Parents will have an extra way to keep their children amused whilst shopping in Ruddington over the Autumn Half Term holidays – spotting dozens of “Olivias” displayed at our village retailers!
The decorated cardboard dolls are being created by around 25 Girl Guides, aged 5 to 7, who are all members of our two Ruddington “Rainbows” Groups. In case you don’t know, Olivia is a character featured in various Rainbows booklets who was named after Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the wife of Lord Baden-Powell (the founder of the Scouts).
Ruddington Rainbow Leader, Heidi Rose, explains: “We weren’t able to have any meetings last term – and this term each group has had two outdoor face to face meetings, but no more are planned at present due to the restrictions. As a way of trying to connect them at this time, when we can’t meet up very often, we’ve given the girls activity packs – to include baking cookies, doing their book lover badge and the Rainbow Olivia Challenge. This is for them to decorate a cardboard doll each as the national Rainbows mascot ‘Olivia’. We’ve told them to go wild – use their imagination – make her look like as fun as they like!” laughs Heidi. “They can use pens, pencils, material, wool, paint, tissue paper – whatever they fancy.”
The doll version of Olivia owned by the village groups is currently doing the rounds of all the girls’ homes in Ruddington to help them create their own, unique version of her. As you can see from the Olivia Challenge slideshow below, they’ve already made a great start!
“We are asking local shops to display these over half term so that the girls (and other local residents if they wish) can go around to spot them” says Heidi. “We have also produced a ‘Village Trail’ for people to follow whilst out looking for the decorated dolls.”
*** You can now view and download that Village Trail >>HERE<< ***
Look out for all the Ruddington Rainbows’ Olivias in participating village centre retailers from 19th – 30th October.
