Many of the books from the children’s library are missing so the library trustees are offering an amnesty during January 2020 on children’s books which are returned late. Please could all parents and children look on shelves and in cupboards at home for any library books that they have forgotten to return. However long ago they were borrowed, no fine will be incurred.
Two members from Box attended the Thanksgiving Centenary Celebration at Gloucester Cathedral in October. There was a wonderful display of craft work around the Cathedral produced by Gloucestershire Federation over the years.
We had a very successful AGM on 12th November. We have been able to elect a new enthusiastic committee and are ready to go!
Our programme for 2020 is complete and we are looking forward to our first meeting of the year on 14th January. Tom Herbert will be speaking to us on “The Work of the Grace Network”. This is a group of people who work together in a new way to serve the community and does not harm either the people or the planet. This covers many enterprises amongst which are food banks.
Our Group will be celebrating the New Year with a meal at the Edgemoor Inn on 21st January. The event last year was a great success and we are all keen to go there again!
Meetings at Box Village Hall are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, 10am business, coffee at 10.30am followed by a speaker. Visitors are warmly welcomed at 10.30am - £3 including coffee.
Geraldine Ames, President
At the time of writing, I do not know the amount raised from our Traidcraft Christmas coffee morning at the end of November. Thank you to everyone who came along or who helped on the day.
All profits from the coffee morning will be sent to Traidcraft Exchange who are more determined than ever to help vulnerable farmers and workers to get out of poverty through trade not aid— people like :
As you will probably remember, the Link had an information stall at the Country Fayre in September. We were pleased with the number of people who took an interest in the Link and asked questions. If anyone reading this would like to know more of the work of the Link, please do not hesitate to contact me; details of phone and email are at the foot of this report.
Many of you will remember meeting Stima, our local representative living in Urambo and who has been a stalwart working for the Link for at least 15 years. Without his support, many (probably none!) of the projects would have got off the ground in Nkokoto and the Folk Development College.
Our next meeting on 12th November is our AGM followed by Members’ Time. We have yet to decide what activity we shall undertake!
Liz Fallon from the Cotswold Posy Patch gave us an excellent demonstration on how to make a posy for our September gathering, the flowers being grown at her own farm. It was interesting to learn that the majority of flowers that we buy in a supermarket are grown abroad and treated with chemicals to make them last longer! She made it look easy to make a beautiful, natural bouquet and Gill Edgell was lucky enough to win it in the raffle.
Our talk in October on “Communities along the Upper Severn Estuary” began right back in the Ice Age and through to the present day and it is still evolving! A very thought-provoking address.
We are all looking forward to a WI Carol Service organised by Minchinhampton WI on Tuesday 3rd December in Minchinhampton Parish Church. It made us realise that Christmas will soon be with us!
Meetings at Box Village Hall are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, 10am business, coffee at 10.30am followed by a speaker. Visitors are warmly welcomed at 10.30am - £3 including coffee.
Geraldine Ames, President.
As we do not have a meeting or activity in August, it seems a long time since we have got together!
Our next meeting on 8th October is a talk by Rose Hewlett entitled “Living on the Edge”, about communities along the Upper Severn Estuary. Sounds very interesting and I must confess a subject I know nothing about.
We are hosting the Common’s Edge WI Group meeting on Monday 21st Oc-tober at 2pm for 2.30pm in Box Village Hall. I understand we will be sampling pickles and hope there will be recipes available for us to try.
The latest knitting project is making octopuses for prem babies. I love making these toys for the babies, but we all decided at Committee that the instructions looked very complicated. We have some excellent knitters in our Group, and they will have to be consulted.
Meetings at Box Village Hall are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, 10am business, coffee at 10.30am followed by a speaker. Visitors are warmly welcomed at 10.30am - £3 including coffee.
Geraldine Ames, President.
After a very successful Carol Service held at the Parish Church on Tuesday 3 December members met the next day for the final meeting of the year.
