Lynda Wallace, District 22 International Chairman, organised a Summer Garden Lunch at Elaine Campin’s home on July 9th.  Henry Thomas cooked all the ham, turkey, salmon and new potatoes for the lunch, whilst Margaret Thomas, Elaine and several other Mansfield IW members made the quiches, salads and served the lunch to everyone.

Inner Wheel was well supported by Members of Rotary and family members which all made it a really special day.

The Induction Day was held at Eastwood Hall on Monday July 24th.  10 Mansfield IW members attended the event, which was an enjoyable occasion with the friendship of Inner Wheel members.  Lunch was served at 12 noon and the formal meeting commenced at 2.00pm.

Olivia Harding attended Samworth Church Academy School and was chosen to apply for a scholarship and bursary to attend Gordonstoun School in Scotland for 2 years in the Sixth Form.  Both Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, and King Charles 111 went to Gordonstoun School.  Olivia was very happy at Gordonstoun and really enjoyed having her own room, playing sport and making friends with other students.  She will be going to Leeds’ University in September. She spoke incredibly well and we were very impressed with her talk.

Members may be interested to know that Nick Linney, one of our previous speakers, was a pupil at Gordonstoun in his youth.

President Kathy ended her most successful year and couldn’t believe how quickly the time had gone by since the garden AGM at Rosemary’s last June.

One last very pleasant task was to donate a cheque on behalf of the Club to one of our local chosen charities – The Bellamy Road Tenants’ and Residents’ Association.

Veronica hands over a cheque to Lesley Salmon which will boost funds for the Bellamy Road summer outing. Also in the photo President Kathy stands next to Sandra Alvey from Fare Share, the region’s largest food distribution charity.

And so on to the next Inner Wheel Year. Kathy inducted Margaret Ceney president of the Inner Wheel Club of Mansfield for the year 2023 to 2024. Margaret thanked Kathy for all she had done and presented her with a gift and flower arrangement from the Club.

It has been a landmark year with the death of the Queen and the coronation of the new King. Kathy has steered us through the year in her calm and efficient manner, with cheerfulness, good humour and a positive outlook at all times. Thank you from us all.

We celebrated our 77th Charter Anniversary at the Hostess Restaurant in Sookholme in a warm and joyous atmosphere. President Kathy welcomed guests from Inner Wheel Clubs around the district and a number of members of the District 22 Executive Committee. Many guests were accompanied by their partners We were treated to some excellent entertainment from Martin Perry who played the guitar and sang, in between recounting childhood memories of becoming immersed in rock and roll music.

Ann Pradhan decorated our Inner Wheel emblem with the Inner Wheel colours of blue and yellow.

Kathy seated between Member of Council Di Hylton and this year’s District Chairman Elaine Hopkins.

Kathy and Club secretary Anne Lyons. Next year Anne will still be our Club secretary but will also take on the role of Member of Council on the District Executive. The lovely top table arrangements were made by Jennifer Brackenbury. On each of the other dining tables Rosemary Wilson produced pretty arrangements also in blue and yellow. At the end of the evening President Kathy said these could be claimed by the person on each table whose birthday was nearest to the 18th February – Kathy’s birthday.

Elaine Campin who is one of District 22’s international service coordinators with a guest from the Ravenshead Club, Liz Teale

Whoops – Mary Hind, the incoming Chairman of District 22 and her partner seemed to be missing a name place . But they enjoyed the evening just the same.

Kathy thanks Martin Perry for a wonderful selection of songs presented in such a relaxed and humorous style.

The evening was a great success and Kathy has received lots of good reports particularly from the District Officers.

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.