Chesham Girlguiding volunteer to pick up top prize in London

Amy Walczak-Hobbs, 27, who recently secured the Queen’s Guide prize, will join hundreds of fellow award recipients at the upcoming Girlguiding Celebrates event in London’s West End.

The event, which will take place on September 29, will honour Girlguiding’s most recent award-winning volunteers along with other members who have been nominated for their amazing achievements.

The Queen’s Guide award is the highest award young women can work towards in Girlguiding, as it provides the opportunity to develop skills, give back to guiding and support local communities.

Amy Walczak-Hobbs, 27, is from Chesham (Image: NA)

Completing her Queen’s Guide award took Amy 18 months, achieved while juggling work commitments, studies, and her volunteering work for Girlguiding.

For her skill, Amy chose to start ballet, something she’d always wanted to try, and three years after starting the award she is still happily dancing.

The 27-year-old, who is from Chesham, said: “Working towards my Queen’s Guide award allowed me to gain more self-knowledge, try out new things, and adventure to unfamiliar places.

“Every time I see the award brooch, it makes me smile.”

Amy joined Girlguiding as a Brownie, when she was roughly nine years old.

She went on to join Guides, and then what was then known as the Senior Section (now Rangers).

Reflecting on her experiences, Amy added: “The best part of Girlguiding for me as a younger member, was to have local friends outside of school.

“I went to school in a different town, so my school friends were located all over my county.

“Girlguiding gave me the chance to do something very different to what I had experienced before.

“I believe experiences from Girlguiding gave me the confidence and curiosity to travel around the UK by myself. Now that I have travelled around a lot of the UK, I am looking to do some solo trips abroad.”

Prior to her latest venture, Amy worked in the fashion industry in London.

She initially started as a retail assistant to a role as a garment technologist.

Instability in the industry caused by the Covid-19 pandemic meant that her job was made redundant, and this led her to retrain and go into counselling.

Now, at the time of writing, Amy is in her qualifying year of counselling training and will be starting placements in a secondary school and an agency specialising in addiction.

She concluded: “It means a lot to be able to offer Rangers a safe space to have fun, try new things and to be themselves.

“I’ve learned so much from being a Girlguiding volunteer.

“Girlguiding was a safe haven for me when times were tough in my teens, and it gave me a break from what was going on at the time.”

The Girlguiding Celebrates event will be held on Sunday 29 September at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square.