Link in Eastern Canada
Last updated: October 11, 1999
Compiled by Jennifer Walker, Edmonton AB
Ontario
Ontario Provincial Link Camp - "Link on a Shoestring" - September 12-14, 1997
Well, I'm sitting here at my desk in my tiny residence room, just finished unpacking from a great weekend camp. I thought my "home" Link group would like to hear what we've been up to here in London, so I figured I'd tell you about our camp.
Our Link group here in Trillium Area (London to Windsor, Ontario) decided to host a camp, and invite all the other units to take part. In past years, Ontario Council has funded a gathering every two years, but since this was recently cut, we decided to do things on our own. We adopted the theme "Link on a Shoestring", which was more a reflection of our budget than anything else! We began planning last spring, and managed to pull things together in just three meetings of the planning committee. Then we scattered to all corners of the country for the summer.
We headed out to Camp Orenda on Friday afternoon with the rest of the host committee. The camp is really nice, and is owned by three Divisions here in London. Most of us opted to sleep indoors, and since there were two "inns", we designated a noisy building and a quiet building, to try to keep everyone happy. A few people brought their own tents and camped outside as well. That evening, most of the fifty participants registered showed up, and we had a welcoming campfire.
The camp highlights included cooking breakfast over an open fire, wide games from the "Project Wild" program, and an afternoon spent on a carpool scavenger hunt through London. Some of us got a little sidetracked and did some shopping (we should have known better than to put the mall on the roster!). I managed to get my team lost even though I've been living here for two years, and (supposedly) know my way around!
This morning we closed camp with a really nice Guides' Own, on the theme of friendship. I met a lot of people this weekend, many of whom will soon become e-mail regulars, I'm sure. And we've decided to make this an annual event, with Silverbirch Area (Guelph region) hosting the next one. I'm already looking forward to seeing some of the girls again.
--Kelly Batten (from Newfoundland, but studying at UWO in
London)
- from the October 1997 "The Linker", the Newfoundland
Link Newsletter
November 29, 1997
Last weekend we had our "Christmas party" (or last
meeting before break). We decided that we should try rock
climbing as something that would be new to most of the members.
Seven of us went to the local climbing gym and we had a blast!
The admission fee for the day included harness rental, a
safety/beginner lesson, and climbing for the day. Other groups
may like to try this if facilities are available. It's very safe
if they will teach you how to use the equipment (and I wouldn't
recommend going to somewhere that didn't).
We also decided to learn more about the "new"
Brownie program, seeing as few of us knew much about it. We also
shared stories about our experiences as Brownies and the program
we used. -- Angie Robinson
September 1997
This is my first year belonging to Link. We met to make pretzels
and watch old Guiding movies the other day. We are also planning
to go hiking on Oct. 5 (Ontario Hiking Day). We plan to have a
Christmas party, rock climbing at a nearby wall. January marks
the time for the annual ski weekend, and we are hosting a curling
bonspiel in February. -- Angie Robinson
16 Nov 1997
Just another Ontario Area checking in to say that LINK is alive,
well and flourishing in our Area. Like Highland Glen, Trillium
LINK camp hike, have potluck dinners, and support their sisters
in Guiding whenever they can. A big thanks to Dolores Shackleton
by the way. "If it is fun, they will come." (Apologies
to whatever baseball type originally coined the real phrase.)
