HER Girl Club returns to monthly events
September 11, 2023, 10:54 am
Sierra D'Souza Butts, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
HER Girl Club will be having their first fall event on Sept. 21 in Rocanville.
The youth organization hosts events on a monthly basis, mentored by local females from different professions, with the vision of connecting girls from ages Grade 5 to Grade 12 in a safe and empowering place.
“We’re putting on a cooking event on Sept. 21, it’s in Rocanville at the school. We’re going to be using their Home-Ec lab,” said Jeannie Skulmoski, president of HER Girl Club.
“We have limited space because of the area we’re using. We try to keep the events between Rocanville and Moosomin as much as possible.”
With limited spots available, Skulmoski said the club aims to involve as many youth from the community as they can.
“Every month is different, depending on the event, depends on how many we can accept for that day,” she said.
“Lots of times we have a running wait list. This one coming up, 12 to 14 girls will be able to participate. Last year we had 17 on the list and a couple people dropped out, so a few on the wait list were able to come.
“We had Eli Barsi do a paint night last year and she wanted to do two nights so more girls could participate. We had 30 girls participating within two nights.
“It’s first-come-first-served, once the post is up we’ll get messages within minutes from moms saying so and so is coming.”
Seeking women in different careers, and looking for local sponsors
As part of the HER Girl Club’s goal to introduce girls to different career paths, Skulmoski said the club is always looking for women to lead events.
“If we had a space where we can fit more girls than we would have to have more adults helping,” she said.
“Our base is we want female adults that are willing to show the girls stuff, and that’s hard to find in the community.”
She spoke about the different activities the club has organized in the past.
“If a business wanted to donate or support an event, then they usually just approach us,” Skulmoski said.
“We did card making with flowers last year in May, with West Wind Florist & Greenhouse.
“She donated a lot of the supplies and we paid $10 a girl, just to cover the expenses.
“All of the activities we do, we try to do through using donations. For example, the Nutrien mine gave us a grant last year to use towards a few of our events.
“One of our old board members, she used to work at the mine and she was talking about our group. They told her to put in an application for a grant, and that’s how we got the money from the mine.”
For the club’s upcoming Home-Ec class this month, the group was able to get majority of the materials donated.
“We try to keep it as low cost as possible. One of our board members now, her mom runs a garden market out of Whitewood, she’s donating vegetables for this event we’re having in September,” said Skulmoski.
“We only do one event a month. We usually try to find someone who’s willing to donate, or if we have money in our account, we try to supplement it so that the girls who want to come don’t have to pay, or they have to pay $5 to $10.”
Given the impact the girl club has had on girls in the community, Skulmoski said she is happy to see how well-received it is in the area.
“I have three young girls of my own, coming up in the world,” she said.
“I felt this was necessary to do in town. Our other three board members, one of them has a daughter close to my daughter’s age and she felt the same way. Everyone felt like there was a need for it.”
How did the club start?
The group’s name HER stands for honesty, empowerment and radiance.
The initiative has been going on since 2020. Skulmoski spoke about how it first started.
“It was started a few years ago by Paige Hutchinson,” said Skulmoski.
“It started because there weren’t really events out there for girls to go to, that showed them there was different things around in the community.
“Unless you were involved in sports or school activities, you really had nowhere else to go.
“The club was formed with the intention of providing one day a month for a group to get together.
“We do different craft activities. Last year we had a presentation on STEM workforce, different forms of engineering.
“One of our board members is a journeyman electrician, she put on an event where girls made their own lamps from scratch to show the girls how easy it was.
“The group is about doing different activities that show different career paths to the girls in the area.”
