Celebrating 100 years of the Girl Guide movement at the Clyde Bridge Club rooms are (from left) Tui Woods, Elaine O’Brien and Jeanette Robertson, of Clyde, Leslie Middlemass, of Chatto Creek, and Yvonne McLeod, of Wanaka.
Those who attended appreciate what the movement did for them and how it changed their lives, organiser Elaine O'Brien of Clyde said.
For the women, who came from as far away as Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown, Wanaka and Southland, Clyde was considered a central place to hold a reunion.
After lunch, each of the women spoke about their relationship to the Guiding movement, their involvement sometimes stemming from the urgent request of their daughters to come along as mother helpers.
From there, many became company leaders to keep the movement going in their towns, some going on to become provincial commissioners, national trainers and Guides in charge of jamborees, including the Mt Nicholas Jamboree in 1992, near Glenorchy.
Leslie Middlemass, of Chatto Creek, said she had remembered making an amazing woodpile at one of the camps which no-one was allowed to ‘‘put a finger on''. ‘‘If I passed nothing else I managed to do the woodpile,'' Mrs Middlemass said.
She was one of three women present who were national diploma teachers for Guide leaders, including Mrs O'Brien and Sue Fleury, of Invercargill. Mrs Middlemass had vivid memories of putting up a tent in 40degC heat.
‘‘You were allowed to wear a bathing suit but you had to have that beret on.''
She had enjoyed the company of other women in the movement.
‘‘It's been a real privilege to be in such a great organisation of women.''
Tui Woods, of Clyde, was a Brownie and a Girl Guide in Invercargill in the 1930s, ending her Guiding involvement in 1976, after serving as the commissioner for Fiordland for 10 years.
She had travelled to England in 1953 and during her travels met Guides from America, Switzerland, Europe and Scandinavia.
Yvonne McLeod, of Wanaka, started the company there which had 36 girls.
‘‘You won't get many companies with 36 girls any more, which is sad,'' Mrs McLeod said.
Mrs O'Brien said children were often involved in other things and the schools had a lot of camps and other activities.
‘‘But what we did was real camping,'' she said.
