Girl Guides brighten downtown

More than 20 people got down on their hands and knees to brighten the sidewalks along Black Diamond’s Main Street on Family Day.

The Diamond Valley Girl Guides invited community members to join them in drawing flowers and outdoor scenes in colourful chalk for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Thinking Day challenge.

The challenge required the 1st Diamond Valley Rangers to come up with a free activity that contributes to the community. Ranger Jacinda Chalifoux, of Black Diamond said her favourite summer activity is sidewalk chalk. She decided to celebrate Girl Guides founders Lord and Lady Baden-Powell by drawing pictures of flowers to represent their commemorative garden in London, England.

“Girl Guides stands for giving girls a chance to make friends, learn proper manners and show kindness to others and help the community,” said Chalifoux. “I joined Girl Guides because I wanted to be part of an organization that was everything Girl Guides stands for.”

An invitation was send out to the community via social media encouraging them to decorate Main Street sidewalks for a few hours on Family Day.

“In our small community we’re always trying to get more people involved and I felt that this sidewalk chalk (art) was a great way to do so,” said Chalifoux. “I feel like it just shows how involved our community is by joining in. It was the right thing to do for our small town.”

Doing good deeds is nothing new to Chalifoux, who is a candy striper at the Oilfields General Hospital. She helps to organize activities as a student at Oilfields High School and volunteers at C. Ian McLaren School.

Pathfinder and ranger leader Kathryn McGuire posted the event on Facebook and received a positive response.

“Everybody said it was a great idea,” she said. “Our district commissioner said maybe we should do this every year.”

Six members of the Diamond Valley Girl Guides and a dozen residents – many who were strolling by – took part in the initiative to brighten up the street.

“We offered everyone who passed by to join us and some people took us up on it,” she said. “They said they thought it was great.

“There was some really good art. People were trying not to walk on it.”

McGuire said as a leader she is always looking for an opportunity to give back to the community.

“The community has supported Girl Guides through cookie sales and our fundraising for so many years so I thought why not have the Girl Guides open it up to the two towns,” she said. “Every year we put an activity together for the girls to celebrate guiding.”

Staff at ATB Financial were pleasantly surprised by the art when going to work the following day, said personal banking specialist Erin Whaling.

“We all walked around the corner and saw it and said, ‘Oh my gosh, what a way to brighten the day on a gloomy week,’” she said.

Whaling said she sees this small act of kindness as a way to connect the business community with local organizations like Girl Guides and Boy Scouts.

“Sometimes that connection gets left behind so it’s nice to remind each other that we’re around,” she said. “It really got the town involved, which was nice to see, especially on Family Day. It was as nice activity for everyone.”