Olympia Badge

The Olympia Badge

In London Diana, Elizabeth, Karen, Rossie, Stephanie, and Tabby completed three activities for the Bronze level of the badge designed by the Girl Guides of Greece in honor of this year’s Olympic Games. Our Pax Lodge Guides were out of Bronze patches and gave us the Gold patch, which requires 9 activities (3 down, 6 to go). They extracted a promise from us to keep working on the activities. All of us, London travelers or not, can work on this badge, and Pat will undertake to get a badge for anyone who completes the activities if you don’t already have one. The activities are arranged in three areas Stadium (relating to the body), Temple (relating to the spirit) and Theatre (relating to the soul), and the idea is to do 1, 2, or 3 activities from each area, depending on whether you’re going for the Bronze (three activities), Silver (six activities), or Gold (9 activities). We did not actually promise to do six more activities; we may actually do so if enough girls bring enough information to the first meeting on September 10.

The activity that we did in London combined activities from the Temple, Stadium, and Theatre groups by asking us to come up with lists of values that are shared by the Olympic Spirit and the values of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting. If you were not in London, you could do this and bring your list to the first meeting, or you could decide to do some of these other activities.

The activities below are Pat’s picks from the packet, chosen because we might be able to complete them at our first meeting if some of you try to add a little Girl Scout research to your first weeks of school. Choose one or more and bring your information to the first meeting.

Temple

6. Find information about an unpleasant political event related to the Olympic Games. Imagine that you have the power to change this history by turning back time. What would you have done to preserve the spirit of the Games?

7. What values did athletes have at ancient Olympic Games and which values do the athletes of today have? Are they similar or different? We can debate this at the first meeting.

8. Learn to sing the International Olympic Hymn in any language you want. Create a small choir and sing it. Pat will attempt to have copies of the music at our first meeting.

10. What is the Olympic symbol and its meaning? Make the symbol of the Olympic Games using five different materials and decorate your meeting place. Pat is planning to have nacho toppings in the appropriate colors for us to create and then eat our Olympic flag. We’re thinking tomatoes, green olives, black olives, cheese, and blueberries. Okay, blueberries are not normal nacho toppings, but Mrs. Unger is bringing blueberry salsa. Yum!

Stadium

1. Name the Olympic sports and the criteria for these sports to be part of the Olympic Games.

8. Learn more about the Olympic Committee and other sporting organizations that exist in your country. What is their connection with the International Olympic Committee or the respective International Sport Federation? Present your findings at a group in your community. Like at our first meeting.

11. How long have women athletes participated in the Olympic Games and in what kind of sports do they mostly excel and why? Do some Internet research to find out and bring your results to the first meeting.

12. Find out how many women and men athletes participated in the last Olympic Games and compare this figure with the respective number of athletes who participated in the Olympic Games of Athens 1896 (the first modern Olympics). Research how much the participation of men and women athletes has changed during all these years.

Theatre

10. Research three women-athletes that, according to your opinion, have changed the history of the Olympics in sport and present their achievements.

11. Play a team sport, such as rugby, soccer or basketball in your community to promote the message of peace of the Olympic Games.

12. Why was truce enforced during the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece? What happens in contemporary Olympic Games? Organize a debate on this subject within your group.

13. Look into the history of the ancient and contemporary Olympic Games for cases where truce turned into an opportunity for peace. Think how organizing the next Olympic Games could contribute to the solution of an international problem or crisis. Make a resolution with your team or group to pass it on to your local authorities.

14. What role does the mascot play at the Olympic Games? What does it express, or represent, and what purpose does it serve?

15. Find the mascots of at least two Olympic Games and present them to your group.

Here are some of the websites that the Greek Girl Guides offered in their Olympia Badge packet to help you with the research.

www.olympic.org www.athens2004.com

www.olympictruce.org http://www.blues.uab.es/olympic.studeies/