Callout for past Girl Guides

WITH members of the Ballarat’s Girl Guides communities celebrating the centenary of the movement in the city since early last year, the opportunity to reminisce is being extended to the organisation’s past participants and alumni.

The group is set to see months of celebrations conclude with a reunion event in October and Ballarat Girl Guides volunteer unit leader Cherie Brown said the event will acknowledge the people that passed through the ranks.

“We’re hoping to catch up with lots of people in Ballarat who’ve previously been involved with Girl Guiding, to listen to their stories and learn about the history,” she said.

“We do have a lot of leaders who’ve been involved for 40, 50, 60 years but we as the younger generation don’t know too much about what went on before that.

“We’d like to hear about what their memories are.”

Since mid-August, the callout has been made for former Guides, Queen’s Guides, leaders, volunteers, support group members, and trefoil members to take part in the event.

Previous centenary celebrations included raising the World Flag outside Ballarat Town Hall, a region-wide camp held at Lingbogol at Creswick, and a birthday party for the Fourth Ballarat Girl Guide Company.

Ms Brown said several families have remained with the region’s Guiding units, many of whom have been with the groups through three generations.

Members are also looking to gather 100 items of memorabilia from past Guides as part of the celebration, with entries able to be registered at the group’s website.

Despite being a Guiding member for more than four decades, Ms Brown said the group’s search for past members has been an insightful experience.

“Because people have been filling in their registration form and making notes of their memories, we’re even learning things from there,” she said.

“One of them recently mentioned the unit in Burnbank Street which I personally didn’t know existed.

“We’re hoping to gather the memorabilia from current leaders to trigger some memories in those that are attending.”

The reunion event will be held on Sunday 15 October at the Skipton Street Uniting Church and those interested in attending can register at bit.ly/3KQKDY7 to request an invitation.