--Liz Lovis, Guider - SOCREO Rangers
7 Jan 1997
I'm registered with the Ottawa Link group since I am only living
in London for my last year of university, but I have been active
in London Link as well. Both Links I have been involved with
organize a lot of social things. We have a lot of pot luck
dinners, we go on day hikes, we've been in our universities
homecoming parades, we've gone on Haunted Hay rides (really fun),
we take in plays and concerts together. Alot of my Link friends
are living away from home, going to university so it is nice to
have "instant" friends. We also do community service
projects. This Christmas the London Link group visited a seniors
residence and wrapped all the framed pictures and paintings on
the wall to look like Christmas presents. We put little name tags
with one of the seniors' names on the tag- from Santa. It looked
so nice. --Tracey O'Brien
22 Sept 1997
Ottawa Area had our first Link meeting last Thursday (drinks,
desserts, and socializing at Guide House). We had about 18 people
turn out -- our Link Adviser was blown away by the numbers! And
there are people who couldn't come to that meeting, either. Soem
of the things we are planning to do this year include a movie
night, and a trip to the Museum of Civilisation. We may also go
to see the Picasso exhibit at the National Gallery when it comes
through next spring. There will be a camp in January, and our
next planned event is a hike in the Gatineau Hills next month.
Several Link members were also at the Elvis Tour of Champions on Saturday night. 200 tickets were donated to Ottawa Area Guiding, and spread around the Divisions and Districts -- the only condition being that you had to wear your Guiding uniform if you went. NO PROBLEM! It was a fantastic evening, and we had good seats even if they were way high up in the third tier. -- Marianne 'Sunshine' Mitchell
7 Jun 1997 - A Great Link Hike
I went on a fantastic hike today with Ottawa Area Link. Seven of
us met at the Link Co-ordinator's apartment in downtown Ottawa,
and then headed out to Lusk Falls, near Aylmer in Quebec ... it's
a small Parks Canada site on an escarpment. He hiked to the top
of the Escarpment (only about 2Km, but up a steep incline ...
needless to say we took our time on the way up). It was a
beautiful sunny day, and the view from several lookouts was
beautiful ... across the lush green fields belwo the escarpment,
and across the Ottawa river into Ontario. We had lunch and a
break at the top before heading back down to the parking lot and
real life again ... It was great to be out in the fresh air,
getting good exercise with wonderful people. Being a Guider this
year instead of a youth member, I had not realised just how much
I had missed the socializing with other young women my age. I'll
be back as a Ranger Guider again next year, but you can bet that
I will also be keeping in touch with Link! --Marianne Mitchell
21 Sep 1997
I went to my first Link meeting tonight so now I'm really pumped.
Only about 8 of us showed up but there are more people on our
Adviser's list of people from last year or other people who said
that they'd be interested. It looks like we're going to have a
great time. All of us that were there tonight are hoping to be
really active so I glad of that.
We had a dinner meeting tonight so we ordered Pizza and everyone brought dessert (almost all of them were chocolate something!) We've planned to have a Halloween Party nest month, another meeting in November, a Christmas project and lined up more ideas of things we would like to do (horseback riding, cosmic bowling etc.). There are a couple of moots coming up that we are invited to so we'll probably be going to one in October. Anyways everything is looking great.
Everyone there was a student (except our advisor who is also a Pathfinder and Ranger Guider). But it was neat because we're from so many different schools. There were a couple from University of Waterloo, a couple from Laurier, a couple from Conestogo (two different campuses though), one who is still in highschool (grade 14) and one that goes to Fanshaw but is on a work term in Cambridge. Everyone who was there is in a different program so it looks like we have a good mix of people. -- Suzanne Wiley
24 Nov 1996
I unfortunately have not been able to find a Link unit in
Peterborough where I go to school. so I am basically inactive :(
I am, however, thinking about starting a Link unit myself. Any
tips? -- Wendy Lang
14 Sept 1997 - Things are looking up in Toronto
Just got home from my Link dinner and really enjoyed it. For me,
personally, this was the first LINK event I've been involved with
because they didn't have that as an option back in *the good old
days* when I was LINK age. Used the toilet paper icebreaker and
it went great. Needless to say, the women are amazing, with all
their experience and enthusiasm. As far as I'm concerned we have
our new LINK coordinator. She came prepared with a date and
location for a fall hike and winter camp weekend, possibly
joining with another adjoining area that has a better established
Link program for the weekend, and everyone was so thrilled to
have something concrete to look forward to. Their next official
*meeting* is the night of the Senior Branches pot luck dinner at
the end of November, so they'll attend that and break off for a
bit to do any business they have.
