Trefoil Guild: Keeping the Spirit Alive!
Spring has many faces across our country from flowers, warm weather and bright sunshine in the west, to continuing cold in some locations and warming days in others. And of course, some lingering snow on the far east coast which I call home. However, my snowdrops have appeared, despite the surrounding of snow, which always brings hope and a sense of new life and new beginnings.
Trefoil Guild Guiding has been renewed. It has taken some time, but the energy and engagement of Trefoil Guild members is evident from the reports of the provincial jurisdictions below. We have come to a new place of supporting girl programming and providing Guider support as the front and center purpose for all we do, while still balancing our commitments with fun, fellowship, friendship and laughter to keep the spirit alive!
My term as your National Trefoil Guild Liaison will be ending soon, and a recruitment posting will be forthcoming. This has been a wonderful and truly enjoyable experience for the past three years – wow, time goes quickly – and I encourage anyone who feels this might be the position for them to apply when it is posted. Best wishes to all in your consideration. I will continue to keep this position filled until my replacement is appointed.
For more information on Trefoil Guilds, visit the Trefoil Guild page or connect with your Provincial Liaison, who can answer your questions or connect you with a Trefoil Guild.
See below for a snapshot of what is happening with Trefoil Guilds in the different provinces.
~ Sharron Callahan, National Trefoil Guild Liaison
Alberta, Northwest Territories and Yukon
Beverly Simpson Headon/Glenda Metro, ANY Council Co-Trefoil Guild Liaison
ANY Council Trefoil Guilds are getting ready to help their areas with year-end celebrations such as award banquets. These events are great ways to connect with your Guiding sisters whom you do not always get the chance to connect with during busy times.
Rally Day is coming up and you know that our guilds will be there to join in the fun with all the participants. We are hoping for a beautiful sunny day for the events.
We are excited to share that on June 10 the ANY Council Trefoil Guilds will assemble at Guide House for a long-awaited Trefoil Guild Roundup. Invitations to the event will be sent out soon. We have invited the new Link Members who are aging out to join us and get to know the Trefoil Guild members from their area. Details will be sent directly to the Trefoil Guild Leads and Link members who are aging out.
This will be our last submission to Guidepost as our term as ANY Council Trefoil Guild Liaisons will be up after the AGM on May 6. It has been great to get to know the Trefoil Guild Liaisons from across the country and in our own jurisdiction. All the best to everyone and thank you for your support.
British Columbia
Darlene Kent, BC Trefoil Guild Liaison
Hello, from a rainy spring in British Columbia.
Even with a wet spring, BC Trefoil Guilds are starting to get out and enjoy the sisterhood of Guiding. Hikes, teas, service project and helping Girls and Guiders are all elements of their meetings. Many guild members continue to purchase Girl Guide cookies to support girl activities and trips.
1st Victoria Trefoil Guild – Guild members hiked the Copper Mine trail in East Sooke Park locating geocaches along the way. Sharon Doty and Sohad Kadhum sang inside the mine.
A few guild members completed interior painting at GGC camp property Kingswood Lodge, as service for Guiding.
Powell River Trefoil Guild – Our members got together for a tea.
North Shore Energetic Wanderers Trefoil Guild –We are still enjoying our wanders, recently exploring neighbourhoods, followed by lunch out with much merriment. We also went forest bathing in the local woods.
We had a wonderful coffee and chat morning and other Lions area Trefoil Guilds were invited to attend. It was wonderful to finally get together after a three-year hiatus.
The Millennium Trefoil Guild held a gala, complete with boas and tiaras.
The How Did We Get Here Trefoil Guild
One photo was missed from last month – the queen of Sparks. Our guild held a tea with a local Spark unit.
Blazing Sages Trefoil Guild – This year for World Thinking Daywe had a luncheon and we did the cooking. We are very lucky that one of our members is a teacher and we were able to use the cooking room at her school. We made butter chicken, naan bread and finished the meal with cream puffs.
The guild also assisted at the Thompson Nicola Area Guider Retreat. Four members of our guild look after the for the weekend. The retreat weekend was held at Elk Canoe Camp at Canoe.
Provincially, our Trefoil Guild Liaison is working with our BC Link Advisor to meet with Link members who are aging out of Link. We will introduce these young Guiders to the world of Trefoil Guilds. We plan to speak about what Trefoil Guilds are all about, their activities and how we can keep them stay involved with Guiding, even if they can’t be Unit Guiders due to work or school commitments. Our Liaison is working with the Provincial Membership Committee to plan for a Conversations and Connections project. We are working with each area in the province to organize an event where we can gather Unit Guiders together to ensure we retain them and possibly recruit new Unit Guiders.
