What Are Trefoil Guilds and How Did They Begin?

Trefoil Guild Link

This newsletter is being sent to all listed contacts for Trefoil Guilds in the USA. We want to offer a venue where Trefoil Guilds may share information and ideas about their activities and invite other Trefoil Guilds to join in activities or travel.

Kathy Sproull and Jane Nearing, members of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) Trefoil Guild, and Pat Roush of the Appalachian Trefoil Guild, are National Trefoil Guild Coordinators working with Pauline Waller from GSUSA. Their aim is to improve communication among Guilds. A spreadsheet of those Guilds is in this issue. If you know of other Trefoil Guilds, please forward this newsletter to them, and ask them to email Kathy with their contact information -- .

What are Trefoil Guilds and how did they begin?

In the United Kingdom, where Scouting began, women were required to retire from Guiding at age 65. Many of these women had developed life-long friends in Guiding and a love of service to Guiding. They formed Trefoil Guilds to continue these friendships and service opportunities. The concept has spread around the world, and today Trefoil Guilds are found in many countries, not just those that have a mandatory retirement age. They are aimed primarily at the interests of the women whose children have become adults, but who still wish to continue their involvement in Girl Scouting, although some younger women do occasionally join. Trefoil Guilds around the world, and within the same country, vary greatly depending upon the interests of their members. The two main purposes they share are friendship and service to Girl Guiding / Girl Scouting.

For future issues, we ask Trefoil Guild Coordinators to send photos and information about the activities and trips of your Trefoil Guild and to share information about future activities where members of other Trefoil Guilds would be welcome. Guild members would not be limited to locally planned opportunities; everyone would benefit. Please send information to Kathy.

Recent Activities

The GSNETX Trefoil Guild traveled to Mexico for the new Mexico, Naturally! session at Our Cabana. Trefoil Guild members from Tennessee, Missouri, and California joined them on this trip. Participants learned about birds from researchers at the University of Morelos. They studied flowers which grow in the Cuernavaca area, and took an overnight trip to the monarch

butterfly sanctuary in the state of Michoacán.

They also participated in Mexican traditions, tasted regional foods and tried their hand at some Mexican crafts. After the session at Our Cabana, they spent several days in Mexico City, where they toured the city and saw the pyramids and the Museum of Anthropology. Having

members of other Trefoil Guilds along created wonderful new friendships. One member from Missouri is returning to join the group’s New Mexico trip this summer.

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