Girl Guides, Brownies and Rangers

Lone Guides

This branch of Guiding was established to accommodate girls who wished to become Guides, but lived in districts too isolated or inconveniently situated for them to join regular companies. This program required especially ingenious leaders and in PEI we have been fortunate. To enable the Lone Guide Leaders to keep in touch with their guides, Miss Carrie Holman, the Provincial commissioner introduced “The Merry Go Round.” This monthly publication, which began in 1948, provided instruction on badge work and other tests, and upcoming events.

In 1954, Mrs. Fred Osborne was appointed Provincial Commissioner and persuaded Radio CFCY to allocate fifteen minutes weekly to get information out to the Lone Guides. As a result, requests came in from girls in the Magdelene Islands, Labrador Newfoundland and parts of Quebec, asking if they might join the Lone Guides of PEI. Mrs. Osborne was the voice of this program for fifteen years.

It is said that Mrs. Fred Osborne was a live wire and she had the happy faculty of gathering about her leaders of like qualities such as: Mrs. John Munn, Mrs. Cecil Stetson, Mrs. Hector Jenkins, and Mrs. John Smethurst, all of Marshfield. Mrs. Stetson relates an interesting account of an off Island Trip to Vermont in 1962 with twelve Lone Guides for two weeks. They were entertained by the Governor of the State, visited many interesting and educational places, but most all, they were part of a group of ten thousand girls and two thousand leaders camped in tents on the plains of Button Bay on Lake Champlain. This was International Camping at its best.

Included in the past records of the Lone Guides of Marshfield are the names, Judy Smethurst, Carol MacCallum, Shirley Scott, Elizabeth Stetson, Evelyn Ballem, Myrna Ballem, Stella Boswell, and Elsie Wood. Lone Guide, Elsie Wood, attended International camp in Mexico. Mrs. Osborne was honored with the Islander of the Year Award in 1964 for her work with the Lone Guides of PEI. Mrs. John Munn succeeded Mrs. Osborne as Provincial Commissioner. However, improvements in roads and travel facilities enabled the girls to join Guide Companies in their own communities. In 1966 Lone Guiding ceased on PEI.

1St Dunstaffnage Brownies and Guides

In the fall of 1962, the lSt Dunstaffnage Brownies were organized under the leadership of Brown Owl, Mary Leclair, teacher at Dunstaffnage school, and Tawny Owl, Jean Cairns. The meetings were held in the school after classes and the Group was sponsored by the Dunstaffnage Women’s Institute. There were eighteen Brownies enrolled in that first group, namely: Kathleen Boswall, Jean Boswall, Eileen Dougan, Gwynne Thompson, Heather Thompson, Faye Boswall, Linda Hill, Sherry Jenkins, Judy Stewart, Lou Anne MacCallum, Peggy Quinn, Donna Ruth Cairns, Tanya Watts, Gail Palmer, Mary Reid, Coleen Lowry, Susan MacCallum, Debbie Carr.

Brownies are little people who do good to big people and hold their meetings in a fairy ring around a toadstool.

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden,

You cannot think how beautiful they are, They all stand up and sing, when the fairy Queen and King,

Come gently floating down on a silver star.

The King is very tall and very handsome, And the Queen ----- now can you guess who that can be?

She’s a little girl all day, but at night she steals away,

Well it’s me!

A’ child is a natural enthusiast and what better way to discover new things, new ideas, and new skills than sitting in a fairy ring around a toadstool!

The Brownie uniform is neat and simple and gives little girls a sense of belonging to a group with no distinction between rich or poor. Brownies work for their Golden Bar or Golden Hand. Nature Lore is still the heart of all guiding and an important part of Brownie tests. It is said that knowledge and love of Nature increases a child’s religious sense and their spiritual qualities are strengthened. Woodcraft brings Brownies closer to nature and the simple things of life. The Brownie program introduces a whole new way of looking at the world, especially the outdoors. The lSt Dunstaffnage Brownies were the first to try