While some of their friends play computer games and chat with each other on Facebook, MacKenzie Sewell and Celia Fawcett are learning how to make tie-dye shirts and cook pizza using wax and a burlap sack.

The pizza experience still excites the 10-year-old girls. It took place during one of the many camping excursions they went on as members of the Girl Guides of Canada.

“It was tin foil wrapped around the pizza,” said MacKenzie. “And then we wrapped that in a piece of burlap soaked in wax and we lit the burlap on fire and we cooked the pizza.”

Some of the pizzas came out burned, others were only half cooked, but Celia said no one minded. It was still some of the most fun she has had in her life.

“It was good,” she said.

The girls are part of the 7th Kamloops Unit of Girl Guides, which Celia’s mom, Pam Fawcett, 42, is a guider in charge. Fawcett was herself a guide when she was Celia’s age and thinks it’s great that her daughter is one, too.

Little has changed since she was a girl guide in 1975. The girls still learn arts and crafts, make badges and go on camping trips. Fawcett said the goal of inspiring friendship, leadership and self-confidence is the same now as it was when she was a girl.

“And we still sell the cookies,” Fawcett said of the annual door-to-door campaign.

In fact, Fawcett is confident little has changed within the Guides during its 100-year history. The big difference is in the world around it.

When Girl Guides of Canada began in 1910 there was no Internet, Facebook or Twitter. Girls and boys passed their time with toys and books and playing outdoors.

That’s why Fawcett believes the organization’s mandate for empowering girls and teaching them decision-making and life skills is as important now as ever before.

“It’s challenging to get out there and be outside,” Fawcett said of keeping children engaged in the outdoors, especially during the winter.

“But I think that’s what the girls enjoy the most.”

Celia and MacKenzie do. The girls have been camping more times than they can count and have enjoyed every experience. They were also among the more than 250 girls who attended the 100 years of guiding Sky’s the Limit camp in Knutsford last month.

MacKenzie said the girls were allowed to pick from a list of fun activities they wanted to try during the weeklong event. She got to go rock climbing.

Some girls took part in a spa and made their own perfume. Celia said others went geocaching, which requires people to use a GPS to find buried treasure.

MacKenzie said the activities are important because they get children outside and away from electronics.

“They need to get out and be active and make new friends,” she said, adding electronics are making people into hermits.

“That’s not good because if you’re not social, you’ll just be lonely your whole life. That’s not good for you and the people around you.”

MacKenzie’s mom, Katrina Sewell, wasn’t a guide when she was little, but her husband was in Beavers and Cub Scouts. The couple decided that being a guide would be a good opportunity for their daughter.

“MacKenzie is very outgoing. She’s very social. We thought it would be a great opportunity for her to be with other girls,” she said.

She likes that the Guides program still promote a healthy, active lifestyle.

“MacKenzie is not really a sports girl, so to find something that keeps her active and keeps her social and keeps her busy was really what I wanted her to have,” she said.

Like Fawcett, Sharlene Puhallo, 28, has remained active in Guides as an adult. She promotes international trips for the girls, which was something she enjoyed when she was a guide.

She said girls travel to any of the four Girl Guide world centres, which include Europe, Africa, India and South America. The idea is to introduce youths to new cultures and inspire personal growth by broadening life experience.

Puhallo spent a week touring Mexico and took a three-week bicycle trip around Prince Edward Island, all through the Guides.

“It was incredible,” she said.

Fawcett said the Girl Guide movement remains popular. She said there are 610 members in the Thompson-Nicola area, which includes Kamloops, Merritt, Chase, 100 Mile House and Clearwater. Those numbers have remained consistent over the years.

“We’ve held steady,” she said, adding a first round of registration took place earlier this month and more are planned for September.

She said 7th Kamloops Unit has 22 members with more girls looking to join. What the club needs are more adults to be leaders.

To become a girl guide or a guider in charge, or for more information, go online to www.girlguides.ca.

jhewlett@kamloopsnews.ca