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Quesnel Sparks celebrate 30 years of sharing and being a friend

Youngest branch of the Girl Guides will host open house at St. John’s Anglican Church
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The Quesnel Sparks are hosting an open house this Saturday (Sept. 14) to celebrate 30 years of “sharing and being a friend” in the community.

From 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, past and current members of the youngest branch of the Girl Guides are invited to gather in the hall at St. John’s Anglican Church to have tea, tell stories and play games.

Katherine Greenwood, the Quesnel district commissioner for the Girl Guides, said the Sparks have celebrated many milestones since their inception.

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“The first test units started in 1988, and in 1989, the units were made an official branch of the organization, with the name Sparks,” Greenwood said.

Badges were then implemented as part of the program, which is for girls aged five to six, in 2004.

“The girls celebrated,” Greenwood said. “Now they could earn badges like the big girls did.”

There have also been three uniform changes, from a pink shirt to blue with pink on the sleeves, to the current navy T-shirt with a white trefoil, a stylized clover, on the back that is now worn by all branches of the Girl Guides organization.

A stand-out memory for the local Sparks, Greenwood added, was travelling by bus to Vancouver in 2010 for the 100th anniversary of the Girl Guides of Canada.

“They slept overnight in BC Place with thousands of other Girl Guide members,” she said. “The leaders remember it as the trip of the century.”

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For more information about Girl Guides in Quesnel or about Saturday’s open house, call Greenwood at 250-991-6848 or email kat427@telus.net.