Dry eyes were a rarity on Sunday (May 25) at Camp Jubilee, where 100 Bow Valley Girl Guides gathered for an end of year district camp.
A number of members from Banff and Canmore who have been working towards some of the highest badge awards in guiding were received at the ceremony. Other reasons to celebrate included 13 Girl Guides (ages 9-11) working towards their Lady Baden Powell Award, and three young members completing their Canada Cord – the highest youth award in guiding at the Pathfinder level (age 12-14).
“We had our end of year district camp and had 100 girls from the Bow Valley taking part and we finished it off with our district advancement ceremony, which is where each of the girls from the units move up to the next section in guiding,” said Girl Guide co-director Debbie Morgan.
“Sparks, Brownies, Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers are here, and then this year we even had one of our Rangers move up to adult membership – so we literally saw girls progress through the full program.
“It was a really special day. All of our leaders and myself were so proud of these girls. They’ve done so well and they’ve worked so hard, it’s amazing.”
Morgan added leaders always hope the girls will stay in guiding and the emotion and payoff is amazing in seeing members move up through the units. “We haven’t had a Ranger unit in the valley before – that’s when the girls leave Pathfinders at 14. We’ve had two girls who have been lone Rangers, but we haven’t had a Ranger unit, this has been the first year where we’ve had enough girls moving through the program to create a Ranger unit as well.”
Local MLAs Alison Redford and Ron Casey were present to tell the members how proud they were of the achievements.
“I think guiding is such an incredible movement because it gives young women the opportunity to see strong women leaders and to be able to be here with 100 girls and so many women who are volunteers and active in their community is really important for kids who are going to make choices about their life,” Redford said.
“To be able to be part of an environment where people are supportive, respect adversity and understand that people have strengths and weaknesses is really powerful and I think that’s what the guiding movement has been really excelling at for decades and hasn’t certainly lost any of its momentum.”
“Anyone that knows me knows I would get misty eyed at this,” Casey said after the ceremony. “Guiding just gives these girls a tremendous foundation to start from and not just in self-esteem as it does – they achieve as we saw here today, but they also learn about the appreciation for the outdoors and it’s an important piece to learn that’s left out in much of the world we live in.”
The next fundraising event for the Girl Guides’ upcoming trip to England is an English-themed barbecue at the Georgetown Inn on Sunday (June 1). Tickets are available for children and adults. For tickets, contact Morgan at 403-675-3885. There will also be silent auctions and bucket draws available during the event to support Girl Guides.
