A Lone, But Not ALONE!

Hi there,

It's been a while since I last posted, and I promise I will be posting more when I have the energy - there's lots to talk about! But for now.....

I would really really like to encourage you to do the attached challenge with your girls this year and here is why (it's really a long story):

When I first moved to Mackenzie, I was 21, had already been a Guider for a couple of years, and soon became District Commissioner in Mackenzie. I met a Ranger there, Elaine Hodgson, and it wasn't too long before we became friends, and then good friends, and then close friends. I got to know her family well. My kids grew up calling her parents Granny Beth and Grandpa John. Her little sister, Jill, was one of my Guides, then one of my Pathfinders. Her older sister, Lynn, was my co-leader in some of the units I led and a Guider in other units through the years as well. We became family to each other. 

Elaine and I shared interests of all kinds (in and out of Guiding) and even when we didn't live near each other we were in close contact. This was someone I could phone at 11pm and say "I just thought of a camp theme - what do you think?" and we'd talk for a couple of hours. Through the years she and I both held various positions in Guiding, in various places, and took part in many camps and adventures together. I was a Lone Brown Owl for a while and Elaine, always interested in my projects and who had once been a Lone Ranger and then a Lone Cadet, learned about and supported my Lones. In time, I became a founding member of the 1st Canadian Internet Trefoil Guild, and convinced Elaine to join me there - within a year she was President and I was her VP! By this time I lived in Alberta while Elaine - and all her family (parents and two sisters) still lived in BC. 

Now, Elaine had (barely) survived having aplastic anemia when she was 15-16 - it took more than a year to combat and overcome, and her faith and fighting spirit, and the strong support of her family got her through what was then very experimental and difficult treatment. Elaine was cancer free for 27 years. She never married. She devoted herself to serving others, through Guiding, as a teacher's aide, as a first aid instructor, as an EMT, and as a Navy League officer, among other things. But then the cancer came back - she found a lump in her breast. In typical Elaine fashion, she was matter-of-fact and fought it full tilt, surprising hospital staff with her resilience and determination - sitting up knitting hours after her lumpectomy, and joking through the chemo and radiation treatment. In due time she was deemed cancer free, and she pursued the next phase of her life with joy. Her plan was to move to Vancouver and take all the necessary training to become an emergency dispatcher for BC Ambulance, and while she was working toward this goal, the cancer returned - a breast cancer cell had escaped and lodged in her brain. It was inoperable, and in 2008 the world lost an amazing woman to heaven.

Our Trefoild Guild (1stCITG) decided that since we are, in effect, the equivalent to a Lone Guiding unit, we would like to create a memorial for Elaine in such a way that it would support Lone Guiding members to go to camps and events, as Elaine was always such an amazingly active advocate for girls being able to attend camps and activities regardless of financial situation. (She'd been known to run hotdog sales outside the local grocery store by herself, just to make sure a girl she'd heard was having trouble affording a provincial camp would have the funds to attend.) After many hurdles and much red tape and the dedication of some tenacious women, the Elaine Hodgson Memorial Lone Campership was created, and some donations came in to get it started, and it did start and help some girls go to camp that would not otherwise have afforded it. Our guild is working to keep the Campership funded by selling a compilation of crafts and recipes from our members in the form of a dvd, ($12) and more recently held a crest contest to feature our mascot, Miss Truffles, with the idea that sales of the crest would also fund the campership. Then we created an optional challenge to go with the crest -- meaning that that crest can be purchased without doing the challenge, but the challenge would add interest to the crest. I have attached the challenge here, and a pic of the crest is on that sheet. The crests are $4 each, I believe, which may be little pricey, but for a worthwhile cause, helping a Lone Guiding member go on an adventure.

Thanks for reading through this long essay -- and I challenge you to try out this challenge! And, to order crests, email 1st Canadian Internet Trefoil Guild; subject line - Campership FundRaisers. For more information on our Guild, check out our website.  Thank you for your support!

Until next time....

North Owl

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