An Experience that Will Stick

The first Komox Brownies from the Comox Valley and the first Wellington Brownies from Nanaimo participated recently in Hands Across the Border at the Peace Arch Border Crossing.
We thought we would go a day early and take the girls to Playland, so we arranged bus service with Cardinal Bus Lines to take us to all of our prearranged locations. All 47 of us arrived at playland at 11 am. just as the gates opened for the day. The plan was to play until 5 pm then have dinner at the White Spot in Playland. Our bus was to come back at 7pm. Although it was pouring rain we really didn't count on Playland having to close due to weather. But at 3pm, Playland closed for the day.

Starting at about 1pm a Brownie Leader and a Playland manager made many attemps in vain to contact Cardinal Bus Lines to come back and pick us up early. Slight panic began to set in as we wondered what were were going to do for 4 hours in the pouring rain with 35 eight year old girls.

This is where the Playland staff far exceeded our wildest expectations.

At 3 pm once the park closed, they honoured the package deal and fed all of us White Spot.
After finishing our meal (with 3 hours left to wait for the bus) the manager and her staff decided to open up six of the carnival-type games to our group. They split the group in to teams, showed everyone how to play the games, let them practice, then led everyone through a very organized tournament. The staff ran each game with more enthusiasm than I have ever seen and made all of us forget that we were stranded in the pouring rain.

From the beginning the girls were told that this was for fun and no prizes were going to be given out. In the end they surprised everyone yet again by giving the overall winner a large stuffed toy, the team with the most points a medium stuffed toy and everyone else got a small stuffed toy. Everyone was more than thrilled.

With an hour to go they took all of us back in to the White Spot where they had made hot chocolate and coffee. At 7pm our bus arrived and we all left Playland soaking wet, tired and very, very happy.

A very large part of Brownies is to teach the girls about kindness, caring for others and caring for the community around you.

The staff at Playland not only saved a group from being out in the pouring rain; they showed our Brownies first hand how it feels when someone steps up and helps out. These girls often give this gift to others and rearly recieve it in return. This was an experience that will stick with them forever.