To celebrate International Guiding and the diverse traditions within the Boundary Guiding Unit and to mark World Thinking Day the Boundary Guiding Unit held a Mother and Daughter Multi Cultural Pot Luck last Friday night at King of Kings Church in Midway. Everyone was asked to bring traditional family recipes, which occasioned a wonderful selection of dishes including Jamaican, Indian and Russian dishes; homemade bread and a dessert bouquet created from pieces of fruit arranged on a skewer to form “roses”.
District Commissioner Linda Sheppard was there as well – she was not skewered.
Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have been celebrating World Thinking Day since 1926 and it has been an important fundraising day since 1932 when each Guide was asked to bring a penny in support of the World Thinking Day Fund.
February 22nd was chosen as the date for Thinking Day because it was the birthday of both Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout Movement, and his wife Olave, who was World Chief Guide.
The theme for the 2014 WTD is UN Millennium Development Goal 2: to achieve universal primary education.
The potluck dinner was a perfect compliment to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts website’s definition of WTD as an opportunity to celebrate international friendship, learn about and take action on important issues, and fundraise.
Another highlight of the evening was the taking of an oath known as the Promise by two members who are the first Rangers (age 15-17) in the Midway Guiding Program according to Guider Sue Fielding.
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts has ten million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from 145 countries and is the largest voluntary movement dedicated to girls and young women in the world. “They even have a representative at the United Nations,” said Guider Elaine Fromme.
Hats off to those such as Sheppard, Fromme and Fielding who teach these young girls to attempt, achieve and excel, not despite the fact they are girls - but exactly because they are girls.