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 126 girls registered this year, one girl more than last year. We have 28 adult members registered again more than last year, and we have 5 junior leaders working in our units.

COMMISSIONERS WALK

We had a small turn out from our district but those of us that were there sure enjoyed ourselves. It was great to see the hundreds of girls from all over the province all in their uniforms. Whatever trail you took you met someone in uniform. For the adult members and older girl members it meant meeting people we haven't seen for a while: other members that we had met at trainings or at provincial camps. Watching Linda Buchanan stop in the middle of the trail and have another girl run to her and the two hugging was wonderful to see. They had met previously at an interprovincial camp and hadn't seen each other in two years.

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 $724.63 from 52 orders.. The 4th Brownies had the most orders (14). And the 1st Brownies made the most money. Thanks to Linda who co-ordinated this fundraiser, Barb, who is our LA chairperson 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. Despite the poor turnout of girls from our district we did have representation from all of our Brownie, Guide,and Pathfinder units. Our Sparks units decided that the girls were really too little to participate.

SKATE-A-THON

This fall we were invited to help the Shriners raise money for their Transportation Fund. We received the information late and a few units were not able to get the information out for which we apologize. We know what to expect now and will get the information out earlier next year. Even though the turnout was poor the girls that attended had a great time. Many of them won door prizes:boxes of chocolates, alarm clocks, gift certificates at Sears. They raised $140 for the Shriners and $140 for us to split between a number of different charitable organizations. Our Girl Guide rules don't allow us to do "-a-thons" to raise money for ourselves so this was a great opportunity to add to our service projects. Some of this money will go towards a Canadian Girl Guide venture, helping people in North Korea, some will be added to the money raised at the Food Drive and some will go towards Breast Cancer research. One of the mothers that has helped us a great deal over the past year has been affected with a recurrence of breast cancer. This has hit us all and we felt that as an all girl organization, breast cancer research was something we should be helping out.

Hopefully next year we will be able to encourage more girls to come out and enjoy an afternoon of skating with the shriners clowns.

FOOD DRIVE

Thank-you to all the girls, parents and Guiders who came out and helped us with the food drive. Each year we seem to have a good number of parents to help us with this event and this year we also had a huge number of Guiders come and help out. We can't do such an event without your help.

Thanks go to our drivers, Suzie, Heather, Jasmine, Fred, Steve, Bernadette and Diane. And also to the sorting helpers Joanne, Caroline, Kristien, Monique, Linda, Yvonne, and to all the parents who helped when they arrived early to pick up their daughters. Also thank-you to all the drivers that came out to help but we didn't have enough girls to fill their cars. Hopefully next year we will have more girls.

We managed to visit over 800 houses in about 3 hours. We collected the back of a minivan and the back of a station wagon (with the back seat pushed down) full of food. All of this has been turned over to CAC(Christian Action Chretien) which is a volunteer organization affiliated with the West Island Voluteer Bureau that looks after needy families in Pointe Claire. A few of our girls will help with putting together a few Christmas Baskets.

We have collected what looks like about the same amount of food from more houses than last year but much less money. For the past few years we have been turning over between $450 and $550. This year only $209.45 was collected. It was interesting that many of the girls commented that they received much less money this year.

Once again thank-you to all who have helped make this service project a happy one.

Thank-you to the girls who did the bulk of the work: Jennifer, Melissa, Sandra, Kelly, Sabrina, Vanessa, Lindsay, Dierdre, Kate, Jenifer, Olivia, Jessica, Catherine, Karla, Francine, Kelly, Ann, Holly, Brittany, Alison, Caroline, Michelle, Jessica, Elisha, Amanda, Catherine, Catherine.

CHRISTMAS CAROLLING AT THE BAYVIEW HOSPITAL

Wow! What a turnout! The sea of blue was impressive. There were 34 Guides and 8 Pathfinders with many leaders and parents who attended this much enjoyed annual service project. The girls arrived with gifts that they had made during one of their weekly meetings. These are used to help make the place look festive. The carollers met downstairs and then as a group moved up to the top floor where they walked around up and down the halls singing to the patients confined to their beds. They slowly made their way down the hospital one floor at a time and either sang in the halls or in the main gathering room found on each floor. This year many of the patients followed them down wanting to hear more. The girls enjoyed this as much as the patients.

Thank-you to all who have taken time to bring joy to these people who are confined to the hospital: Francine, Jennifer, Jennifer, Kelly, Amy, Julia, Elisha, Emma, Holly, Sabrina, Sandra, Alice, Shannon, Vanessa, Caroline, Alison, Kate, Sarah, Jessica, Melissa, Amanda, Jennifer, Rose, Zoe, Erica, Jessica, Jenifer, Deirdra, Kimberly, Lindsay, Virginie, Stephanie, Olivia, Jessica, Pamela, Sophia, Holly, Leigh, Amanda, Tiia, Stephanie, Cynthia, Crystal. And the Guiders: Maureen, Grace, Marie, Kimberly, Christine, Catherine, Monique, Judy, Diane, Joanne.

CHRISTMAS CAROLLING AT THE EDWIN CRAWFORD HOME

The girls from our Brownie and Sparks groups attended their annual Christmas carolling at the Edwin Crawford Home. It was scheduled for Sunday December 13. Despite the poor turnout of Seniors, due to a wonderful party they had the night before which tired them considerably the girls had a wonderful time as did the Seniors that were there.