I was really glad I invited our Senior Branches Coordinator. She's all keen to ensure there's lots of bridging between the two groups so I think that will help build our membership, too. A couple of service activities are planned, a couple are going to be in the Santa Claus parade in Toronto, a couple will be in Run For the Cure in October and some want to work on DofE (two of the members have their gold DofE that was done with the help of a previous Link coordinator so they're willing to act as assessors and supports.) -- Heather Sinardo (Deputy Area Comm., Highland Glen Area)
1 Mar 1997 - Your Link to Qc. Link!
You asked about Quebec Link (Vagabonds). Well, seeing as I just
started going Feb. 2, I don't really know all that much, but I'll
try!It seems to be a fairly active group, I'm not sure exactly
what has happened over the past year or so, but since I joined,
we have participated in a Thinking Day activity (trip to
Ottawa--we were invited by the Ottawa Link group, and it was
great!! We hope to have them here sometime towards the end of
this month, or in April.) and are getting together on Sunday
(March 2!) to make chocolates and sew teddy bears (the chocolates
are for a fundraiser, and the teddy bears are for the Montreal
Children's Hospital). Those two activities are to be continued
next weekend, as well, at which point we will also have our
enrollment. That's about all the info I have right now, sorry
it's not very much! As I said, I only just started going, and
therefore don't know much about the history of the group itself.
-- Heather Harper
24 Jan 1997 - In Nova Scotia, the LINK program is (unfortunately) not so well put together. Do you have any suggestions about how to get the ball rolling? A lot of young members are feeling a little left out since they left Senior branches.
28 Jan 1997 - I was thinking of starting something on an Area basis. Our Area is fairly large and we'd probably start out with about 10 or 15 people, which sounds fairly manageable. This week I'm sending out a letter of introduction via snail mail just to see what kind of response I get. I think that there is a newsletter... just I've never seen it. I'm not actually a member of LINK myself. I always thought it was for young people who weren't involved on a unit basis.... but I'm finding that the young adult members are sort of cut off from each other. There are usually only 3 or 4 in a district. -- Jennifer Trott
13 Jun 1997
There is no longer a Link Adviser on PEI. Two years ago I sat on the Programme committee while I studied at UPEI and I was Link Adviser for about six months. There are no newsletters, activites etc. As far as I know there are only three link members on the Island, myself and a friend of mine from town, and another girl in my district. There are a few other university students who are our age but have been working with units. That is about all I can tell you. Basically, Link is not active as a group on the Island but all of us on occasion work with units, either at camp or the occasional meeting and attend some adult trainings and activites (camp cleanup, annual meeting, and recently the National Annual Meeting held here). We receive our Provincial Newsletter and the Canadian Guider.
I would be interested in keeping in contact with you as to Alberta activites. I would like to see PEI Link in a more active position and any suggestions that you may have would be welcome. We are a small province and everyone that ends up still involved we know because we have a lot of joint activities with such small relatively inactive Senior Branch Units. The number of Link members is not increasing right now as there are very few if any Senior Branch members currently, so it is hard to do very much. -- Meaghan Lister
14 Jan 1997
While Guiding is fairly big in Newfounndland , we don't have a really strong Link. Very few people are aware of Link. Because there are so few of us and we are well dispersed through the province , the times when we get to meet each other are limited.Usually once or twice a year there are Senior Branch Conferences . Usually Link members present are a minority group. BUT those of us who keep in touch with Guiding are forever present in some aspect of the Guiding program!!!!! I come from a fairly small town where Guiding is very big!! I came up through all the ranks and hae had the opportunity to be a part of many camps and conferences! Because of this I am wll known for my experiencs and am often askd to help out at Camps. This keeps me active in the program! -- Heather Bussey
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