Always Seeking to Cross Frontiers
Our district nowadays consists of 67 local groups (lippukunta) and a core district organisation with 14 working groups and an executive board. We Guide/Scout in the province of Uusimaa, roughly translated as New Land, excluding the capital region (see map below). District office is situated in Helsinki. Local groups of Uusimaa have over 4000 guides and scouts in age sections of Cub Scouts, Adventurers, Trackers, Explorers, Rovers and Leaders. Most local groups are mixed, and also the separate ones always have close co-operation with a sibling group.
The district supports Guiding/Scouting in local groups by means of organizing leader and skill training as well as activities for all age groups; publishing member magazine Pärske, info leaflet Purske and the district website; furthering local groups' co-operation in six areas and actively establishing new ones; keeping connections with the national assosiation as well as the neighboring districts and civil administration; and arranging bigger events such as the district camp Kohina, which gathered 1500 participants around Uusimaa and the whole world to the shores of Hanko in the summer of 2008.
Landscape in Uusimaa is characterized by borders between urban, rural and nature. Right next to us are Finland's three biggest cities, their services and transports, together with old agriculture – but also two national and one nature park, other forests and especially water: large lakes in the west, rivers in the east and maritime archipelago in the south. In the north, the Salpausselkä ridge provides winter-time snow-certainty. Everyman's right is still respected here in the Nordic countries, so practically all forests are open for hiking and waters for canoeing or sailing from spring to autumn, and for snow-hiking, skating or skiing in winter.
The logo of the GSD is a stylized bow of a coastal rowboat in the coat-of-arms of the province dating back to 1599. The dynamic Guides and Scouts of the New Land have a history of always seeking to reach and cross mental frontiers, exploring new waves and possibilities – or rocks.
Welcome to Guiding/Scouting Uusimaa! Our local groups' contact information can be found via the link "lippukunnat". The district office is open tue, wed and fri at 9–16 and thu at 9–18 EET. Chief executive Tea Hurme, coordinator Petra Valkonen and project coordinator Hanna Niemi there will be happy to help you with any questions concerning our activities.
See you in Guiding/Scouting!
Ossi Ikonen
District commissioner 2010–
The Guide and Scout District of Uusimaa
Töölönkatu 55
FIN-00250 Helsinki
Phone: +358-9-8865 1400
Fax: +358-9-8865 1199
uusimaa [at] partio.fi
www.uusimaa.partio.fi
