Peace begins....

..........................with you and me!

Many years ago.....back in the dark ages......well 1989.....there was a badge going for a Peace Project...and I am a sucker for a Brownie badge!

In our leaders magazine there was a Children's Peace Treaty, and this gave me an idea.

So I got all of my Brownies to draw a picture of something either related to Brownies or to Ireland, just a pencil outline drawing. They came up with some great pictures. I cut them out and made a collage of them around the treaty on a large sheet of paper A3 size..that's about 11.5in by 16in.

 The following week they all signed the treaty, and yet another week later they were all given several photocopies of the sheet to colour.

These things are always long drawn out when you only meet once a week.

This is my coloured copy to just show you how it comes to life.

So we come to the crunch

What were we going to do with our poster????

My idea was to send off as many copies as possible all over the world, to Brownies Guide/Brownie Girl Scouts. Known also by many other names in the different countries.....but all in the age group of 7 to 11 years.

Remember that in those days.....21 years ago we didn't have personal scanners or the internet at home.

Snail mail ruled.

The pack to be sent out contained our treaty and a blank one which we asked them to decorate, sign and send back to us, as well as information about Brownies in Ireland and about our own pack and local area....and anything else we could think of!!

 

My daughter who is a great illustrator had a big part to play in the finished products. She also had lots of penfriends all over the world, some in Guiding, who were sent a copy...with a request to pass it on to a Brownie pack.

Friends, relatives, Brownies all came up with names. Then there were  places we had visited and Brownie packs and Guide shops that we had worked with and visited,  and when all else failed...I just sent them to the Guide HQ in  the capital city of a country, and the 4 World Guiding Centers and hoped for a response.

Altogether I sent out to 25 countries.....Australia, Brazil, Canada, Republic of China, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, UK, USA, and Zimbabwe.

In 1990 there were 112 member countries, not sure how many there are now.

The red ticks are where I sent to and  the green ticks are ones that sent a poster back...tho' some did write but my poster never did get  a response from a Brownie Pack.

We marked them in on a map...great way to learn some geography!

For me this project goes down in history as one of the best things that I ever did.

21 years later.

  These children are now in their late 20's or early 30's that's a whole generation ago!

And we still don't have peace!

You will not know this but the uniform that our Brownies wear has changed considerably in  21 years.

 In the 1980's I was doing a  doll making badge ....no not a Brownie badge!!

I had to make 3 dolls and one had to be a character doll, made of felt with a moulded face...and it had to be able to stand. So this was my character doll. The uniform is authentic even to the actual material.

She has all her badges and the scratchy wool hat that the brownies used to hate. She stands courtesy of copper rivets in her shoes!!

Now they wear a yellow sweatshirt, navy trackpants, navy neckerchief and navy badge sash and NO hat. Much more child friendly but no where near as smart.

The nearest I can do to show you is my Brownie TatBead from Jane Eb's TatBead family, look under TatBead family and friends in her people section.

OK! well that's the the required tatting element .

So now you are wondering why I said that you might be able to help.

Well I showed my Book Of Peace with all this in it and more, to the latest leaders of the pack and they were so taken by it that they want to repeat it for Thinking Day February 22nd, this year. For those who don't know Thinking day is a special day for all members of the Guide and Scout Associations all over the World.

21 years later now I have so many internet friends, and folks who have email, and so do the other leaders. The Brownies have cousins all over the world...and their mums have email.

 Some of you must have girls of Brownie age, others must be able to find out about a Brownie Guide/Girl Scout/ etc group near you.

Please go out there and find names and addresses that I can send my packs to and lets make the 2010 project a humdinger!!

If you send me your contact info  in a comment, I will not publish it......but you will have to send a second comment that I can publish! Do please leave a comment if you think this is a good idea and may be able to help,

leave a comment PLEASE.

Go, Go, Go!!

Next time I will show you some of the replies that I got.