We Can Do It!

On March 9th, one Pathfinder and one Guider joined other Pathfinders and Rangers at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope for an event called "We Can Do It!". Throughout the day, we explored life and the roles and experiences of women during World War II.

Girl Guiding and the War Effort

Activity #1 Upon arrival, each person had to assemble a box (which would have held a gas mask) and a name tag to wear throughout the day. We also picked up a National Identity Card and Ration Booklet.

We started the day learning a bit about what Guides and Rangers did for the War Effort, including Guide Gift Week in 1940. For Guide Gift Week, Guiding members throughout the British Empire (including Canada) were asked to contribute half a day's salary or income, or raise money doing odd jobs. The goal was to raise enough to purchase two air ambulances. Not only was this goal reached, but enough funds were raised to also buy a lifeboat (later named the Guide of Dunkirk for its roll in rescuing troops from Dunkirk), two mobile canteens for the YMCA, equipment for rest huts for the British Army, furnishing and equipment for the Trefoil Hut in Iceland for use of the Merchant Navy, and 20 motor ambulances for the Royal Navy. Guiding training allowed girls to be seen as very important and capable as they took on roles as nurses, munition workers, aircraft workers, pilots, ambulance drivers and mechanics.

Activity #2 We learned how to tie a 1940s-style Guide tie and then how to use the tie as a sling.

Life on the Home Front

Life changed drastically during the war, especially in Britain. Once war was declared, everyone carried a gas mask and National ID card. 

Food Rationing

In 1939, Britain imported 60% of their food, which meant rationing quickly came into effect to make the most of what food they had. Booklets were produced and demonstrations held to help people use rations healthily and effectively. Families had to register with their suppliers (butcher, grocer, market, etc.) for each item and could then only shop at that location as each supplier received sufficient amounts for those registered with them. Rations had to be collected each week as uncollected amounts did not carry over. 

Examples of typical rations:

• Bacon or Ham - 4 oz per week for adults, 2 oz for children
• Butter - 2 oz per week for adults, 1 oz for children
• Cheese - 2 oz per week for adults, 1 oz for children
• Eggs - 1 per week for adults, 1 every other week for children
• Powdered Eggs - 2 per week for adults, 1 per week for children
• Milk - 3 1/2 pints per child under 18 (later replaced by powdered milk)
• Sugar - 2 oz per week for adults, 1 oz for children
• Tea - 1 1/2 oz per week for adults (loose leaf) 
• Meat - 1s 2d worth, if available [about $5 worth today]

Food Production
The "Dig For Victory" campaign turned empty land over to vegetable production. Vegetables that grow well and can be stored, such as brussel sprouts, potatoes, turnips, cabbage and carrots, were planted across the country. Families also took to raising hens, rabbits and pigs, picking and canning fruits and vegetables, and boiling rose-hips to make a syrup to supplement their Vitamin C intake. Bread became denser as flour is less refined.

Clothing
Clothing styles changed to use less fabric - rising hemlines, narrow lapels, no pockets or cuffs, narrow pant legs. Items such as nylons were simply no longer available. Communities would get together to swap items such as coats that were not being made any more. Everyone was encouraged to "Make Do and Mend", by cutting down adult clothing for children, unraveling sweaters and knitting new garments from the wool, and re-purposing everything they could. 

Daily Life
Gasoline is also rationed, so people walk or cycle to get where they need to go, and forego unnecessary travel. Guiding members worked on the War Service Badge, awarded for 96 hours of war-related service. Guides and Rangers helped in many ways, including running creches, entertaining children, collecting sphagnum moss, planting gardens, manning first aid posts and assisting officials. 

Evacuation!
With the threat of attack looming, families wanted to get their children to safety. Children from cities were evacuated to the countryside or even by ship to Canada. Some children went on their own, while others went with their entire school, relocating to a different location for the duration of the war. When they reached their destination, evacuees were often met by Guides and Scouts who welcomed them and helped them reach their new home. Each evacuee carried a suitcase or brown paper package of their clothing, ID tags, National Registration Card, and Ration Book. 

