Girl Guides Go Retro for 100th Anniversary Bash
One hundred years of girl guiding in Canada was celebrated in the city on Saturday as girls from across the province dressed up in vintage uniforms and learned the story of their founders.
Vivian MacDonald, left, puts a hat on Katherine Lorette, 12, as Ashley Cormier, 13, fixes her collar. The girls were trying on old Girl Guide uniforms from the 50’s and 60’s.
“It’s an amazing thing to think we are still capturing the interests of girls and women in today’s world as much as we were 100 years ago,” said Marie Wetmore, Girl Guides provincial commissioner.
Wetmore said the organization has been able to last a century by being “trailblazers” and adapting to the changing interests of women across the country.
“The girls are much more world savvy at a younger age, but they are still kids,” Wetmore said. “I received letters from a Brownie unit and they were the same as always. ‘My name is, I am seven, and I like dogs, puppies and bunnies.’ We are still dealing with the same little kid, but the girls are coming to us much more confident and also much busier. We have to be able to offer something that will attract their attention and keep their attention because we have a lot more competition than we did 100 years ago.”
The girls began the party by singing a camp song about black socks and learning a lesson about the changing forms of communication. The girls said they communicate by talking on the phone, sending emails and texting. A guide leader held up two flags and showed them how guides once waved the flags in certain directions to spell words to each other across campsites.
Downstairs the children from Sparks, Brownies, Girl Guides, Pathfinders and Ranger groups across the province, tried on uniforms that have been worn over the past century.
Wearing little dresses with belts and tams, the girls pranced in front of the mirror and giggled to each other.
“It’s really cool to see Girl Guides when it is 100 years old because that is really, really old,” nine-year-old Chloe Cook said while looking at her reflection in a tie and knee-length blue dress covered in badges. “Next year, people should have this for an outfit again because it looks so great, I would rather wear this. It’s like a real camper.”
Marilyn Brewer sat in a circle of children and read a history book aloud to them, motioning them to scream out “he’s our founder” and “be prepared” when she said certain words.
Brewer told the girls that in the United Kingdom Robert Baden-Powell wrote a scouting book, and boys all over the country began meeting together and referring to themselves as boy scouts.
“The Boy Scouts were invited to attend a rally in London, and as they marched past Robert Baden-Powell he noticed a group of girls at the end of the line and said ‘who are you?’ and they said ‘we are girl scouts,’ but he said ‘there aren’t any girl scouts’ and they said ‘yes, we are they,’” Brewer read.
She said Baden-Powell asked his sister Agnes to start a girl’s group, and that’s how it all began.
Ashley Cormier, 13, of Quispamsis, has experienced the history of girl guides through the generations of her family. She is an eight-year member of Girl Guides and the fourth generation in her family tied to the organization. She said her great-grandmother was a Girl Guide and passed her mementos down the line.
“I like making friends, and I like their songs because they are not serious songs. They are just fun songs to sing at campfires,” Cormier said. “I love the camping, I love the outdoors and I like campfires.”
Wetmore said St. Catharines, Ont., had the first recorded Girl Guides group in the country, but a group in Hampton started around the same time in 1910.
Saint John followed shortly, she said.
Throughout the year the Girl Guides of Canada will be celebrating their anniversary with special activities in each community. Wetmore said each group will also be collecting food for local food banks with a goal of collecting 350,000 kilograms of food for the food banks across the country.
Source: Telegraph Journal
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