Rankin Inlet (Mar 02/05) - Members of the Girls Guides of Canada in Rankin Inlet came up with a spicy way to honour Thinking Day while benefitting a local charity. The Guides hosted a special dinner at Maani Ulujuk High on Feb. 22.

District commissioner Kerry Angidlik says $1,100 was raised by the dinner, which will be donated to the Deacon's Cupboard food bank.

Angidlik says a number of ideas for Thinking Day were discussed at a district council meeting in February.

She says the theme for the 2005 event was food and international food.

"There were some project suggestions on the Girl Guides of Canada website and, after looking at various options, we decided we wanted to keep it fairly simple, so we decided to go ahead with the lunch project," says Angidlik.

Every branch, from Sparks to Pathfinders, participated in the event. The girls helped out with the serving of the dinner, and decorated a number of donation food boxes and posters placed around the community.

"The Sparks and Brownies did most of the decorating, while the Guides made the posters and did most of the serving.

"It was a real team effort."

More than 100 people paid $10 for the spaghetti dinner with garlic bread meal, which included coffee, juice or tea and some Girl Guides cookies for dessert.

The Department of Health donated the food for the main course, while the Northern store provided the garlic bread and most of the utensils used at the event.

Another batch

Angidlik says the event went so well, the group is looking at using it again to raise funds for other projects.

She says the Guides will soon start fundraising for a big trip coming up next year.

"There's going to be a national Girl Guides camp held in July of 2006 and we have about 30 girls who might be eligible here in Rankin, so that's a big undertaking.

"We owe thanks to a number of people who helped make this event such a success," she says.

"Jake Punshon was our big cook for the event and Tommy Bruce helped out quite a bit as well. Everyone who helped were just terrific."