Activity #3: We split up into smaller groups, each with a set of cards with the names of items that children might bring with them. Our challenge was to choose 20 items, including 6 mandatory items, for a child evacuee to pack. 

Activity #4 We all worked together to prepare our lunch, consisting of foods that would have been available with rations - home-made bread, cheese (grated to make it go further), butter, jam, SPAM, canned corned beef, apples, tea (loose leaf), powdered milk, and home-made war cake.


The Battle of Britain

"Never before have so many owed so much to so few" (Winston Churchill)

Operation Sea Lion was launched by the Nazis in July 1940 with the goal of destroying England's airbases in preparation for invasion. Troops were massed in France, across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel, and German aircraft outnumbered Allied forces 4 to 1. Concentrated aerial attacks began in August and continued through September. Britain succeeded in repelling attacks and inflicting damage to enemy planes because they used centralized coordination to determine where each of their fighter squadrons would go, making the best use of their scant resources. Fighter Command was located at Bentley Prior and received intelligence about position of troops, incoming squadrons, and other information and then relayed it onward. Basic radar was used, but could only track planes over the sea. Once plans reached land, radar could no longer be used. 95% of the staff at Bentley Prior were female.  Staff used table-sized maps and wooden blocks with information about each allied and enemy squadron, including its identifying number, number of planes and altitude in thousands of feet, to plot the location and movements of aircraft. 

Activity #5: We gathered around a plotting map and worked in pairs to read information about aircraft movements. As part of the activity, we had to label and move our plotting blocks around the map and place coloured arrows to indicate sightings and direction of flight. We then discussed how plotters would use the information to determine which squadron to send up against incoming enemy planes.

Communications

A variety of different communication methods and codes were used to send messages and relay information during the war. The Enigma Machine was invented by the Germans and had a code that changed daily. Alan Turing designed an electromechanical machine that could break the Enigma code faster than humans. Before this device came into use, the Admiralty was losing 33 ships per day due to an internal spy who was sending fleet movements and information to the enemy. Codes were used to encrypt messages and Guides and Rangers often acted as messengers as their training including carrying a message in their head and delivering it accurately and they could be trusted to keep what they heard a secret. 

Activity #6: Semaphore was part of the Guiding program in the 1930s and 1940s, and was useful for sending messages across distances, from ship to ship, and from ship to shore. We all had a go at signalling different letters and trying to position our arms correctly.

Activity #7: Morse Code was also part of the Guiding program and widely used for telegraph communications. We were able to use buzzers and try to send words between partners.

Activity #8: Many women were employed as code breakers to decipher incoming messages. They would also encrypt outgoing messages so that they would be incomprehensible to anyone without the key! We got to try to decipher numeric codes and shifted alpha-numeric codes. 

Activity #9: Our final communications task was to dial a rotary phone - a task that was new to most if not all of the Pathfinders and Rangers! Undaunted, they were shown how to dial the phone and then competed to see who could complete a call the fastest - 16 seconds is the record to beat. 

Wartime Employment

During the war women took on non-traditional jobs in order to free men to join the forces fighting in Europe. Women worked became munitions workers, built aircraft, trained as drivers and mechanics, and made other supplies vital to the war effort. 

Activity #10: Aircraft, and other metal vehicles and machines, are held together with rivets. Women became expert riveters, with one person putting in Clecos (temporary rivets) to hold the pieces in place while another person came behind removing the Clecos ahead of the riveter. We raced to see which teams could put complete a line of temporary rivets the fastest, and then who could take them out again!

The wings of aircraft are made of several layers, making them both lightweight and durable. Starting with a wood frame, a cover of canvas is attached. The canvas is painted with a substance called ope to make it stronger and waterproof. A layer of aluminum is added, and finally a coat of paint. 

Activity #11: To see what the process to build aircraft wings would have been like, we worked in teams to assemble rib wings in the fashion they would have been during World War II.

