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

"A Family Tradition for 130 Years" By Heather McCrae Special to the Star _ For the second consecu- tive year a pathfinder from Blackstock has been chosen to attend a world guiding centre in Mexico. Miranda Wyllie, 15, will be representing Central Area at Our Cabana in Cuernavaca, near Mexico City. Our Cabana is one of four world guiding cen- tres. The others are locat- ed in England, Switzer- land and India. Miranda is an excited young lady, ready for the challenge and has pre- pared herself well for her odyssey. For the first five days Miranda will be housed at Ticalli, a guiding hostel in Mexico City. During her stay there she'll be touring the capital city and will spend a day at the pyra- mids and the xochimiloc (floating gardens). One of the requirements Miranda has to fulfill dur- ing her two week stayis a service project. She plans to teach first aid and other programs to the Mexican children. This will definitely be a She'll attend a World Guiding Gong A. Blackstock Pathfinder's to Mexi challenge as Miranda speaks only English and her limited use of the French language won't benefit her much. But she's prepared. Having obtained a Span- ish dictionary, she also borrowed a tape on speak- ing Spanish from the li- brary. The cost of Miranda's trip is $2,000 but thanks + to the fundraising efforts and support of the Black- stock District, her path- finder group and the Blue Heron Division, her costs will be very minimal. When Miranda first learned she'd been accept- "ed she was very excited. "My friend, Julie Obst- feld, went on the trip last year to the same place and really enjoyed it" she said. "This is a fantastic op- portunity for me. Through guiding I've learned a lot and now want to share this knowledge with oth- ers," she said. She's also looking for- ward to learning about the cultures of the Mexican people. Something else she is excited about is her mode programs completely auto film handling. Compact, easy tq handle design. "579% « manual S.L.R. metering al HOUR PHOTO All automatic operation with full manual control. Subject complete with 35-80 zoom. « 50 mm lens included « match needle manual » great student camera of transportation. Miran- da, o has never flown, wit be departing with 13 "other pathfinders and two re on Aug. 13. Shé&s never met Rr others be- fore, as they come from across the province, but a meeting has been ar- ranged the day before de- parture so they can all be- come acquainted. Miranda's been busy collecting pins for ex- change. She has received pins from Scugog Council, MP Alex Shepherd, and MPP John O'Toole and col- lected others from the Durham Region, Whitby and Clarington. Of course, she has an abundance of guiding crests, too. A member of the Black- stock Pathfinders, Miran- da recently finished the program. She has been a part of the Guiding move- ment since her Brownie days. Her mom, Terry, is real- ly proud of her daughter's accomplishments. "I feel it's an honor, a real privilege for Miranda torepresenta part of guid- ing in another country," she said. Phone 728-5211 in the Oshawa Centre + 115 mm zoom lens = ultra compact design « date model available « full auto with overrides ® =hEr= « water resistant » attached remote » GREAT FOR FALL PICTURE TAKING! « date models available