Being a member of the Girl Guides can be an exciting and rewarding experience, for both Guides and adult volunteer leaders alike.
There are more than one million adult members of the Girl Guides across 152 countries in a worldwide sisterhood; local adult volunteer leader, trainer, and area commissioner Noella Brisebois has been involved with the local Badlands Prairie Rose unit for the last 25 years and says it has been “an amazing thing” to be part of.
“My daughter was in Sparks, and they were looking for leaders or they would need to close units,” Brisebois said of her beginnings as a volunteer leader.
Although her daughter is now grown, Brisebois continues to volunteer her time to the local Girl Guides.
In her time as a leader, Brisebois has had the opportunity to travel to two of the five Girl Guide World Centres--located in Mexico, Switzerland, London, India, and Africa--and has built long standing friendships with other leaders around the world. She recounted
how she met another leader during one of these trips, and later took a vacation to London, England to visit.
The local unit had a trip organized for 2020 which was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions; however, Brisebois says there are plans for two Canadian trips in 2022--to the Maritimes, and to Quebec and Ontario.
Brisebois shares the Prairie Rose unit has also been part of local service projects including delivering 140 Valentines Day cards to the senior centres in the community. They also repainted fence posts and picnic tables at the Drumheller Lion’s Youth Campground, where they host campouts with the unit, thanks to paint and tint donations from Drumheller Canadian Tire.
“Leaders get training, whether that’s first aid or time management,” Brisebois says. She adds she has even taken a canoe course, and all training is paid for by the unit.
Currently, the Prairie Rose unit has 10 leaders who have an accumulated 167 years experience between them. However, they will lose five leaders and are in desperate need of new volunteers to avoid closing the local unit.
“It’s such a great support system,” Brisebois says, lamenting it would be sad to see the local unit close. She adds those interested in joining do not need to have a child enrolled to become a leader, and encourages any women interested to reach out to any-prairierosebadlandsdc@girlguides.ca for more information.