Women Pilots
The final part of the day was spent learning a bit more about the role of women pilots. Women would ferry planes between bases in Canada and to Newfoundland. One of the Rangers was dressed in the many layers worn by pilots at this time - uniform shirt and jacket, gauntlet gloves, leather fleece-lined hood, goggles, life vest and parachute.

Links:

• Canadian Women of Valour Challenge
• Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum 

Looking Back, Moving Forward

This week we explored the History of Guiding to finish up the Our Story theme badge.

As the Guides arrived, they gathered in their Patrols to check attendance and collected dues. This week, they also had to gather supplies and put together their Patrol Box. Each Patrol will be responsible for their own supplies this year. They also had to put together a short presentation about one of the B-Ps - Robert, Agnes and Olave. 

After our opening, each Patrol shared their presentation so everyone could learn about Robert, Agnes and Olave Baden-Powell.  This answered some of the questions from last week:

• Who started Guiding and why?
• When was Guides started?
• Where did Guides start?

We then spent a bit of time answering the other questions the Guides had come up with:

Why are Patrols named for flowers and birds?
The original Scout Patrols were birds and animals, and each Scout was expected to learn about their chosen emblem, where it lived, what it ate, etc., and also to use its cry as their Patrol call. Now, the idea of girls going around roaring and hissing like lions or snakes wasn't going to go over well, so B-P and Agnes suggested flower, and later bird, emblems for Guides. Patrol calls stopped, but Guides were still expected to learn all about their chosen emblem.

Why don't we wear dresses as uniform anymore? 

The same reason we don't wear long skirts and blouses - times change, and so does fashion. The Guide Uniform has changed many times, becoming less formal and more comfortable over the years. The dress was discontinued about 2001 as very few girls were choosing it as a uniform option, instead going for pants and a t-shirt or sweatshirt. If you like skirts and dresses, you can always wear a skirt with your Guide t-shirt - or find an old Guide uniform and wear it instead!

We also spent a few minutes looking at a Guide Uniform from the 1970s and talking about the challenges of running and playing games in a skirt and how t-shirts are much more comfortable for meetings. I actually wore the same uniform (skirt and blouse) in the early 1990s and could speak from experience! A few of the girls are determined to find old uniform dresses to wear now.

Next we played an active game, Twos and Threes, from Sixty Indoor Games for Scouts by J.B. Collyns (Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd: Glasgow). In this game, players make a large circle that is two-deep (Guides stand in pairs, one in front of the other). One pair steps out of the circle, with one player going inside the circle and the outside. At 'go', the girl in the circle chases the other girl. To change places with another player, the runner or the chaser stands in front of a pair of girls, and the girl at the back takes her place. 

Our next activity was to make Guiding Collages. We had paper, clippings from Guiding publications, and some old Canadian Guider magazines. Each Patrol had supplies to make two collages with the theme "Spirit of Guiding". Everyone got really into this activity and we will be finishing it up in two weeks time.

After cleaning up, we played Kim's Game. This is a classic observation and memory game that has been played by Guides and Scouts since the beginning. Patrols have one minute to look at a tray of items (we used Guiding-themed items), the tray is then removed and players have a short time to try to recall everything they've seen. The Patrol that remembers the most items wins.

Our final activity was to learn Why We Are Called Guides. We read the excerpt from How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire (the first Guide Handbook) and found out that we are named for the Corps of the Guides in India. These Guides can turn their hand to anything, are brave and determined, skilled at woodcraft, homecraft, and outdoor lore. 

We closed with reminders for next week (City Hall Campfire) and Taps.

Links & Downloads:

• How Guiding Began
• Meet the Baden-Powells
• The Three Baden-Powells: Robert, Agnes and Olave - Girl Guides of Canada 
• Why We Are Called Guides - Girl Guide History Tidbits 

Guiding Traditions

This week we had our annual Guiding Traditions (or Guiding History) night. We borrowed one of the Heritage Boxes from Ontario Council and used some of the activities, along with some of our own.

