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.

Speaker, Steve Cooke shared some very interesting facts and figures about immigration today and certainly gave us something to think about. He admitted much of what he had to say was controversial and there was a lively discussion after the talk.

Members generously brought a selection of toiletries for the DRS and a donation was made out of Club funds.

President Kathy did not expect our September meeting to be tinged with such sadness as we began with a two-minute silence to pay our respects to HM The Queen, our member Pat Collins and Mike Neville, husband of Yvonne Neville.

Kathy was very happy, however, to induct our three new members, Julia Brown, Laura Buck and Hazel Gifford plus welcoming Jenny Burroughes into our Club having transferred from Great Yarmouth. Each of them gave a short presentation of their backgrounds to the Club, which was much appreciated.

Long time member and much loved friend Pat Collins in her engagement photo with Roger her husband.

14 members were very busy one morning in August cutting stamps and enjoying coffee and chat outside.

Whilst four others were very efficiently packing 26 baby bundles in the kitchen ready for NPAC.

MANSFIELD INNER WHEEL CLUB’S MEETING ON JULY 13TH 2022

Kathy chaired her first meeting of the year in July and welcomed Elizabeth Holloway as a speaker.

Elizabeth Holloway was a Director of the Red Cross Charity in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire and her husband, Mike, was a journalist. Mike retired early and took over all the cooking & housework, as well as singing in a Choral Society in Derbyshire. When they both retired, he bought a new, narrow boat in Derbyshire and initially they found it quite difficult to open the locks!

They travelled 4 miles an hour and went up to Yorkshire, then along the canal to Manchester and down to Bridgewater Canal and White oaks. The winter months were spent in marinas, where there were launderettes!

They continued down the Grand Union canal to London, along the River Severn to the Thames, and through Teddington – which they really enjoyed! Their next journeys were from Henley to Banbury (with their 2 dogs!), Bristol harbour, Stratford on Avon and finally back to Matlock in Derbyshire, after living on the narrow boat for 6 years! They especially loved seeing the rural world and all the gardens along the riverside. Mike, apparently, really missed his boat adventures! Elizabeth was an excellent speaker, whose talk we all enjoyed very much.