Laura Stewart made her first Promise as a Rainbow at the age of 5. She has continued to devote herself to helping girls be bold and be confident ever since in her role as a volunteer. As a leader of 201st City of Glasgow Guides, Kelvinside Rangers and an assistant leader of 6th Coatbridge Brownies (where she was also a Brownie herself), Laura is committed to providing adventure, fun and excitement to a wide number of girls. 

As a young member, Laura also achieved her Gold Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) award, the Queen’s Guide award (the highest award you can earn in guiding) and her leader’s qualification (LQ) at the same time – a feat she never thought she would accomplish. 

Laura said: “I earned my Gold DofE, Queen’s Guide as well as my LQ all at the same time. This is what I am most proud of. Being dyslexic I never thought I would be able to achieve these awards. Never mind at the same time as well as studying at university. I did have moments where I really struggled but overcame this because of my incredible leaders Alexis and Alison who encouraged me and supported me. I am still a leader with the same Brownie pack 15 years later. During this time, I also attended the World Scout Jamboree in Japan 2015 and was a member of the GOLD project to Peru in 2018. Then I lead the 2022 virtual GOLD Aruba project. The experience I undertook in both projects involved training other leaders and the board of these fellow members of WAGGGS. This allowed me to share my passion I had with the young people to now include adult volunteers so I became a trainer with Girlguiding Scotland. When the leadership qualification changed to LDP, I became the coordinator for Girlguiding Glasgow.” 

In 2019, Laura became the leader of the 201st Glasgow Guides. She soon realised that Guides wanting to make the move up to Rangers had nowhere to go as there wasn’t an active unit. Alongside a fellow unit leader, Laura worked hard to reopen what is know as the Kelvinside Ranger unit. 

She said: “I love spending my time with the girls every week playing games, completing unit meeting activities (UMAs) and badges but also taking them away on lots of different adventures. Once it was time for the oldest of the Guides to head to Rangers, there wasn’t a local unit which they would be able to attend. I turned to Emma – an amazing leader also part of 201st Guides and asked for her help to reopen Kelvinside Rangers. She fully agreed! So in September 2024, they reopened and meet straight after Guides. In short I hold many guiding roles, I have incredible but different experiences in each role and love every single one of them.” 

Laura added: “I can’t pick one single highlight as every one has shaped another (even when it’s pouring of rain in the middle of a field and I’m trying to start a fire to cook dinner). Well that and also I can’t remember a time of my life which I wasn’t involved in guiding so there is a lot of incredible and empowering moments over the years.”