crowthorne show no sign of slowing down as a new unit officially opened last week.

The growing waiting list is a sign of just how successful the girl guides are in the small village, with more than 200 girls already a member of one of the area's ten units, from Rainbows to Brownies.

To deal with demand, a new unit opened up on Tuesday, September 13.

Girls aged from five to 18 years old are all members of the groups, with district commissioner Carolyn Tobin amazed at the popularity.

She said: "Guiding is getting really, really popular and we have now got more than 200 girls on our books and a 100 more waiting for a place.

"Housing developments have meant we've lost our headquarters so we're looking for a new one, a main HQ for all the units to use. We're raising money and asking people if they know of any great spaces."

The loss of their HQ is just one of the challenges the guides face.

The three Guide units, four Brownie and two Rainbow units look after a lot of children who need volunteers to help them organise and plan and generally keep the units up and running.

It's a situation mirrored across the country as demand rises for scouting and guiding in general, but the number of volunteers able to dedicate time to running the groups fails to keep up.

There is one significant perk to volunteering, though.

"It's the one way to guarantee your kid gets place! If that's an incentive for anyone. It's one of the perks," Carolyn adds.

She said: "I just think it's fantastic to show that girl guiding is still really popular, for somewhere like Crowthorne to have a waiting list of 100, and we're just a village, shows that."

For information about the Crowthorne Guides, to volunteer or any other queries email, crowthornegirlguiding@gmail.com