A group of guilds have joined to host a BC Trefoil Guild Provincial Rendezvous in 2024. Everyone is looking forward to getting together in person.
Manitoba
Sharon Romanow, MB Trefoil Guild Liaison
Our newest guild has started making plans for future activities. Another guild got together one afternoon for a very enjoyable puzzle making competition. Teams of two competed in a timed competition all making the same puzzle. Many laughs, and sometimes groans, were had by all.
Plans for the 2024 National Gathering in Winnipeg are well underway. Registration information should be out in late May. Stay tuned!
New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island
Carmel Hambrook, NB/PEI Trefoil Guild Liaison
1st Moncton Trefoil Guild (Tidewater Area)
Our Trefoil Guild had a short meeting over tea and sweets. We decided to continue to meet four times a year. Our numbers have declined drastically over the last few years. We are the oldest guild in Tidewater. Our ages range from the late 70s to 101, so we are not very active – we just like to socialize!
Westmorland Trefoil Guild (Tidewater Area)
We continue to Keep the Spirit Alive by getting out into the public and proving that Guiding still exists.
Three of our Guiding sisters completed the Sisterhood Challenge. They said what they enjoyed most was learning new things about each other.
For World Thinking Day we went bowling and had a bite to eat afterwards.
In March we had a meeting to discuss Trefoil Guild business and what we would like to do for the rest of the Guiding year. In Girl Guide fashion, we finished off with a wonderful potluck supper.
Purple Violet Trefoil Guild (Tidewater Area)
The Purple Violet Trefoil Guild in Sackville continue to meet about once a month. They are making cardiac bags that go with patients that leave the hospital who are being sent to the cardiac unit in Saint John. These bags contain essential toiletries.
Carlton Trefoil Guild
Seven Victoria Carleton Trefoil Guild members enjoyed an outing to Fredericton with lunch at Isaac's Way, then a wonderful tour of the Beaverbrook art gallery with Docent Judy.
Judy, thank you for the lovely tour! We all enjoyed it very much. Eric, the CEO joined us during our tour.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Pat Burton, NL Trefoil Guild Liaison
In NL, we are still accepting registrations for our gathering at Max Simms on May 26-28. Register before April 30.
Soiree Trefoil Guild have been busy. They had their Area Commissioner present service pins in February, they visited the Annex at Admiralty House for storytelling and acting and members of the group attended the play, Calendar Girls. This was an enjoyable evening of comedy, displaying the talent we have in this province.
Caribou Trefoil Guild has been busy. They attended a Spring Bonnet Parade where they helped Embers put the finishing touches on their bonnets, took part in the parade and gave the Embers a loot bag.
Killick Trefoil Guild has been active, sewing with the Paradise Pathfinders making a mug mat. They have three more quilts to present to Teen Challenge (an adult addiction rehabilitation center) on Wednesday, April 19.
Fireside Friends Trefoil Guild - Melon carving, glass etching and yoga. What a great time Fireside Friends are having!
We enjoyed a great evening of gentle chair/floor yoga that promoted wellness and healthy living through relaxation and gentle movement. Donna welcomed instructor Laura with a thank you to our Trefoil Guild member, Heather, for organizing the evening. Laura introduced herself by telling us she had eight years of yoga teaching experience and holds a master's degree in kinesiology. She then took us through an hour of gentle movement, building the evening from meditation to chair movements to active movement to cool down and finally, meditation.
Tricia Murrin explained and demonstrated glass etching. We each chose our glass and then making our designs. Tricia provided a wide selection of stencils. We transferred our designs onto our glass and applied the glass etching cream. After waiting for the cream to take effect, we rinsed the glasses and watched our artistic creations appear. It was a great craft evening.
Who would have thought melon carving would be so much fun? What a great evening of learning. Joan and Liz provided all the supplies at a very minimal cost and had an array of carving and design utensils available for our use. Suitably garbed in aprons and gloves, we used disposable diapers to prevent fruit and juice from spilling. Fruit baskets, bunnies and chickens soon emerged. The pictures tell it all.
Crossroads Trefoil Guild visited one the local seniors homes. Members did nursery rhymes our way. They had music and dancing and a lunch which everyone enjoyed. Eight of our members attended the gathering. We have coffee which is a great chance to get together and chat about our guild.
