St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-01-27
The Story of ..Pioneer Band"
A ST. Johnsbury Organization for Y oung
Folks.

Asst. Johnsbury Organization for Young
Folks.
The American Missionary for January
contains an interesting account of the
society which Mrs. George II. Cross has
organized at the North church. The arti-
Gle is contributed by Mrs. Cross and
herewith follows.
A society of children was organized last
fall in the North church in ST. Johnsbury,
VT, for the purpose of instructing the
children of the church in the various
branches of Christian work, especially
that of missions. The members of our
Pioneer Band, so named by the children
themselves, are from the primary and
inferno date departments of our Sunday
school, and are from seven to fifteen years
of age. Three ladies have the care and
management of the society, but the COM
mittees are the children themselves, and
they do all the work. Each one pays the
sum of five cents to become a member.
Cards have been distributed, each one
having one hundred Din dots on it. Each
dot represents penly, and as often as
a penny is earned a dot is pricked
through with a pin, and the penny put
into a box. Many of the chilren have
earned dollar, others less, but all have
Drought IN something.
We have not tried to do very much
mission study. The band came together
several times last winter, and we had a
kind of catechism, taking up the name
and special work of each of our six socie-
ties. Later in the season we arranged
for an evening with the Indians. The
program was given entirely by the chill
dren. Stories of Indian children, and of
the home life and work at Santee were
given out, read over carefully by the chill
dren, and then told in their own words.
We had both solo and chorus singing,
and two little girls, dressed in costume,
sang an Indian lullaby, having a doll
wrapped like a papoose and strapped to
a board. There were Rotations from
Hiawatha, and one of the girls, dressed
in costume, made baskets at the entrance
of tepee. We had a flag drill, in which
one of the girls, representing mission
airy, told of the needs of the Indians, and
the children brought in and gave their
card money. We had table of Indian
work-beads, baskets, pottery, blankets,
arrows, pictures, etc., = which proved
most interesting. The ushers, as well as
those who took part in the program,
were dresse in Indian costume, and
looked aud acted very wild and savage
with their war paint and sham toma
hawks. They were made to feel as much
as possible the responsibility of the enter
tainment. Sherbet and cake were served,
and all had pleasant and profitable
evening.
Now we are planning a program in
which the children shall themselves sug-
gest ways in which the boys and girls
can help in the church, the town and the
school. Later we mean to have social
with supper and musical program, then
an evening with some foreign country.
The future of our churches, as well as
the future success of mission work, rests
with our children. If they are not ac-
quainted with all branches of Christian
work, they will not then be able to take
up the work when the fathers and moth
ers drop out of active service.