KUALA LUMPUR: Girl Guides Association Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Branch today held a mass enrolment for Form 1 students from 45 schools in the city.
Some 1,500 Form 1 to Form 5 students gathered at The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur together with their teddy bears for an enrolment lunch.
With the tagline 'Guiding is Fun in Kuala Lumpur', these girls were treated to a range of activities.
Girl Guides Association Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Branch president Datuk Yeoh Soo Keng said the event was important as it helped to simplified the enrolment test as there was limited time allocated for students to participate in co-curriculum activities.
"Schools only allocate 12 Wednesdays for co-curriculum activities in a year. To carry out this 'tenderfoot test' (enrolment test) in schools, it would take four sessions that would leave the school with limited time to carry out interesting activities," she said.
She said apart from the test that the girls had to take, they were also exposed to the benefits of guiding.
"These young girls carried out guiding activities in the luxurious surroundings of the hotel where they hunted for information about basic principles of 'guiding' and learnt the proper way of tying knots in creative ways apart from participating in fun activities.
"We want them to be exposed to the international environment and not be like a frog living under the coconut shell," she said.
Yeoh said in an effort to recruit more guides, this event could help attract more participation from secondary school students.
"Currently we have 7,000 over guides in Kuala Lumpur itself and we hope to achieve 10,000 members in two years," she said.
She said since the girls were not told that they had to sit for an enrollment test in advance, we told them to bring their favourite teddy bear to the event.
"We want to make the event memorable for them and teddy bears can make them feel loved and at ease," she said.
Amisha Maisarah Abdul Mozid from SMK Seri Bintang Utara said she was excited that she could be part of the gathering.
"This is not just an enrollment event but it is also the 102nd year celebration of the Girl Guides Association.
Dania Qasrina Azrul from SMK Datok Lokman, 13, said she has been a guide since her primary school years.
"I have always been active as a girl guide in primary school and I think I'd love to be a girl guide for my entire life," she said.
To further instill the guiding movement spirit, the girl guide 'tenderfoot' ceremony for the first time in history recruited 11 media practitioners to be a member of the Girl Guides Association of Malaysia and World Girl Guides and Scouts.