Nova Scotia
Kathy DeGrasse, NS Trefoil Guild Liaison
Trefoil Guild members, like other Guiders, are faced with a changing world and individuals with new, sometimes still evolving, goals and expectations. The world is recovering but it is different, the people are different and our expectations differ. It is often hard to predict how people will react to events we plan and yet, as Guiding leaders, we need to plan experiences that are meaningful and interesting.
Trefoil Guilds in Nova Scotia are lucky to have many members who see Guiding as a priority and who work tirelessly for others. For the last twenty years – with the brief COVID-19 interruption – Darlene Duggan, past Provincial Trefoil Liaison and contact/lead of our Memory Lane Trefoil Guild for many years, has organized a province-wide Trefoil Guild camp. Things have changed and campers have new goals, so we need to reimagine what camp might be, including where it might be held.
I attended a meeting today, filled with energy, hope and determination. The attendees included Tina Joudrey, a frequent cook at our camp (the word cook is too limited as Tina plans, buys, cooks, serves and cleans up for us through the three day camp), Barb Power, our host and organizer last year, who makes things happen and supports the campers and the staff, and Darlene Duggan, our organizer and constant worker and planner. They are three of the most involved Trefoil Guild members in our province. They believe in what they are doing and make this annual event happen with ease. Each year we thank them because we all have organized camps and we understand how much they do.
The camp these ladies organize each year honours Guiders. It must be close enough to home and interesting enough to encourage each Trefoil Guild to leave family to focus on themselves for a change. The camp surrounds us with like-minded ladies who live by the laws and promise of Guiding. The plans have to work for ages 30 to 90 or more. Trefoil Guilds with transportation, mobility or individual nutritional needs are accommodated. We return from camp renewed. Thank you is not enough.
This camp has been a highlight of my Guiding year since I first joined a Trefoil Guild.
Last year, the camp looked and felt different and this year it will be different again. The organizers and the ladies I interact with over the weekend will remain the same. Guiding continues to need women like Tina, Barb and Darlene. Thank you, ladies.
Memory Lane Trefoil Guild and friends visit a local museum.
Ontario and Nunavut
Candace Gaudet, ON Trefoil Guild Liaison
Spring has started to arrive in Ontario and crocuses and snowdrops are popping up. The trees are starting to bud and the sun is bringing welcomed warmth. Guilds are starting to awaken as well. Several guilds have reopened and many have seen an increase in new members – many Unit Guiders are considering joining guilds to share the sisterhood. Ontario has lost a few long-time members and they will be missed by their guilds and the wider Guiding community. We hold our sisters in our hearts at this tender time. Craft days, guest speakers and outings have been planned.
Service projects remain important guild activities.
The Lend a Hand Link group and Lend a Hand Trefoil Guild had an overnight retreat and sorted and tied over 500 pairs of shoelaces to be donated to a local shelter. The members of both groups come from a variety of communities. This retreat saw members from Acton, Brantford, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, St. Jacobs and Waterloo. They managed to achieve their two mandates: service to others and having a good time.
The London Trefoil Guild had a throw back evening guessing which members were in the photos. They brought in some very interesting artifacts from their lives in the 1960s, including Guiding uniforms, wedding clothes and a honeymoon nightgown.
Ganaraska Trefoil Guild always comes up with wonderful recycling crafts. These gnomes are hanging from a decorated picture frame. Notice the camp hat toques. We welcome the happy news that Our Cabana will once again be open under WAGGGS and we are looking forward to when it opens. It is a magical place and perfect for Trefoil Guilds to visit.
Quebec
Ellen Gauthier/Angie Kruller, QC Trefoil Guild Liaison
It is our great pleasure to offer the Trefoil Guild members of Quebec and Eastern Ontario a fun-filled event at Camp Wa-Thik-Ane in Morin Heights. Trefoil Trails 2023 will take place on June 14 and 15 and will offer fun for all. Look for photos in the summer Trefoil Guild News in Guidepost.
This month the West Island Cabana Trefoil Guild had a fun event playing Dub's bridge card game. Everyone keeps their own score, but they play with ever-changing rules and a new partner. Everyone brought a wrapped gift consisting of something consumable, either bought or homemade, like jam, cookies or candy. Everyone went home with a treat. It was so much fun!
This was a great way to destress and recharge.
Saskatchewan
Lorraine Thibeault, SK Trefoil Guild Liaison
Trefoil Guild Guiding is alive and well in the province of Saskatchewan!
