Opening the vaults: Embarrassing moments

Ever have one of those moments where you find your old journal or a box of letters you wrote? Yeah, it can be kind of embarrassing. So imagine Guider Sarah Govan-Sisk’s surprise when a letter she wrote almost 20 years ago to national office was unearthed.

Sarah had contacted the national archives for some research she was conducting on the activities of Ottawa Girl Guides during the Second World War. As our archives staff was assisting her, they found this gem in our archival records:

As Sarah notes: “So embarrassing, but hilarious. You can tell that I must have just finished a session on ‘how to write a business letter’ at school. It’s so formal! Sadly, my dream to feature in the catalogue never came true. ; )”

While her modeling aspirations may not have been realized, don’t feel too badly for Sarah – she turned out okay. She is now a senior Parliamentary Affairs and Governance manager with the federal government, a former member of the Girl Guides of Canada Board of Directors, a Guider with the 12^th Ottawa Guiding unit, and a recent member of the Twinning 2020 planning team.

Stefania Moffatt

November 13, 2014

That is so very cool. I think a lot of these gems will be lost because we no longer write letters, print pictures, etc. Thanks for sharing.

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