LAKESIDE HEIGHTS DISTRICT

A lot of things have been going on in the district since September and we thought it would be a good idea to inform girls and their parents as to what the results have been. We try to include along with the weekly meetings as many service projects as possible and of course there are the outings that the girls enjoy so much. We have 115 girls registered this year, the lowest number in a long, long time. We have adult members registered again more than last year, and we have 5 junior leaders working in our units.

RCMP

We started off the year with an area event at the Pierrefonds Arena. Our district had a very good turnout for this event. We welcomed the RCMP riders who were in town for their Musical Ride show. There were girls of all ages from Sparks to Trefoil Guild. Despite a few glitches the girls had a good time. It wasn't our typically well executed event but then some of the organizers of this event were not part of Girl Guides of Canada and didn't know how we run things. A lot was learnt. Our Senior Branch girls were incredible with their help and were kept on their toes the entire afternoon.

Some of the girls were picked to give out gifts to the riders as a way to welcome them. It was awesome to be part of the huge arena as we all read out our oath of Canada. Then the girls said their promises. The highlites of the afternoon included seeing the horses and devouring hot dogs and drinks.

One of our units, 1st Sparks won a prize for a poster they submitting about the RCMP. Congradulations girls it was great!

REGAL

Our Local Association of parents runs a great Regal campaign every year to raise money to pay for our meeting halls. This year went well like usual and we raised $800 from orders.. Thanks to Karen who co-ordinated this fundraiser, and to the unit Mom's who delivered the catalogues to the units, collected the orders and delivered the goods.

REMEMBRANCE DAY PARADE

Once again it was a cold day for our marchers, but not as cold as usual. We had a better turnout of girls from our district than we did for many years.

1st Sparks: Marissa, Emily, Sabrina, Amanda and their unit mom

2nd Sparks: Shannon and Martha

1st Brownies: Margaret, Catherine H, Lily, Erica, Kelsey, Emily, Christina, Karla, Junior Leader Francine and Brown Owl Renee

4th Brownies: Hilary, Ginny, Erin, Amanda, Tanya, Allison, Junior Leader Kelly, and Tawny Owl Sue

2nd Guides: Ashley, Chelsea, Miriam

3rd Guides Caitlin, Katie, Emma, Evelyne, Melissa, Emma, and Guider Michele

1st Pathfinders: Elisha, Guider Joanne and Guider Judy

Thanks to all these girls for helping represent us.

FOOD DRIVE-- click here if you want to see lots of pictures of the food drive.

A huge thanks to everyone for making this year the best food drive we have had in the 6 years we have held this event. The cases of goods collected created a higher mound than ever over at St. John's United. It will be a large job to put all this away in the pantry and to put together the baskets. Des Kelly of CAC was absolutely astonished at the pile and even more astonished when Linda called him with the final count of the money!!!!!!!!!!!!

$642.53

The highest we had ever gotten was around $550.

The girls and guiders of Lakeside Heights have done a tremendous job!

We had 15 cars go out with 51 girls and three extra guiders in with some of these girls. And two senior branch members helped out on the streets. Linda was a great help taking over for me at organizing the drivers and keeping track of where all the girls were.She has come up with a few ideas how to make it easier and quicker to get the drivers out next year. It was great for me to have some one else take over this part and come up with ways to change after five years of the same old same old.....

Francine was ill with larangitus so she went straight to the church and organized the food the scouts collected over at Cedar park. She will continue helping with stocking the pantry and getting the food baskets together.

Meanwhile the names of all those who participated in all sorts of ways:

1st Sparks Kaitlyn with mom Amber who accompanied the driver

2nd Sparks Megan

3rd Sparks Samantha with mom Jennifer accompanying the driver, Chelsea, Megan, Erin

1st Brownies Amelia, Margaret and mom Brown Owl Renee who helped in the sorting and organizing, Karla with mom Janet who rode along with the girls, Catherine with driver mom Charmian, Catherine with Mom Grace who organized the refreshments for the girls, Emily with driver mom Heather, Christina, Lily

4th Brownies Ginny with driver mom Ardis, Hilary with driver mom Charlotte, Victoriawith driver mom Diane, Laura, Staci with driver dad Mike, Sara with driver mom Drusilla, Andrea, Meghan, Amanda, SB Kelly

SB Jennifer

2nd Guides Chelsea, Lisa with mom Barbara who rode along with the girls, Jessica, Miriam, Ashleywith driver dad Curtis, Cynthia with driver mom Diane, Stephanie, Andrea, Kim with driver mom Heather

3rd Guides Katherine with driver mom Kim, Jessica, Eveleyn. Camille with Mom France, Melissa, Caitlin with driver mom Jane, Sandra with her mom Michele who did a little of all sorts, Emma , Melonie, Angela, Sarah, Katie, Christina

1st Pathfinders: Amanda, Jennifer, Chelsea, Beth with driver mom Barb, Kim with driver mom Barb, Jennifer, Holly

and indoors Linda, Sue, Helen, Kristien, Renee and Michele

and indoors at St John's Francine

and transporter of food to depot Craig

for a total of 56 girls and 10 Guiders (+1 Grace who bought and prepared all the refreshments and sent them in with Eric.) and 15 parents 83 participants

So thanks again to everyone and especially the Guiders who encouraged their girls and helped get such a wonderful turnout. Especially considering that it is the lowest year in terms of registration.

The best part of the day is when the girls come in, all excited with what they have collected. Every year one girl in particular stands out in my mind and this years came in bubbling with the info that one family gave a $10 bill and a huge bag of groceries. It sure was an eye opener for her as to what the spirit of Christmas is!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

We were able to get gifts for 19 children and with this went baskets to 8 families.

Thanks to all for their contributions!

Michele, who is quite exhausted at this point, but feels great.

Christmas Carolling (Our last two district events for the year 2000)

On a Wednesday evening in early December over 20 guides and 10 Pathfinders with a gang of leaders showed up at the Bayview Hospital (for chronically ill ). We were all geared up to sing Christmas carols for a couple of hours. We went straight up to the top floor and sang while making our rounds through the bedrooms and in gathering rooms. We sang and we sang and we sang. We worked our way down through the hospital one floor at a time. The looks of the faces of so many of the patients warmed the hearts of all of us. Again this is one of those events that all love to attend every year.

On a Sunday afternoon in December our Sparks and Brownies always go to a seniors apartment building to sing their carols to a group of seniors in their gathering room. They look so cute, sometimes need help with the carols but they are loved incredibly. The seniors just adore them. Our girls bring small crafts that they have made and distribute them after the carol singing and the seniors give them juice and cookies. Again one of those heart-warming events that is hard to stay away from. The turn out was lower than usual this year because we had to change the date at the last moment as our original date was supposed to be when we were having the huge ralley against the merger of all of the cities on the island of Montreal into one megacity. Many of the seniors were planning to attend this and didn't want to miss the carolling.

Following are a couple of pictures taken at this event.

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