As the girls arrived they each made two Semaphore Flags using white cardstock, blue construction paper and straws. (Heritage Box). These were put aside for use later on. We then spent some time learning and practicing how to form a horseshoe and singing the Guide Marching Song. (I was prepared this year and had the words to the song written out on a sheet of Bristol board!)

Next up was a game from a 1922 issue of The Guide magazine called "Pork and Green Peas". This game is very similar to "Darling If You Love Me" - and can have hilarious results depending on the questions asked. Players sit in a circle and one person is 'It'. 'It' goes up to a player and asks her a question - any question she wishes. The questioned player must answer "pork and green peas", no matter what she has been asked, without smiling or laughing. If she is successful, 'It' moves on to another player. If she smiles or laughs, she trades places with 'It'.

We have been having some difficulty getting the girls attention, so we tried some of the hand and whistle signals from an older Guide Handbook (not that old - it was mine!). I don't particularly like using a whistle, but it was certainly effective! We tried signals for stop, look. listen; come here; scatter; form two lines; form a circle; and never mind.

Next up, we split into Patrols and did a round robin of three activities:

Name That Badge!
For this activity, girls explored a camp blanket (mine) containing Brownie, Guide and Pathfinder Badge Sashes, as well as numerous crests and patches from all over. They were challenged to identify some of the different badges and to find the crests from 1 Territory and 8 Provinces.

Be Prepared Card Game
Using the Memory Game Cards (Heritage Box) we had the girls play a game like "Go Fish". There were 28 cards in the deck, with two of each card. Each girl was dealt 4 cards to start and the remainder were placed face down in a pile in the centre. They played by taking turns asking another player if they had a matching card (i.e. compass, fire lighting, throwing a life line). If the asked player had the card, they gave it to the other player, who placed the pair on the floor in front of her. If the asked player didn't have the card, they said 'Be Prepared' and the asking player had to draw a card from the pile in the centre. The winner was the player with the most pairs.



Semaphore
Each girl used the semaphore flags she had made at the beginning of the meeting and the replica Semaphore cards from the 1950s (Heritage Box). They practiced signaling the alphabet, their names, and 'Be Prepared'.



After cleaning up, we played a team game - Bean Bag Toss (Heritage Box).


Our final activity involved skits and a potted history of Guiding. Each Patrol was assigned a theme for their skit and we interspersed them with bits of Guiding history. The skit themes were Cookies, Camping, and Helping Others.

Guiding began in Canada in 1910. Early groups formed in Toronto, St. Catharines, Moose Jaw, Sardis (BC), Vancouver, Winnipeg, and even Dawson City in the Yukon! Girls were excited to try new activities and learn about first aid, tracking, woodcraft, outdoor cooking and camping. The first Guides chose a uniform of a loose white blouse and long navy blue skirt. This changed into a dark blue dress in the 1920s and, with slight changes in shade and style, this would remain the uniform for nearly 80 years.

Did you know that Girl Guides have been selling cookies since 1927? That's 90 years! The first cookies were baked by Christina Riepsame of Regina and sold by the 4th Regina Guides.

Cookie Skit

We have been selling chocolate and vanilla cookies for over 60 years and chocolately mint cookies for over 20 years. One of the things cookies help pay for is camping. Guides have been camping since 1911 - over 100 years!

Camping Skit

Every few years a National Camp is held with girls from across Canada and around the world. The last National Camp was Guiding Mosaic in 2016, which was held at Sandy Lake, Alberta. These large camps always involve a service project of some sort.

Helping Others Skit

Service and helping others has been a part of Guiding since the beginning. During the First World War, only 4 years after Guiding began, Canadian Guides gave service by working factories and government offices, volunteering in hospitals, knitting socks, making dressings and bandages, and collecting supplies and donations for the war effort. Today, Guides take part in service projects around the themes of Community, Environment and International.

We then ended with reminders for next week and closed with Taps.


