This month’s meeting comes with a little warning: we’ll be talking about the creation of a new memorial garden in Nottingham for the charity Forever Stars. Forever Stars helps parents affected by stillbirth or other perinatal or neonatal deaths.
Most of the meeting will be spent talking about the garden itself, but we wanted to let everyone know in advance just in case this was a particularly sensitive issue for anyone. As always, please do get in touch if we can do anything to support you.
Read on for more information…
April Meeting
“Supporting the Serenity Garden”
This month we’re joined by Jo Sharp, Corporate Fundraiser and Operations Manager of the Nottinghamshire charity Forever Stars.
Forever Starts supports newly bereaved parents by providing emotional support, practical advice and information.
Emotional support takes all kinds of forms, and one of the ways that the charity is trying to achieve this is through the creation of a memorial garden at Highfields Park.
The £1m garden, which is being created at Highfields Park, aims to create a place of ‘focus, relaxation and reflection for families,’ and will include a picnic area, a nature walk and a tree of tranquility where the names the babies and children can be inscribed upon the leaves.
It will be built in three phases over a five year period: the lake phase, the nature walk phase and the community area phase.
The Nottingham Post
The memorial garden will be the first of its kind in Nottingham.
As many of you will know, our Walk ‘n’ Talkers are doing their small part to raise £500 by walking the equivalent distance from John O’Groats to Land’s End.
The latest update from the group is that they have now walked a total of 135.6 miles! As Hayley posted in our Facebook group, “We are ‘virtually’ walking past Taunton and now heading for Tewksbury. 
“
We are very proud of how much The Hive WI does to join in with the community and how proactive we are in learning about and taking part in so many different projects and causes. This particular project will have such a lasting effect on the landscape of Nottingham, the families it will comfort, and even local the wildlife as well.
The images below show what the garden will look like when it is done:
We’d love to invite other Nottinghamshire WI members and Nottingham women to join us to learn about the garden and charity, so please help us spread the word.
On the Tables
Media swap, Just for Fun, and prizes
If you are on Facebook, head over to our member’s only Facebook group for a virtual version of our “On the Tables”.
- Walk ‘n’ Talk: If you’d like to donate to the Walk ‘n’ Talk challenge to support the Serenity Garden, look out for the link on our Facebook page and in our Facebook group.
- Show us your garden!: We’d love to see your gardening photos and what you’ve been up to outside now the weather is warm. We can’t swap plants (yet!) but we can swap photos!
- Media swap: We’re swapping media recommendations rather than physical items. Have you read or watched anything good lately? If so, head over to Facebook and start a thread about it!
Don’t Forget!
What to bring to the next meeting
- The Zoom link;
- A friend if you’d like to invite them along;
- That’s it!
Please note also that this meeting might be an emotional trigger for some of our members.
Other News
2021 Committee
Who, what, when
Last month was our Annual Meeting. We voted in our President and we’re happy to say that Cheryl will be leading the way for another year!
You can still join our Committee and request to sit in on a committee meeting any time to see what happens – and we really do promise that there are no expectations for you to sign up if you just want to observe.
The key roles on our 2021 Committee are:
- President: Cheryl R
- Vice President and Programme Co-ordinator: Michelle W
- Vice President and MSC Rep: Marie B
- Secretary: Sally P
- Treasurer: Rosanna M
- Assistant Treasurer: Kat M-B
We also have several non-specific roles on the committee that have nevertheless been important and influential in generating ideas, giving feedback, and making things happen such as the door-to-door delivery of scones, jam, cream, and tea last year.
Committees are essential to keep WIs running and we’d love to have you on board if you are interested. You can ask us about it by emailing us at thehivewi@gmail.com or by starting a conversation in our Facebook group.
Thank you to everyone on our 2021 committee so far!
Highbury Donations
There’s still a bit of time!
We are collecting items for in-patients staying at the mental health unit in Highbury Hospital. There is still time to donate!
Many patients end up at the hospital with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. Some may also be quite far from home and with no-one to bring them things they need.
These are the items that Highbury told us would be most helpful for their patients:
Toiletries
- Shower caps
- Safety razors
- Men’s toiletries (e.g. shaving cream)
- Shower gel
- Body wash
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Sanitary products
Clothing
- Men’s underwear
- Women’s knickers
- Bras
- T-shirts
- Jogging bottoms
- Pyjamas
- Ladies nighties
- Ladies t-shirts
Craft supplies
- Paint
- Glitter
- Coloured paper
- Stickers
- Colouring supplies
- Activities for men
Please note: they will not be accepting anything sharp or staples.
