ONE hundred years after its founding, Kerang Girl Guides has celebrated its proud history of community involvement.
Past and current Guides from across the state gathered at Kerang Guide Hall last Sunday to share their stories.
About a hundred visitors walked through the hall on the day, taking in the memorabilia on display and gaining an insight into what Girl Guides has contributed to the community.
Kerang Guides leader Linda Davey said it was great to see attendees reminiscing about their time with the program.
“The stories that come out of these women when they were looking through the photos were really great,” she said. “We had tables with things like ‘Can you remember how to do a reef knot?’, so everyone was giving that a go to see if they could still remember.”
The day was headlined by a fashion parade of pre-1960’s uniforms, worn by current Guides and Brownies, which Ms Davey said was a hit.
“The girls had a ball doing that in the old uniforms,” she said. “Some of the girls were wearing one of the very first uniforms, these big dresses, and the MC said something like ‘I’m sure the girls would love to go to camp in these uniforms.’ That drew a few screwed-up faces in response.
“Some of the girls were questioning why all these people were here, and we had to explain to them that these were people who had been here before, been through the Guides and had interest in what the girls were doing here now.”
Ms Davey said she had been surprised to hear a questions about the continuing existence of Girl Guides.
“I heard a few comments along the lines of ‘Oh, are Guides still going?’ which I found a little strange,” she said.
“Hopefully we keep going, hopefully we can bring in some more volunteers to help us out with that. You don’t have to have been a Brownie or Guide to come in and be a leader, you can come in and learn on the go with us.
“I want to give a big thank you to all the mums and families that helped, and to all the people that brought in memorabilia for making it such a brilliant day.”
