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Published on 08/24/1998 All articles from this issue

Manners weekend 'opens doors' for Brownies

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Special to the Town Crier

Six local girls, including four third graders from Springer School, spent their last weekend of summer, Aug. 22-23, with Dana May Casperson, etiquette consultant, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.

Four girls from Brownie troops 1162 and 1166, Chelsea Allen, Jennifer Siegal, Jennifer Thomas, and Jessica Yurash, along with two of their friends, Erica Fiekowsky and Valerie Tam, began the weekend with an English-style tea.

Casperson began instructing the girls with details of when to pick up their napkins and how to place it in their laps, the history of tea, and tips on etiquette. There were mini courses held in Casperson's hotel suite in which the girls practiced proper introductions, walking, sitting, and reviewing a comprehensive manners booklet prepared for this occasion. The instruction did not stop until the girls had completed lunch on Sunday.

The Fairmont VIP treatment included welcome gifts, robes for the trip to the pool, and two tours. The chef's tour of the hotel's many kitchens included the pastry kitchen and concluded with a tour of the grand ballroom. The housekeeping tour included a demonstration of how to make a bed, the machinery and staff needed to keep linens clean and fresh, and ended with a tour of the president's suite.The Brownies found brownies and milk waiting for them when they returned to their hotel room.

Casperson said that the weekend of manners training was a gift that these girls will take with them throughout their lives. "Manners open doors that power and money cannot," she said.

The Brownies will earn "Manner Tryit" badges for their etiquette excursion.

"It stuck with them and became the highlight of their summer," said Pamalee Siegal, who coordinated the event. Siegal, who had wanted to organize such a trip the past 8-10 years, also realized a long-standing goal.

"This (the etiquette course) could be done at home, but I thought this would have so much more impact," she said.