Our speaker for the May meeting was Ros Bell from the Melbourne Club who joined us with Past District Chairman Rachel Cooper from the same Club. Ros showed us four generations of family wedding dresses starting way back in 1900.

President Kathy was delighted to induct another two members into the club – Julia Blatherwick and Nicola de Lucis. Both ladies have attended quite a few of our meetings and are eager to get involved in all the Club’s activities

Elizabeth Roughton and Sue Stoakes both received a golden rose from Kathy on behalf of the Club in celebration of each of their Golden Wedding anniversaries.

Our District Chairman Elaine Hopkins joined us for our April meeting and entertained us with stories of her life before joining Inner wheel. We were also inspired by her commitment to bringing in new members to Inner Wheel, reminding of us of the good work the organisation does and the funds that are distributed to needy causes throughout the world. Past District Chairman Yvonne gave the vote of thanks and Kathy presented Elaine with a lovely flower arrangement in Inner Wheel colours.

Kathy presented Margaret Ceney with a special rose to congratulate her for 60 blissful years of marriage to Frank

More congratulations and roses for Lorna and Harry Pye who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in April.

The whole club sends best wishes to both couples

Cath & Alastair Morrison and her family live in Fenton, a village outside Newark, in a beautiful house in the countryside with a large pond in front of the house.  After Russia invaded Ukraine in September 2022, Cath very kindly offered to host a Ukrainian family.  Strangely, she was not allowed to host a young family, in case one of the children fell into the pond!  So a young lady, called Eleanor, aged 32, came to live in their home.  She had her own bedroom and bathroom and was able to use the utility room.  She had several jobs and was looked after very well by Cath.

She then wanted to be independent and have another job.  So with Cath’s advice, she went to live in Lincoln in an apartment but still contacts Cath and her family most days. 

We gave Cath a donation for her chosen charity, the Turkey Earthquake.

Margaret presenting Cath with a gift to thank her giving an interesting account of what happened when she offered to welcome a Ukrainian refugee into her home.

We were visited at a Club meeting last year by Nick Linney who gave us a talk on the Mansfield company that many of us are familiar with. As a follow up, we went on a tour of their premises to see what they were up to these days and were amazed that what we found did not match our perception of a traditional printing company at all.

The company goes from market research- to advice to companies on the best way to marketing their products – to actually producing advertising for their clients.

Here Margaret tried on a pair of spectacles that lets the researcher know which item on the menu she spends most time looking at.

We got an update on how digital advertising has completely overtaken print.

We visited the studio where they have started to make video advertisements.

Kathy thanked Miles Linney for the most enjoyable tour

We had a great time and felt that there was still a lot more to see.

And of course it wouldn’t be an Inner Wheel outing if lunch wasn’t involved – thanks to Kathy for booking a table at Widdecombe Fair and making sure we all got what we ordered!

Thanks to Dain for her idea of the tour and for all her hard work arranging it to make sure the day went smoothly.

Every year Veronica makes Christmas cakes to be raffled off for funds for local charities. This year we collected additional money from members’ donations at the buffet table.

Bellamy Road Residents & Tenants Association is a community working together to help make the Bellamy Estate a better place to live and work. Veronica and Jennifer have been supporting this project for many years and this is where they requested the money raised by the Christmas cake raffle be donated. President Kathy went with Veronica and Jenny to meet up with Lesley Salmon who works there as Treasurer on a voluntary basis. The Cheque was for £200. The money will go towards a summer excursion for the children of the community.

Money raised at the party through donations was split between our UK charities and International charities.

Kathy added £115 to her family donation to Pancreatic Cancer UK making a total of £300 sent.

Rosemary used £115 for School in a Bag which she made up to £200 from International funds to cover the cost of 10 bags.

A very productive day took place at Rosemary’s home again this year. Rosemary prepared several rooms for the ‘workers’ so that not a minute was lost.

Items for the baby bundles were neatly laid out ready to be put together by busy hands.

An additional pack was introduced this year to help groups abroad set up in small sewing concerns in order to provide an income for themselves and their families

This is a list of what was required to go into the Haberdashery Pack

In the ‘Knitting Room’ the members coordinated as some knitted squares while others sewed them together to make the blankets which were to go into the baby bundles.

Pounds – (or should I say kilogrammes!) of stamps were cut into the appropriate size and sorted into categories in the ‘Cutting Room’.

And when work was done, everyone enjoyed a friendly sandwich lunch

And here is the fruit of our labours – bags and bags of baby bundles which will be delivered to the National Police Aid Charity from where they will be despatched to Zambia.

Joan Smith hosted our Christmas party at her lovely home in December. A good time was had by all.

Rotarian Alex Wegner spoke at our November meeting. She prefaced her presentation saying she wasn’t a speaker but we were all enthralled with the story of her family history in Poland and how her father and her grandfather had experienced life in an occupied country through two world wars. Not only had they survived but had made a permanent contribution to life in Poland by building a hospital in their home town of Poznan. She was ably assisted by her husband Przemek.

At Alex’s request, the Club made a donation to Nottingham City Hospital in lieu of a speaker’s fee

Rosemary and Kathy display some of the 30 shoeboxes that have been filled with presents by Inner Wheel members and friends. They will be sent to vulnerable children and adults overseas through the ‘Shoebox Appeal Charity’.

The Book Bus is a registered charity and was founded in 2008 by publisher Tom Maschler. The Book Bus began work with schools in Zambia, delivering books and working with teachers and volunteers to help get more children reading.

Over the last twelve years, The Book Bus and its fleet of five buses has travelled 250,000 miles and opened further reading schemes in Malawi and Ecuador.

With help from our supporters, volunteers and teachers, over 100,000 children now have books. Not only have they boosted their reading abilities, they share their love of learning and literacy skills with families and communities.

This is just a small selection of the 113 wonderful books we have collected that Rosemary took to the District meeting on Saturday. She thanks you all and says she is sure the children who sit on the bus and listen to the stories will benefit greatly from your kindness.