100 Years of Girl Guides

If Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) was an individual person, she’d be an old lady by now. Yes, she’d be a lady with talent, passion, skills... but still. You get my point.

2010 marks the 100th birthday of the organization, made up of not a single lady, thankfully, but a large mishmash of women and girls across the country. Festivities and events will begin early in the year, and carry on throughout, in all areas of Canada. And although you may know Girl Guides for its cookies, the organization is much more than that.

Take my sister, Samantha, for example. She has had amazing opportunities through Girl Guides, and attributes many of her current strengths as having been heavily influenced by GGC.

“When I was 15, I applied through Girl Guides to attend the Red Cross Global Issues Symposium for Youth,” she says. “I came home from the Symposium full of ideas, wonders and plans. Finally, I knew what I needed to do, and I had discovered something I could really care about. I came home with a realization: I wanted to bring about positive change, and I wanted other people to share my passions too.”

The Global Issues Symposium was only one of many opportunities for Samantha. A year later, she was selected to go on a two-week trip to South Africa – a place where she not only met new fantastic people, but also rode (and was kissed by) an elephant.

When she graduated last June, Samantha was awarded several Girl Guides scholarships and bursaries. “I treasure education immensely and having these bursaries will definitely make my education goals a closer reality,” she says of the awards. Samantha is now in her first year of the Global Stewardship program at Capilano University.

Some believe that Girl Guides as an organization is becoming irrelevant, but speak to anyone who has been a part of it and, they will tell you otherwise.

“Everyone deserves a place where they can be themselves, where they can learn without borders and where they can meet new people who support them unconditionally,” says Samantha. “And for females, that place is Girl Guides.”

Girl Guides has given many girls countless opportunities. It has given my sister and me chances to travel that we would not have had otherwise, and every day it gives girls new places to get involved, new places to discover who they are and new places to learn about their world.

Visit girlguides.ca