Local interest | MAY 2014
ld i G u l i e o r f T h e T – Guid ing f or life
T
he Trefoil Guild, named after the three-leafed Guiding emblem, are a busy and friendly group of ladies who meet on the third Tuesday of the month in the Henfield Guide Hut, tucked away down Staples Barn Road. The group is all about companionship and keeping the shared values of the Guiding organisation alive – helping others and supporting the local Guiding groups.
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I met the group one evening as they prepared for the forthcoming celebrations of 100 years of Guiding. Each Trefoil Guild group had been set a series of challenges, all of which had been completed over the past year. The ladies were creating a long and colourful strand of bunting with each challenge crafted and illustrated on each flag, to symbolize what the group had achieved. The Trefoil Guild is formed of ex-Guides and leaders, although if you’ve never been part of the organisation you’re still very welcome. One member, Anne Adams, had never been a Guide – so she took her promise in a ceremony last year and then promptly enrolled in the Trefoil Guild on the same evening. Many of the ladies were not only Guides but had been leaders in the past. The Guild often give a helping hand to the local Guide groups (there are currently two Rainbow packs, two Brownie packs and two Guide packs. Finding volunteers, especially when the girls go on pack camp or on trips out when higher ratios of volunteers are needed, is especially hard.) The help of the Trefoil Guild is invaluable in keeping Guiding alive locally – currently there is a waiting list of girls eager to join but a severe lack of leader volunteers. In 1979 the Henfield branch held their first meeting. Since then they’ve enjoyed trips to see gardens, walks, tea parties, film shows, picnics, theatre visits and more camp-fires than they can remember. Two of the founding members still attend – Mary Holder and Win Saunders. One member, Anne Collins, said; “I didn’t realise what I was capable of until I became
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