Downloads:

• List of Activities in the GGC Ontario Council Heritage Box for Guides
• Link to GGC-Ontario Council Heritage Boxes

The "Challenge" Challenge

April started off with a visit by the 2nd year Brownies from the 3rd Caledonia Brownie Unit.The 8 girls who joined us were divided up between the Patrols, and we created a 4th Patrol for the evening to keep the groups to a manageable size!

As the girls arrived, each was asked to make a name tag using index cards and decorating with markers and stickers.

We held our usual opening ceremony, with the Brownies placed into the Guide Patrols, and then had everyone introduce themselves. Our Active Living Patrol for the week then led an active game before we moved onto our program.

The Guides have been working on the Diversity Challenge from BC and the Brownies 100th Anniversary Challenge from NS, so we used activities from these challenges as the basis for our meeting.

Our first activity was the "Who Are The Lucky Ones?" Game from the Diversity Challenge. Each girl was given a card and a napkin and a plate of Smarties was placed in the middle of the circle. Each girl read her card out in turn and followed the instructions (usually to take no treat!). We then talked about how the girls felt and if they thought what had happened was fair. (Each girl did get a few Smarties to eat after the game!)

We then played a game from Japan called "One-Legged Race". In this game, players stand in teams at one end of the room. The first player in each team runs to the far end of the room and then returns by hopping (keeping their feet and legs together to make a single leg). The first team to have all their players complete this trip wins.

Next up, we explored fractals and each girl created her own triangular fractal pattern. The girls stated with a triangle of paper and were asked to mark the halfway point on each side and then draw straight lines with a ruler to create a total of four triangles. They then coloured in the centre triangle. Each of the three remaining triangles was then divided in the same way and the one in the centre coloured in. Girls could continue as far as they wanted and then colour in all the triangles if they wished. See the image at the right for a better explanation!

The Fractal Foundation has a one-page explanation of Fractals in Math and Nature -
fractalfoundation.org/fractivities/WhatIsaFractal-1pager.pdf

An active game followed - Chopstick Race - the girls were in Patrols, and had to manipulate chopsticks with one hand to pick up pieces of sponge from to opposite end of the room. One girl per Patrol at a time and only one piece of sponge at a time! The Patrol with the most pieces of sponge at the end was the winner. (Despite many protests of "I can't use chopsticks", everyone managed very well with this activity.)

Our last activity was a Brownie Badge Quiz using images of early badges. Each Patrol had a sheet showing 9 old badges and they had to decide what it was called, what would need to be done to earn it, and which current Brownie badge it was related to. The answer sheet is below:

We ended the meeting with a couple of campfire songs and reminders about the aquarium trip on Saturday and next week before closing with Taps.


The Diversity Challenge can be found on the BC Council website -
www.girlguides.ca/WEB/Documents/BC/DiversityChallenge_2014.pdf

The Brownies 100th Anniversary Challenge can be found on the Nova Scotia Council website -
www.girlguides.ca/WEB/Documents/NS/challenges/branch15.doc

September & October with the Pathfinders & Rangers

This year, our Pathfinder Unit will be almost completely girl-led as the Guider responsible for Pathfinders, is also the main Guider for the Guide Unit and the units will be meeting on the same night due to space and leadership constraints. This means that it may take us longer to complete activities, but will also mean that the girls will tackle all aspects of leadership!

Our Guiding Year started off with a Pizza and Planning night Friday, September 11th. Time was spent socializing and catching up as well as starting to make plans for the year.

The first regular meeting was held on Tuesday, September 15th where we made decoupage notebook covers. While crafting, the girls discussed roles and responsibilities within the unit, items needed for the 'Pathfinder Supply Box', and activities to focus on over the next few weeks. they also planned some night games for next week.

Our second meeting of September was spent at Seneca Park with the Guides where we started to work on the Finding Your Way Module and led night games. See more here -  caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/09/geocaching-hike-night-games.html

We finished September with a Photo Scavenger Hunt around town.

October began with the International Day of the Girl where we made Wordles using our first names and learned about Women in STEM through a discussion and matching game. The Pathfinders joined the Guides at the end of the meeting to take part in our 'practical STEM' activity - making Armpit Fudge!

