Elizabeth Benson was very impressive, as she hosted our Zoom November Club Meeting on Remembrance Day.  We were fortunate to welcome, as our speakers, the Chairman of the Nottingham Royal British Legion, Paul Bentley and his wife Sandra, who is the Secretary.  This charity has supported the Armed Forces community since 1921.  In November every year members distribute and sell poppies to raise funds to help our Armed Forces, veterans and their families, both past and present.  This year it was quite difficult to buy poppies but £13. 326 was raised in Mansfield’s 4 Seasons Centre.

The Club was able to donate over £100 to the British Legion due to the efforts of Sara Statham making and selling poppy masks.

District Chairman Margaret was delighted to receive her mask and told us she would be wearing it when she sold poppies locally.

Yvonne Neville hosted the October meeting, when we were entertained by Margaret Day who amused us with anecdotes of her path to becoming District Chair. Her image has a yellow border as she is speaking.

ps Next to me in the photo is the plant that Rosemary gave me on your behalf in November 18 and it’s still alive and still flowering. The gift that keeps on giving.

As entertainment for our September meeting, Veronica had the idea of getting a few of our members to tell a story of some unusual or amusing incident that had happened to them in the past and everyone had to decide whether the story was true or false.

Sara gave us 3 different stories and we had to guess which one was true.

Dee described a’ brush with the law’ while on a trip to Moscow.

Well done, Veronica for chairing the meeting and for finding a way to ‘keep the ball rolling’.

Our Inner Wheel year for 2019 to 2020 has begun with a few changes to the way we’re used to doing things.

Members of all Inner Wheel clubs are finding it difficult to fill official posts for all sorts of reasons.  We have tackled this problem by using a new approach.  Ilean Lumsdon agreed to be our figurehead this year and the committee was ready and willing to  plan and organise the programme and events.

That was the plan in February but of course the committee didn’t realise that they would have a few extra little hurdles to scramble over.

And here we are, having all done a crash course in how to join a Zoom meeting, it’s suddenly become the ‘new normal’.

Elaine hosts the meetings and both the committee meetings and club meetings have been successfully accomplished.

Vivienne had the idea of ‘armchair talks’ and here is Barbara Dixon who entertained us with an account of her introduction to Australia as a ‘Ten Pound Pom’ .  We’re looking forward to the next instalment which covers the family’s time in Darwin.

Barbara says she hopes that it will inspire other members of the Club to share their stories in the same way.

District Chairman Anne Lyons took on the huge challenge of representing District 22 for the Inner Wheel Year 2019 to 2020 and we at the Inner Wheel Club of Mansfield were proud and honoured to support her in that position.

It has been a year like no other in the past and we hope no other in the future.  We congratulate DC Anne on embracing each difficult situation as it arose and utilising technology to ensure the continuity of the organisation.

Well done, District Chairman Anne.  You have done done Mansfield proud!

Who would have thought at last year’s Annual General Meeting that in a year’s time we would be holding meetings by Zoom!  I don’t think many of us had actually heard of ‘Zoom’.  I certainly hadn’t.

In spite of the unexpected situation caused by the Covid 19 Pandemic, our president rose to the occasion and dragged us all into the 21st century by hosting our very first on line meeting.  Elizabeth may have felt that her year was somewhat restricted by the lock-down but she will certainly by remembered for coping so well with the strange times we have lived through since the middle of March.  Now the precedent has been set with a committee meeting and a Club AGM, the way is clear for the future.

President Elizabeth wishes to thank the Club for the lovely bouquet of flowers that Rosemary made and presented to her on Wednesday morning.

And thanks too to Elizabeth’s husband John for setting up the meetings and making sure all the members were given instructions on how to join in.  He also took these lovely pictures of  Elizabeth and her flowers.

Our 74th  Charter Anniversary Dinner should have taken place on Wednesday 10th June this year but as with so many other functions this had to be abandoned due to Covid 19.

President Elizabeth has worked so hard both last year and this year to prepare an interesting and varied programme for us and the Charter dinner should have been a thank you from the Club for all that hard work.  As we felt that she deserved a token of our gratitude, Rosemary was commissioned to do what she does so well – and produced and delivered a beautiful bouquet.

Elizabeth said that she had a lovely surprise when she got home from shopping to find the flowers on her doorstep.  She wishes to thank the Club members and thought it would be nice if she dressed up in her finery for a photograph to mark the day.

 

This poster was sent by Elaine, who had a wonderful afternoon tea party in her front garden.  Unfortunately she didn’t take any photos but lots of her neighbours celebrated the occasion together with music playing, afternoon teas, cakes, drinks and BBQs.

Ann Davies organised an afternoon tea party with sandwiches, cakes and drinks to celebrate VE 75 Day with her neighbours, and to thank them for their kindness and support towards her, especially when she was ill.

Yvonne celebrating VE 75 Day with a Teddy Bear Tea Party with her dog, Rosa!

 

 Dain’s momentous distancing gathering in her garden with her neighbours and friends on VE 75 Day!

 

Gillian and her husband Terry enjoy celebrating VE 75 Day with drinks and a delicious cake with neighbours outside their house.

A lovely picture of Todge Redman, one of our former members who served in the Wrens during the war.