We’ve all seen them being sold. The traditional vanilla and chocolate sandwich Girl Guide cookies. Now, because of a young mom, whose family recently moved to Manitoba from Ontario, the residents of Mitchell will have more opportunities to support this organization whose mission is “To be a catalyst for girls empowering girls”.

Julie Millar, of Mitchell, didn’t grow up in Girl Guides however she feels that the teachings of life skills and community are very important, for herself and her daughter.

“I wanted her to grow up with those skills. And with COVID hitting and not being able to gather, I just thought it was a really great opportunity to bring joy to the community and have girls be together where they should be having fun.”

After officially getting Girl Guides started in Mitchell, Millar has received a lot of positive feedback from the community. She says they are currently meeting at the park near the arena, which led to families seeing the girls meeting and having fun and signing up new Guides. Millar says, “it's been a real positive experience.”

She says, once people find out what Girl Guides is all about, they want to help. So, when a donation came in from the Mitchell Senior Centre, Millar was very pleasantly surprised.

“They are allowing us to use their facility for free! So now we don't have to be outside in the cold and COVID has allowed us inside.” 

Millar says, these days the girls are busy with their fall cookie campaign as well as,

"We have been working on a service project which we just completed, which was gathering food and donations for Steinbach Community Outreach. So that's what the girls have been focusing on right now and learning their promises and the law of Girl Guide.”

When asked about the service project and its success, Millar says,

“Within the group, we had a conversation about how we could give back locally to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. So, we decided on choosing Steinbach Community Outreach. Because we are a small group of girls, we knew that we would be able to easily gather things like toiletries and non-perishables, but we also wanted to bring in some money for the charity. Unfortunately, Girl Guides cannot support another group with money, so we had to have all of the cash donations made directly to a Steinbach Community Outreach, but we were the means to transport them and support them in that way.”

Millar says, they asked three different community members and business owners based in Mitchell, to donate 5 cans of soup each,

“And when they would agree to our challenge, they would also nominate three other businesses. It became a charity chain reaction.”

In the end, these businesses brought in $1230 in cash donations, Millar says, “They were so excited up just over the moon, happy with the feedback. Never in our wildest dreams did we think you know that the community would get behind us and support us in such a great way.”

Myra Gerbrandt from Steinbach Community Outreach was also thrilled to be this first year of the Mitchell Girl Guides' service project charity.

When it comes to cookie sales from their fall campaign, Millar says, that money will go back locally to our unit as well as back to Girl Guides of Canada. You will be able to purchase Girl Guide cookies till the end of November.

Julie Millar has been a leader with Girl Guides for four years. She is also the District Commissioner for the Grand Pines area, which is the area that the Girl Guides and Mitchell and Steinbach area are a part of.

Mitchell Girl Guides welcome all ages of girls from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

For more information on registering your daughter or you would like to volunteer with the Mitchell Girl Guides please contact Julie Millar or go to the Girl Guides of Canada website.