Girl Guides from the regional Parkland Area welcomed hundreds of members from across Central Alberta over the weekend as part of their “We Welcome the World” rally in Innisfail.
The one-day rally was hosted at the Innisfail Arena on May 14, and saw close to 500 participants take part in activities, games, crafts and songs from around the world.
“We have approximately 500 leaders and girls out here today,” said Stephanie Haas, public relations advisor with the Girl Guides of Canada, Parkland Area. “We have a large international camp coming to Sylvan Lake this summer called Guiding Mosaic 2016 in July. (Today) was an opportunity to invite girls of all ages to participate in welcoming the world to Alberta for that event,” she added, noting that Guiding Mosaic is for girls 12 years and older.
The Parkland Area rally included girls from sparks, brownies, guides, pathfinders and rangers from across Central Alberta, including Airdrie, Olds, Red Deer, Lacombe and Innisfail.
Participants learned about music, games and crafts from different countries around the world, noted Haas, pointing to a service scrapbook project made by the girls during the rally for fellow guides in Guyana.
“We have some Maori games and music from New Zealand and our newest guiding world centre is in Africa, so in honour of that we have games here from Africa,” she said.
“We are twinned with Guides from Guyana in South America so we are sending a scrapbook of our day today to our guiding sisters in Guyana -- pictures, music, and things that Canadian guides do,” said Haas, adding members of pathfinders and rangers also completed a scavenger hunt around Innisfail.
“Today is an opportunity for us to engage the sisterhood of guiding. To come together, to learn about each other, to learn about the world and how we fit in, and the things we can do to give back to it.”
Stephanie Haas, Girl Guides of Canada, Parkland Area
"Today is an opportunity for us to engage the sisterhood of guiding. To come together, to learn about each other, to learn about the world and how we fit in, and the things we can do to give back to it."