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated already!
CAKE Fighters: Women and Autism
…with Odd Girl Out Author Laura James
Author Laura James is joining CAKE Fighters this month to talk about (as the subtitle of her book says) being an autistic woman in a neurotypical world. This meeting will be conversation and we’ll be taking questions throughout.
You can see a preview of Laura in the video below talking to The Guardian about “the steak that roared”…
We will be recording this coversation so you can listen to it even if you can’t attend. However, if you join on the night you can ask as many questions as you like.
Please get in touch if you’d be interested in reading and talking about Laura’s book Odd Girl Out as that is certainly something we can do later in the month if enough Hive WI members and WI Wanderers are interested.
Last month, CAKE Fighters learnt about modern slavery with Helen McCabe. This is such a big topic with so many aspects to it that Helen has agreed to record a few podcast episodes with us about her work with The Rights Lab in Nottingham (The Rights Lab is the biggest research centre into modern slavery in the world).
You can download the slides she used with us in March by clicking on the download button:
2021 Membership
We bee-long together!
The annual membership for 2021 is £34. You can pay by BACS or post us a cheque. The exact details of how to pay were included in your delivery bag. Please email thehivewi@gmail.com if you have never been a member of The Hive WI before and would like the details on how to join.
Your membership entitles you to 11 main meetings a month (listed below), as well as access to our subgroups. Our subgroups include: Crafternoon, CAKE Fighters, the Thursday Book Club, Walk ‘n’ Walk, The Hive Strollers, and the Publess Quiz.
Walk ‘n’ Talk and the Hive Strollers will be able to meet in groups of six from April onward if Government plans stay on schedule, and the Publess Quiz may also be able to be pub-ful once again later in the year.
More subgroups may be added if you, our members, have any ideas for new ones that you’d like to lead.
Here is our 2021 Calendar:
- January 13: Kitchen Ceilidh
- February 10: Zero Waste Heroes
- March 10: Annual Meeting
- April 14: Supporting the Serenity Garden
- May 12: Resolutions
- June 9: House Plants and Health
- July 14: Zumba
- August 11: Handmade Preserves
- September 8: Autumn Foraging
- October 13: National Trust Gems
- November 10: The Alexander Technique
- December 8: TBC
If you want to stay on as a member (and we hope that you do!) we want to know about any changes to your contact details, such as your home address, email, or phone number.
We’d also like to know if you do not intend to renew your membership by sending an email to thehivewi@gmail.com.
Regular Information
Time and Location
Our main monthly meeting is every second Wednesday of the month at 19:30 on Zoom.
Non-Members and Guests
We’d love to meet you!
Guests can come to up to three monthly meetings each year as a guest before we ask them to consider joining officially as a member.
Guests can also come our subgroups – see below for our calendar.
The Hive’s April Calendar
What’s on when
The Cafe Society and Supper Club hope to meet when restrictions change – watch out for details!
- Thursday 1, 19:00 – CAKE Chat
- Wednesday 14, 19:30: Supporting the Serenity Garden
- Thursday 15, 20:15– Publess Quiz
- Saturday 17, 14:00 – Crafternoon
- Monday 19, 19:30 – CAKE Fighters: Autism and Women with Odd Girl Out author Laura James
- Wednesday 28, 18:30 – Committee Meeting
- Thursday 29, 18:45 – Book Club: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Recurring Events
Your shortcut to the subgroups
- C.A.K.E Chat: Every first Thursday, 19:00
- C.A.K.E. Fighters: Days and times vary
- Publess Quiz: Every third Thursday, 20:15
- Walk ‘n’ Talk: Every first weekend of the month on alternating Saturdays and Sundays – times vary, as do Government rules and advice
- Main Meeting: Every second Wednesday, 19:30-21:30
- Crafternoon: Every third Saturday, 14:00-16:00
- Committee Meeting: Every fourth Wednesday, 18:30
- Thursday Book Club: Every last Thursday, 18:45
Click here for more information on our subgroups.
Find Us Online
- Email: thehivewi@gmail.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/thehivewi
- Facebook group (members only): facebook.com/groups/thehivewi
- Twitter: twitter.com/thehivewi
- Website: thehivewi.com
- You can also search for us on Google Calendar using our email address.
The Hive WI 