The next week, we had a Planning Meeting to determine activities up to the Christmas holidays, including a 'Pathfinder Day' to be held in November.

Movie Night was next and the girls settled in to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" to get themselves into a Hallowe'en-y mood. This was followed by a Hallowe'en party to finish off the month. At their party, the girls ate donuts off strings, played a Scent Kim's Game, had Hallowe'en-themed snacks, and did Mad Libs.

Exploring Our Roots

The second meeting in February was spent learning about Guide History and Guiding in Canada.

As the girls arrived, each Patrol was asked to make up a short skit on a theme - Guide Meeting, Cookie Selling, Guide Camp, and Helping Others. As were were missing quite a few girls this week, we combined the girls and eliminated the Helping Others Skit.

We started the meeting with our usual opening followed by an active game, and then had the girls finish presenting their creative creations from last week.

This week's program was started off with a short discussion about people in Guiding. We went through the 5 youth branches and also talked about Lones and Adult roles (Link, Trefoil Guild, Unit Guiders, Trainers, Administrative Community Leaders).

Next we played two games. The first was a relay game found in an issue of The Guide magazine from 1921. The girls lined up in patrols and the player at the front of the line was given a ball. The ball is passed along the line on alternating sides (first player passes to the right, second to the left, and so on). We added a second ball to each team and also had the last player in line come to the front once she had both balls. The second game was found in an issue of The Guide magazine from the 1930s. The girls sit in two straight lines with their legs stretched out towards the other line. The first player in each line is given a ball. She has to bounce the ball on the outside with one hand, pass it to her other hand and bounce it on her other side before passing it to the next player who repeats the actions until the ball reaches the end of the line. We added a second ball starting at the opposite end and also had the balls go along the line one way and then back the opposite direction.

After our games we moved on to a badge quiz using old Guide badges. Badges were passed around one at a time and the patrols asked what they thought the badge might be called or what it might be for. As the girls guessed at each badge, we told them what the image on the badge was, what the badge was called, and a couple of things that a Guide would have needed to do in order to earn it.

As time was running out, we then moved on to our skits and facts about Guiding History.

First Fact - Guiding began in Canada in 1910, with groups forming in Toronto, St Catharines, Moose Jaw, Sardis (BC), Vancouver, Winnipeg and Dawson City. Girls were excited to try new activities and learn about first aid, tracking, nature lore, and outdoor cooking and camping.

Skit #1 - Guide Meeting (the girls were very quick to tell us that this did not represent our meetings!)

Second Fact - The first Guides choose a uniform of a loose white blouse and navy blue skirt. This changed to a blue dress in the 1920s, and with slight changes in shade and style, this would remain the uniform for nearly 80 years.  (At this point I passed around two Guide dolls - one in a 1970s uniform and the other in the 2000s uniform.)

Did you know that Girl Guides have been selling cookies since 1927? That's nearly 90 years! The first cookies were baked by Christine Riepsame of Regina and sold by the 4th Regina Guides.

Skit #2 - Cookie Selling

Third Fact - We have been selling chocolate and vanilla cookies for over 60 years and the chocolatey mint cookies for over 20 years. One of the things cookies help to pay for is camping. Guides have been camping since 1911 - over 100 years!

Skit #3 - Guide Camp

Fourth Fact - Every few years a National camp is held with girls from across Canada and around the world. The next National camp is Guiding Mosaic in 2016, which is being held at Sandy Lake, Alberta. These large camps always involve a service project of some sort. service and helping others has been a part of Guiding since the beginning. During the First World War, only 4 years after Guiding began, Canadian Guides gave service by working in factories and government offices, volunteering in hospitals, knitting socks, making dressings and bandages, and collecting supplies and donations for the war effort.

(We would have had Skit #4 - Helping Others here)

Fifth Fact - Today, Guides take part in service projects around the themes of Community, Environment, and International. This year, we have collected items for the Food Bank and a Women's Shelter (Community), will be making bookmarks to support educational projects in Africa, South America and Asia (International), and will be working on an environmental project as well.

