June news.....

 

 

Hello Malagoers

Our May meeting was jam packed with talks and demonstrations from Mary Hall on lip reading and Zoe Hunt from Mini First Aid on paediatric first aid.  Both speakers contributed to a highly entertaining meeting.

This month we are delighted to welcome well known writer Tim Mowl. Aside from his many architectural and landscape books he recently published a series of 12 urban walks called Bristol Explored. Unlike conventional guide books he encourages the walker to view the city through fresh eyes giving a light hearted but fascinating insight into its architectural past as well as social history, new buildings, sculptures and even street art.  Tim will also touch on his current project a book on Regency gardens to coincide with the bicentenaries of Jane Austen and Humphry Repton, entitled ‘All around is Fairy ground – Pleasure and the Regency Garden’.  Then for our August meeting, Tim has offered to lead a walk around the Harbourside finishing at a suitable waterfront pub.

In addition to our monthly meetings, we have set up other groups to allow our members to explore some of their interests.  The Sock club has already met on two occasions and three knitters are learning the tricks of the trade with Judi Edwards.  The Craft club and Cocktail club have held their first meetings and a great time was had by all.  The Craft club will be meeting next on 23^rd June and the Cocktail Club at the beginning of July with an outing to The Pump House.  If you are a member and would like take part in these clubs, but haven’t had a chance to sign up, please email us.

The National Federation of Women’s Institutes AGM was held at the beginning of June.  Over 5300 women attended and that both motions, avoid food waste, address food poverty and appropriate care in hospitals for people with dementia, were carried by a significant majority.

We are hoping that the sun will be shining on Saturday 25^th June when Malago WI will have a stall at the very popular North Street Summer Fair.  Thank you to those who have volunteered to help out on the stall and bake cakes.  We would like to exceed the funds we raised last year of over £600, so if you can bake a cake or spare some time on the day, please email us.  We will have cake drop off points the day before as well for those who aren’t able to come to the stall on the day.

We look forward to seeing you at 8pm on Wednesday 29^th.

May news...

Hello Malagoers

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our April meeting.  The creative juices were following and we were able to make some fantastic bunting to help brighten up the hall and decorate the Malago WI stall at upcoming fairs.  If you took some home to finish, it would be great if you could bring it with you.

This month, we are lucky to have two speakers, Mary Hall and Zoe Hunt.

Mary has been teaching lip-reading classes to hard of hearing, and deaf people, for over 15 years.  Having grown up with two profoundly deaf parents, she feels strongly that deafness is an isolating condition but that it needn’t be like that.   Lip-reading lessons helps empower people to learn skills to help overcome communication barriers.  Mary will talk about her experience, explain the mechanics of lip reading and take us through a hands on exercise.

Zoe is a mumpreneur.  She set up the first franchise of Mini First Aid nearly 3 years ago.  The organisation provides training in infant and paediatric first aid to parents, grandparents and carers.  There are now 14 franchises across the country and it continues to expand week by week.  Mini First Aid was the winner of the Mumpreneur Awards 2015.  As well as sharing her experience of setting up a new business, Zoe will also demonstrate techniques for dealing with choking incidents.

We have now set up a number of additional groups outside of our monthly meeting for Malago WI members and dates for the initial meetings have been arranged.  If you would like to take part in these and haven’t signed up yet, please email wearemalagowi@gmail.com.

Sock Knitting
The first course of sock knitting with Judi Edwards is taking place over 4 sessions in June and is now full. There will be an update about the possibility of a further course if you missed out.

Cocktail Club
Following a great response from members to the Cocktail Club will launch on Thursday 9 June from 8pm.  At this meeting we will have some celebratory drinks and plan how we want to go forward to suit people’s interest in different activities, possible themed visits and rough costs depending on numbers.

Craft Club
The initial meeting will be taking place on Thursday 19^th May.  It's a chance to hang out, chat and make stuff (with tea and cake of course!).  You can bring whatever you're working on or just come and browse crafty books for inspiration!  Further dates will be arranged shortly.

As part of the May meeting, we will be asking members to vote For or Against this year’s WI resolutions:
 

• Avoid food waste, address food poverty
• Appropriate care in hospitals for people with dementia

Further information is available in on the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) website. The outcome of our vote will be taken to the NFWI AGM in June.

To help with our fundraising, Malago WI will have a stall at this year’s North Street Summer Fair on Saturday 25^th June.  We had a very successful day last year and raised over £600.  We still need volunteers to provide cakes and help out on the stall.  Sign-up sheets will be circulated during the meeting.  Any help you can provide, either baking a cake or staffing the stall for an hour or so, means we can make this year’s fair even more successful.

We look forward to seeing you at 8pm on Wednesday 25^th