However, Great Southern region Girl Guide leader Tammy Flett said some elements, like camps, remained a key part of the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two new Girl Guides at their promise ceremony. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
“For my unit, we drag out the old-fashioned canvas tents that I had as a guide, and probably generations of guides before us had,” she said.<\/p>\n
Sienna Smith, 11, from Albany’s Weerlara Girl Guides, said there had been some adventures at camp.<\/p>\n
“In my tent, in my section, towards the very end of the night, right in the corners, my tent decided to have these massive puddles, and half my clothes were full-on drenched,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Luckily, I still had some dry stuff.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A group of Girl Guides making slime at their meeting. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, members of Albany’s Weerlara Girl Guides joined thousands of others at a jamboree in Queensland.<\/p>\n
Among them was 11-year-old Emily Gilpin, who said the guides really enjoyed the “boogie” tent and getting to know Girl Guides from other areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tammy Flett says being part of Girl Guides has led to great opportunities. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
“We had this really cool quokka surfing badge to represent WA, and we could swap those for other badges from different places,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It was a really fun time.”<\/p>\n
‘Girl-led’ organisation<\/p>\n
Ms Flett said a major reason for the longevity of Girl Guides was that it was a “girl-led” organisation, allowing the interests in each branch to shape the activities and events.<\/p>\n
“If the girls are really into the outdoors, our program is outdoor-based,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Girl Guides camping trip in Albany 1929. (Supplied: WA Girl Guides)<\/p>\n
“We still cover eight fundamentals, but it’s done with an outdoor slant to it.”<\/p>\n
Members also have a say in broader changes in the organisation.<\/p>\n
“No change is done without extensive engagement with all the members, ranging from the five-year-olds right up to the older adults we have,” Ms Flett said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Different Girl Guides uniforms on display during a celebration of 110 years of Girl Guides in Bunbury. (ABC South West: Anna Cox)<\/p>\n
“When we had a massive uniform change leading up to our centenary, parents and the members got the opportunity to say what was important to them.”<\/p>\n
Lasting connection<\/p>\n
The Bunbury branch was one of the first to open in November 1915, and held a celebration earlier this month to mark the anniversary.<\/p>\n
Among those attending was Margaret Short, who joined the Bunbury Girl Guides as a Brownie when she was six and is still involved 80 years later.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Girl Guides attending an event in Busselton in 1930. (Supplied: Girl Guides WA)<\/p>\n
“It’s just a wonderful movement, and I think any child who wants to join is very happy,” Ms Short said.<\/p>\n
“I have friends I met here when I was 15.”<\/p>\n
She is not alone in having a lasting connection to the Girl Guides \u2014 there are nine Trefoil Guilds across WA, made up of women over the age of 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Girl Guides has been running in Western Australia for 110 years, and it is still going strong with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22955,64,63,178485,22680,134,178483,178487,178484,178486,178488,45],"class_list":["post-315820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-anniversary","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brownies","tag-bunbury","tag-entertainment","tag-girl-guides","tag-girl-guides-australia","tag-girl-led","tag-trefoil-guild","tag-wa-girl-guides","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}