Sunshine Coast Girl Guides recently spent a week doing what they do best - celebrating fun, friendship and adventure.
Eighteen local girls represented the Coast community at this year's Spirit of Rendezvous Adventure (SOAR), a week-long provincial outdoor camp sponsored by the BC Council of Girl Guides Canada. 2011 marked the sixth SOAR camp B.C. Guides have organized for girls between the ages of 10 and 18.
Held every three years, a different B.C. community is chosen each time in order to give the girls the opportunity to see various parts of the province.
This time around, more than 2,000 girls and guiders set up camp in Agassiz, a town of 6,000 located 115 km east of Vancouver, during the last week of July. Girls from all around B.C. attended, as well as many others from across Canada. There was also a large international representation at this year's SOAR, with guests from Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, the U.K. and the U.S.
Mekia Bakewell, an 11-year-old Sunshine Coast Girl Guide and student at L'Ecole du Pacifique, said she enjoyed meeting girls from Canada and other countries.
"There were lots of girls from Mexico and the U.K. It was good to meet them and talk with them. And we traded items," she said. "The trading involved making handcrafts and beads and stuff. You just trade for what they have then they trade you back."
In addition to crafts, the girls participated in a wide range of activities in various program areas including fine arts, active recreation, environment, science and technology.
Guides participated in community service as well, taking on such tasks as assisting at the Agassiz food bank, sorting school supplies for the local family services agency and helping with various needs in the town such as pruning and storm drain marking.
Fellow Girl Guide and L'Ecole du Pacifique student Bridget Stringer-Holden said she kept very busy during her time there.
"There were lots of wonderful activities to participate in," she said excitedly, adding international night was one of the highlights for her. "I liked the international night because there were lots of different countries there and they got some of them to do some dances. The Mexicans were all in nice big dresses and the New Zealanders did a gumboot dance.
"I had a really, really good time and I got to see lots of things that I wouldn't get to see normally here. I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. They were all smiling and laughing and having fun."
