Local Girl Guides held an open house at St. Peter’s Parish Hall Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Guiding movement.
Guide leader Michelle Cole said girls were attracted to the Boy Scouts movement after that was started in 1907 but Lord Baden-Powell, the Englishman who founded the Scouting movement, did not want to mix boys and girls. The Girl Guides were founded in 1910 and quickly spread around the British Empire and other countries.
Guiding began in Canada in 1910 and by 1923 it had spread to Revelstoke where 66 girls joined up. The movement has retained its attraction for local girls over the decades. Today there are about 60 local girls enrolled as Sparks, Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders.
Here are two local historical photos and a few from the open house:
These are the Revelstoke Girl Guides of 1924. Guiding arrived here in 1923, 13 years after it began in the United Kingdom and the rest of Canada. Photo courtesy of the Revelstoke Museum and ArchivesBarb Mitchell, Patricia Kelly, Gladys Wray, Dot McPherson and Marie Fuoco were involved in local Guiding in the 1960s. Photo courtesy of Donna BryckJudy Minifie (left) and Carol Fitchett examine some documents they found in an old Girl Guide uniform from the 1940s. The notes were in the name of Martha Stobart. David F. Rooney photoCarol Fitchett, herself a Girl Guide leader, poses with three of the former leaders who inspired her — Denise Markstrom, Judy Minifie and Gerry Crawford at the Open House the Girl Guides held at St. Peter's Parish Hall. David F. Rooney photoRiley Johnson, Michelle Cole and Carol Fitchett pose with the cake that was baked to commemorate 100 years of Girl Guides. The movement began in the United Kingdom in 1910 and immediately spread to Canada, reaching Revelstoke in 1923. There currently are about 60 Sparks, Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders in Revelstoke. David F. Rooney photoThis is one of the albums that was on display at the Open House. David F. Rooney photo