Our speaker, Mr Stephen Rowley, was then introduced and he made an impressive entrance as he was wearing a wonderfully coloured ragged coat and black curly brimmed hat and calling out a Mummers greeting. We were then given a display of pictures showing the various members of a Mummers Group and having the history explained. It is good to know that the old traditions are still upheld.
A vote of thanks was given and we then enjoyed chatting together over tea and mince pies.
We shall be meeting again on Wednesday 8 January (a week later than usual). Visitors/new members are always welcome to our meetings held on the first Wednesday of the month in the Library at 2pm.
Now we are into 2020, the future of Traidcraft using churches as an outlet is still uncertain.
Our Traidcraft Christmas coffee morning at the end of November was very successful and we sold over £900 worth of goods. A huge thank you to everyone who came along or who made cakes or helped on the day. Despite the success, it is becoming increasingly harder to order items to sell and our selection is getting smaller and smaller. All Traidcraft goods can be bought at Oxfam and in some large supermarkets....and this seems to be the pattern that is now happening. All profits from the coffee morning will be sent to Traidcraft Exchange who are more determined than ever to help vulnerable farmers and workers to get out of poverty through trade not aid.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil that comes from the fruits of African palms. Palm oil is the most commonly produced vegetable oil and can be found in almost half of our everyday purchases such as soap, candles, lipstick, chocolate and biscuits to name a few.
To make way for palm oil plantations, huge areas of rainforest are cleared. In Indonesia alone, an area the size of two football pitches is lost every minute. As a result, the natural habitats of many wildlife species are destroyed and the fires started to clear land release high levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is contributing to climate change.
We began our October meeting with a talk by the exceptional transplant swimmer Kelly Young, a local twenty-five year old who has won so many medals. We were spellbound as she took us through the whole story of her life beginning with the fact that she had had to have a liver transplant when she was four and a half months old. This was achieved by her mother donating a quarter of her liver to her daughter. This was so successful that Kelly took part in the Transplant Games at the age of eight.. Three years later she joined the swimming team and since then has achieved forty-six medals, many of them gold. We were all impressed by her determination and success and wish her continued success. Kelly then had to leave as she is a swimming instructor at Stroud Baths and she had a class of youngsters to teach and encourage.
After we had had tea we discussed details of our proposed Christmas Lunch which we hope to hold during the second week of December.
Diana Farn
Traidcraft Exchange are passionate about transforming world trade for the better. Both company and charity want to drastically improve the lives of vulnerable workers at the end of the value chain and protect the planet for generations to come. Traidcraft Exchange Hidden entrepreneurs project have helped Kenyan farmers trade out of poverty.
Ma’s Happy Life Kitchen believes in sustainable development for a sustainable future; the business was founded on strong, fair trade principles and their work focuses on supporting their diverse workforce’s welfare and development. Sustainably sourced from smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka, this tasty coconut milk has been lovingly squeezed from fresh coconuts to produce the smoothest coconut milk that’s bursting with flavour.
Members gathered on September 4th after the summer break, eager to meet friends and to listen to the guest speaker from the Sue Ryder Foundation. Firstly, we were pleased to welcome a guest WI member from Cheshire who was in the area.
The President gave details of a number of County event—Christmas shopping trips, a Christmas concert in Cheltenham and a holiday next year to the Isle of Wight—all available to members.
The guest speaker, Beth Davis, began by giving a brief resume of Lady Sue Ryder, who had a great desire to help people who had suffered during the last war, especially those from Poland who had been in concentration camps. Over the years, this developed into caring for cancer patients and the hospices (there are 7 run by the Sue Ryder Foundation in the county) began to take shape. Nowadays, they care for all types of terminal illness. The one at Leckhampton is the only inpatient unit in Gloucestershire and has sixteen beds; they also have daycare facilities three days a week.
We have a varied programme for the future and we would welcome you to our W.I. which meets on the first Wednesday of the month in the Library, starting at 2pm. Come and make new friends over a cup of tea and chat!
