On July 4th Yvonne & Michael Neville held a Truly Scrumptious Coffee Morning at their home on a glorious, sunny day.

Inner Wheel members baked a large number of delicious cakes to serve to all our guests or sell on the cake stall.  Many thanks to the members who worked very hard in the kitchen to serve cakes, coffee and tea to over 200 guests from other Inner Wheel Clubs, Ravenshead Church, family and friends.The bric-brac-stall full of “once loved” items and hand made beads was well supported and proved to be a great success.

The raffle display included decorated  homemade bird boxes and a beautiful handmade cushion and pashmina scarves handmade in Nepal.

There was a large variety of stalls well stocked with books and cards, magnificent plants, lovely clothes and different tasty cheeses.

Rotary members very kindly helped to erect the marquees in the garden and to put out a large number of tables and chairs for all the guests.

The Coffee Morning was a great success and raised an amazing £2, 212.00 for the Children’s Society, President Elizabeth’s chosen charity.

Yvonne’s heartfelt thanks go to Inner Wheel and Rotary members, who worked together as a team to make the Coffee Morning such a memorable occasion and a great success.

We wish to thank Yvonne very much for offering to host the Coffee Morning and for all her hard work and meticulous organisation.

Pat Shepperson joined Inner Wheel five decades ago and has served the Mansfield Club well.  She was President in 1976 and spent many years as a committee member.

President Anne, Rosemary, Jennifer and Carol visited her last Friday and presented her with a Certificate from the Association acknowledging her achievement.

Thank you so much to Kathy Winson for organising our accommodation and meals at the Marriott Hotel, ideally located in the centre of Cardiff near to the Motorpoint Arena, where the 95th Inner Wheel Association Conference was held this year. The ten of us also appreciated travelling together to Cardiff in a smart minibus, hired by Veronica Malkowski.

The Conference opened with a welcoming celebration of service and friendship led by Reverend Kate Bottley, an inspirational priest at Barnby Moor Church in North Nottinghamshire, who currently presents Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2 and often appears on other Radio & TV shows. The service was accompanied by the Melgriffith Brass Band and Inner Wheel District 4 Choir. A collection was taken for Hope & Homes for Children.

Association President Ann Acaster from District 4 (York Vikings) gave her opening remarks with her motto, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” Rev. Kate Bottley was the first guest speaker, who showed her passion for stories of faith along with her sense of humour. Unfortunately guest speaker Esther Rantzen had been taken ill.

In the afternoon, Lesley Schatzberger was presented with a cheque for Jessie’s Fund, which she founded after her 9 year old daughter died from a brain tumour. A professional musician, Lesley realised that music could help sick children to communicate. Our final speaker, Ed Pratt at the age of 19, decided to ride a unicycle round the world alone, returning home 31/2 years later, having raised over £300,000 for the charity School in a Bag. What an amazing achievement! Cor Y Cwm, a children’s choir, which had won the “Youth Choir” competition at the National Eisteddfod last year, completed an impressive afternoon.

After a buffet style 3 course evening meal together in the hotel, with plenty of choice to suit everyone, we returned to the Conference Centre to be entertained and enthralled by Andrew Grisewood’s beautiful floral arrangements.

Instead of attending the AGM on Wednesday morning, a few of us decided to explore Cardiff Bay with a tour round the new Welsh Assembly and a visit to the Norwegian Church before catching a ferry to Cardiff Castle. We met a large number of Cardiff University students in the adjacent park, who had come to play in a rugby match against Swansea University. After coffee and a light lunch in the old town, we walked back to the Conference Centre for the afternoon session.

Rudhiya Budden, Global Ambassador for Hope & Homes for Children, gave a heart rendering talk about eradicating orphanages and supporting children into loving, stable families instead. She was presented with a cheque for this very worthwhile charity. Rainer Hersch drew the Conference to an end with his amusing, musical talent.

Dain Pinder kindly hosted a pre-dinner drinks and nibbles party, as we all “dressed in our best!” in black with a hint of pink! We danced the evening away to the sound of the “Amazing Blues Brothers and the Amazing Soul Revue”!

It certainly was a brilliant Inner Wheel Conference, organised and presented by President Ann Ancaster, who selected excellent speakers and musical entertainers, in true Inner Wheel fun & friendship.

Margaret Thomas

Club Correspondent

International Service Organiser, Veronica Malkowski, worked very hard to organise a splendid Sandwich Lunch in St. Philip Neri’s Church on 16th April 2019 to raise money for international charities. 

Rotarian Adrian Brewer from the Isle of Wight gave us an enlightening, illustrative talk, entitled “Roll out the Barrels!”, about the abject poverty and lack of clean water available in South Africa.  Women in Kenya often walked 10 miles and children for 2 hours to fetch clean water for drinking and sanitation.  Water barrels have now enabled children to be educated in school.

Veronica made all the cakes herself and Margaret and Rosemary sold lots of raffle tickets

A good time was had by all!

Many thanks go to Cate Hunt for coming to speak to us at our March meeting.  Very few of us knew about the importance of the Clipstone area in history or all the royal links that occurred from time to time.

 

Dee Bailey gave the vote of thanks and President Anne presented Cate  with a flower arrangement made by Rosemary.

 

 

On Saturday 9th March 2019 Mansfield Rotary & Inner Wheel Clubs held a splendid Irish Evening at Ravenshead Village Hall to raise money for International Charities.

 

Veronica & Ray Malkowski, with the help of Kelvin & Lynn Bowman, Henry & Margaret Thomas and members, organised this highly successful event,  which was attended by around 100 members and friends. There was a warm, friendly atmosphere, as we were enthralled by the performance of the talented, young Irish Dancers, before sampling our tasty plateau of starters, followed by a wholesome Irish Stew with sourdough bread.

We really enjoyed being entertained by the excellent Irish Band, before choosing from a variety of delicious desserts:- whisky bread & butter pudding, brandy cheesecake or fruit salads, all served with whisky or vanilla ice cream and followed by cheese and biscuits. The raffle raised an amazing £339 and, due to the generosity of members, the grand total of just over £1,500 was raised.  Many thanks to everyone, who contributed to this memorable Irish Evening.