The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MaryCorbett_Panel CHILDREN HELPING AT HOME Back in 1937 Greta Wright's first Sunday School Class consisted of seven 9-11year old girls learning God's lessons of charity, love, generosity and unselfish work for others. The next year they were joined by one Mary Corbett. 1939 brought with it a whole new dimension to their individual lives, but also to their shared experiences. War broke out and the first of their older brothers, Elwood Hie, signed up with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment and departed for places unknown. (Elwood paid the supreme sacrifice in Sicily in 1943.) Then his father Ira, already a WWI veteran, accepted a jovial challenge from fellow workers to sign up. He wasn't worried, knowing they wouldn't accept him since he still had a piece of shrapnel from the earlier conflict in his foot. Surprise - of that group of potential recruits only Ira was accepted and he was assigned to the Veterans' Guard. His wife Myrtle was left with her two men in service and three young girls to look after. Even so, for young Eileen Hie, being part of the Sunday School Class under Greta Wright's leadership seemed to make everything alright. As the months passed Greta's girls noticed the change as Cobourg's population was reduced from its normal 4,500 - soon the only boys they knew were those of their own age. News broadcasts told about Hong Kong, Dieppe, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. Princess Elizabeth inspired other women and girls by joining the Women's Territorial Service. But on the home front tragedy struck for the girls of Greta's class as she was replaced as their Sunday School teacher. So they all moved from the United Church and joined the St. Peter's Anglican Branch of the King's Daughters and Sons, as the Sunshine Group, Greta Wright still their leader! The group met monthly and made layettes to be sent to pregnant wives of British servicemen who had been transported north to Maternity Homes in the rural Midlands to get away from the bombing. They continued even after the war ended, sending their work to the Cobourg General Hospital. But by 1946 the girls were beginning to go their separate ways, following their chosen careers in nursing, teaching, office or factory work. All of them married but Mary Corbett, the only "unclaimed treasure". So it was that when Michael Watson planned a visit to Canada from England in 2002, and forwarded a list of seven girls' names to the Cobourg Public Library, only one was recognized - that of Mary Corbett. Design provided by Quench Design & Communications Inc., Port Hope. www.quenchme.ca MARY CORBETT Michael was looking for the girls who, over sixty years ago, had sent the layette which had been his first baby outfit. He told how, at the time, there were seven ladies about to give birth but there was only one special layette from Canada available, so they held a draw and his mother won the layette from the Sunshine Group. Now he wanted to find them to say thank you - and he had found them, one at least. Soon four others had gathered in Cobourg to meet Michael and receive his heartfelt thanks for their good deed performed so long ago as part of the war effort by the young people of Canada. In 2013 Mary Corbett received a Cobourg Civic Award for her lifetime of volunteer service. As part of her acceptance speech Mary told the story of Michael Watson and his layette. As she finished, another gentleman, Reginald Gordon, stood up in the audience - another recipient of a layette from the King's Daughters and Sons (Sunshine Group) was able to say, "Thank you" in person! When you are lonely and sick at heart Go to the friends we know, And bury your sorrow in doing good deeds. Miss me - but let me go. Message sent on behalf of Greta Wright to each member of the Sunshine Group at the time of her death in 1994. Queen Mother visits baby at a British Country Maternity Hospital during the War Mary Corbett's book is called: The Sunshine of Yesterday: The Story of the Junior King's Daughters of Cobourg It shares the story of eight Cobourg girls and their devoted Sunday-school teacher who organized a project of making layettes for new mothers in war-torn England.