Taiga Adventure TG and 1st Prairie Spirit Trefoil Guild held two events:
In February, members of Taiga Adventure Trefoil Guild and Prairie Spirit Trefoil Guild made their annual trip to Manitou Springs Mineral Spa. After a dip in the pool, lunch was enjoyed at the restaurant followed by some shopping in the boutique.
March 29 to April 2: Winter was still upon them as members of the Taiga Adventure Trefoil Guild and Prairie Spirit Trefoil Guild made their way to our SK Provincial Girl Guide Camp at Heritage for four nights. Our theme was based on the Frozen movies – we made snowflake glass etching coasters, snowman earrings, snowman toilet roll covers, snowman decorations and ice cream. We were outside for a night game, a scavenger hunt and a wiener roast. Olaf and Sven were present as well as Elsa. Crafts, outdoor activities and movies were part of the program. Approximately ten ladies attended and had a great time. Inside they had a puzzle on the go, word games and Frozen Monopoly. They held reflections each day and their service project was collecting feminine products for a shelter. Their Quartermaster did an awesome job of feeding them.
The Taiga Adventure Trefoil Guild continues to make denim quilts for the those in need around Prince Albert. As the temperatures continue to dip below zero degrees at night and during part of the day, these quilts are still appreciated and well used.
World Thinking Day Celebrations:
The 1st Saskatoon Trefoil Guild met at a member’s home, and enjoyed visiting and reminiscing about the bygone years that are still firmly planted in their minds. Their lunch consisted of scones, clotted cream, assorted jams, fruit and fruitcake. I think Lady Baden-Powell would be proud of them. World Thinking Day greetings were sent out to guild members across the province and the nation.
When the Provincial Trefoil Guild Liaison sent out belated best wishes for a wonderful World Thinking Day to all the Saskatchewan Trefoil Guild members, she received many best wishes in return. One guild member wrote back and shared the following song:
“Hey, hey, hey, it's World Thinking Day. We missed by a day, and it's okay,
In Shellbrook (where the Provincial Liaison lives), it's World Thinking Day.
In Punnichy (where the Trefoil Guild member writing the song lives), it's World Thinking Day.
All over the world it's the day after World Thinking Day. Ha ha."
The little ditty reminded me that we can wish our members well any day of the year.
On February 22, the Trefoil Adventure Guild (a.k.a. TAG) joined the other Regina Trefoil Guilds for coffee and dessert and a short presentation from the Provincial Archives Committee.
All but one member of the Meadow Lake Trefoil Guilds are working with a girl unit. They work with Sparks, Embers, Guides and Lones. Great work, Trefoil Guild members.
Three of our guilds (Moose Jaw Trefoil Guild, Prairie to Pine Purple Petals Trefoil Guild and Long Lake Trefoil Guild) do not have a lead or contact person for their group. While we await a lead for these groups, the Provincial Trefoil Guild Liaison acts as their lead. We are looking into holding a ZOOM gathering with two of the guilds. The third guild has no members who use the internet, so Canada Post is our means of communication, and an occasional phone call.
Our Tiger Lily Trefoil Guild members go to a restaurant once a month for coffee, atreat, support and fellowship.
TAG members have enjoyed a monthly lunch at different restaurants in Regina, toured a recycling plant and attended the Southern Horizons Area Awards Luncheon. In April, they attended a Victorian Tea at Government House.
On February 27, Beth Dreger, a TAG member, was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. It was presented by Lieutenant Governor Russ Mirasty at Government House. Beth was nominated for this award by the Saskatchewan Provincial Council. Beth has 31 years of service, all as an adult. She started, like most of us, when her daughter's unit was in need of a Brown Owl. She has served at all levels of Guiding from Unit Guider to sitting on area and provincial councils and committees. Beth worked as a Unified Banking Champion during the provincial roll-out. Currently, Beth is a District Commissioner, Trefoil Guild member, Provincial Archives Chair and Safe Guide Assessor.
Three members of the 1st Saskatoon Trefoil Guild met with a first-year Pathfinder who was preparing her presentation for the heritage fair at her school. Her area of research was the history of Girl Guides, changes over the years and the present day. The members answered many questions and discussed several items on display in the archives. The Pathfinder left happily dressed in a heritage uniform and had several other uniform pieces and pictures to complement her presentation. This was a fun activity for all four participants with Trefoil Guild members sharing a bit of their personal Guiding history!
Blowing bubbles.
Eggs Benedict for breakfast.
Service project – sanitary supplies for a shelter.