With that, it was time to say goodnight and good bye until next week.

Guide History Night

On Tuesday, March 27th the 2nd Year Brownies from the 3rd Caledonia Brownie Unit visited the 2nd Caledonia Guide Unit to find out what Guide meetings are like.

Our theme for the evening was "Guide History" and included dress up, games, a craft, participation story, and opening and closing ceremonies.

Our first activity was dressing up in heritage uniforms for the evening. We had Brownie, Guide, Pathfinder and Ranger uniforms from the past and most girls choose to wear a uniform for the evening. It was fun to see the girls try to manage active games wearing a dress or skirt - which few of them are accustomed to!

After our opening Horseshoe, one of the patrols led an active game and then we went into our first activity which was to learn about how our unit fits into the structure of Guiding, about the 5 youth branches of Guiding, adult roles and Canadian Units on Foreign Soil. (All parts of the Canadian Guiding badge!)

Next we did an active quiz about Lones (more Canadian Guiding badge!). Each corner of the room was labelled with a letter (A,B,C,D) and the girls had to run to the corner they thought was the right answer. After we finished the quiz, we talked briefly about why a girl might join Lones rather than an active unit.

            Lones Active Quiz

1. What are Lones in Girl Guides of Canada?

(A) Money borrowed                               (B) Girls who cannot attend a regular meeting

(C) Non-member                                    (D) Unit dues

2. What Branches of Guiding have Lone Units?

(A) All Branches                                   (B) Guides and Pathfinders

(C) Rangers                                           (D) Sparks and Brownies

3. How can a regular Unit help a Lone?

(A) Let her know what District she lives in            (B) Adopt her

(C) Send her funds                                             (D) Smile when they see her

4. Where can a Lone wear the Lone Pin?

(A) Camp hat, blanket                            (B) Girl Guide uniform

(C) Jeans                                              (D) School jacket

5. Lones are eligible to attend what local events?

(A Community                                       (B) Local

(C) Camping                                          (D) All of the above

6.Who can adopt a Lone?

(A) Units                                               (B) Communities

(C) Trefoil Guilds                                    (D) All of the above

7.What months does the Lone program operate?

(A) September to August                      (B) September to June

(C) September to April                            (D) September to May

8.How does a Lone work on her program with her Lone Guider?

(A) Email                                               (B) Video and cassettes

(C) Fax and telephone                            (D) All of the above

Our next two games and our craft came from Guide magazines from 1921 and 1922, so were authentic games form Guiding's past.

Game #1 was a passing relay similar to games we play today. The girls had to pass a ball along their patrol going over the head of the first girl, then between the legs of the next girl, and repeated until the last girl had the ball, then she had to run to the front of the line. After the whole patrol had done this, they had to pass the ball sideways. The first girl passed the ball around her left side, the next girl around her right side, and so on. This added an extra bit of challenge as the girls had to think about left and right which wasn't as simple as over and under.

Our craft was a Geometric Guide Card that could be put on a camp hat. Each girl received shapes to make an early Guide in uniform - black rectangles for the shoes and legs, a navy triangle for the body, a white square and a white rectangle for the top, red triangles for the tie, navy circle for the hat, brown rectangle for the stave, and beige circles forth head and hands. The cards were really cute when done and we covered them with mactac so they will last longer.

Game #2 was called "Pork and Green Peas". It is played similarly to 'Darling if you love me won't you please, please smile'. In this game, the girls who are "It" go around the circle asking questions to different girls. The girls in the circle have to answer "Pork and Green Peas" without smiling or laughing, no matter what the question is. This created some very funny moments as the girls became more creative with their questions.

Our final activity was a participation story about the beginning of Guiding and Thinking Day. Instead of having each group just say the phrase associated with their word, they had to stand up before saying it. For "Thinking Day" everyone had to get up, spin in a circle and shout 'Happy Birthday!'

We ended our meeting with Taps and everyone received an Easter treat before they left.