Are you ready for… an in-person meeting??
As we have updated you before, our original idea of doing Zumba is postponed until we can all meet together indoors safely.
That change of plans gave the committee the oportunity to discuss what we as a WI might like to do instead.
When Michelle and her programme subcommittee came up with ideas last year, nobody knew when in-person meetings would be possible again.
Because it has been so long since we have seen each other, the committee really wanted to give everyone a chance just to sit down together, be together, and see each other.
Here are the essential details:
- We’ll be meeting at Dovecote Park
- The picnic will start from 18:30 onwards
- Because of Covid safety, please bring your own chairs and/or blankets, food and drink
- We will also be maintaining a safe but sociable distance from each other.
There will be enough space for us to meet and set up on the grass without risk.
There is also good parking in the area, and a chip shop nearby for those of you who’d like to have chips in the park rather than a traditional picnic.
You can, of course, come even if you’re not planning on eating.
If you would like to come an sit in on a committee meeting and make suggestions or simply see what we do, please get in touch. Every member is welcome to join us!
See you soon!
Don’t Forget!
What to bring to the next meeting
- Something to sit on;
- Something to eat and drink;
- Any other picnickery things you can think of 🙂
- We’ll be at Dovecote Park.
Other News
** Guest Post **
The Serenity Garden by Sue Evans
Apologies for not including this in the newsletter when it first went out. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen it in my inbox!
As many of you already know, The Hive Walk ‘n’ Talk group are raising funds for the Forever Stars Serenity Garden at Highfields Park.
The group set itself a 12 month challenge to walk 6,118 miles, starting from 1st February in the midst of lockdown.
The mileage is the equivalent distance for the seven members to each walk from Lands End to John O’Groats.
Forever Stars is a local charity which was originally set up in 2014 by parents who had suffered the heartbreak of a stillborn baby.
The charity provides support to families experiencing the sadness of baby loss.
The tireless fund raising efforts of the charity led to the establishment of much needed purpose built bereavement suites at the QMC and City Hospital.
The Serenity Garden was planned as a place of remembrance and it features two sculptures – a star and a fallen acorn which represents all those babies who never had the chance to grow.
Bereaved families can add the names of their babies to the sculptures by attaching petals.
Now that the garden is officially opened, names have begun to be added.
The Serenity Garden was officially opened on Friday 2nd July and we were honoured to be invited to the ceremony. It was a lovely occasion; you may have spotted some of us on the East Midlands news!
The garden is not quite finished – for example, there is a fountain still to be installed. However, we were all impressed by what has been achieved so far. It is a beautiful, tranquil and relaxing space and it was obvious that this is going to be a really special place for many families. It will also be enjoyed by the wider community.
One thing we will all remember is that as we arrived we chanced to get chatting to a lady who had gone through the devastating still birth of her granddaughter.
Hearing her very sad story and seeing so many similarly affected families really brought it home to us that our fund-raising is for such a worthwhile cause. It has renewed our determination to keep going and raise as much money as we can.
Our target is £500 which will fund a bench with a plaque, but it would be brilliant to raise even more. Extra funds could contribute towards bee friendly wildlife planting for example – very appropriate for The Hive!
We are nearly half way though our challenge (somewhere around Manchester!) and we are on track to have completed half our mileage by the end of July (that gets us to Penrith!).
At the time of writing we have raised £290 so we have a way to go.
We would be so grateful for any support you can give.
We would encourage you to visit the garden as we are sure it will have the same impact as it did on all of us who were fortunate enough to attend the opening ceremony.
You can’t help but feel sad but it is also a lovely place of hope and positivity and well worth a visit!
Please support us if you can. In the words of the Tesco ads, ‘every little helps!
A Little Highlight from Highbury
…we’ll keep in touch!
Dear members of The Hive WI,
We just wanted to write to thank you on behalf of the various services at Highbury Hospital.
As you know we care for individuals with a range of mental health issues and intellectual disabilities.
Often this means we go through a lot of equipment and sometimes unfortunately we have patients who come to us with very little belongings.
The items you’ve provided have been/will be incredibly useful and have been absolutely welcomed by those utilising them.
Thanks again for taking the time to support us.
I hope that in the future we’ll be able to invite some of your members to events here, as a thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Zenn Athat-James,
Highbury Site Co-ordinator & The Live! Team
CAKE Fighters
Trussell Trust
Food banks often see a sharp rise in demand over the summer period, and so this seemed like an ideal time to revisit this topic at CAKE Fighters.
The Trussell Trust supports a network of 1,200 food banks in the UK and campaigns to end the causes of poverty and hunger in the UK.
I’m very excited to say that CAKE Fighters will be joined by Emma Revie, the CEO of the Trussell Trust on Monday the 26th of July at 19:30.
When I contacted the charity to see who was available to talk, I did not expect to get a response from someone so highup!
We will be contacting our own local foodbank to find out if there is anything specifically that they need.
At our last CAKE Fighters event, we were joined by Prof Stacy Johnson MBE to talk about equality, diversity, and inclusion. Stacy is an award-winning speaker and activist and the first part of her talk felt like a poetry performance!
The event was attended by members from various WIs in Nottinghamshire and beyond. It included a lively discussion, which included the idea to check out what community centres were in Beeston that we might like to introduce ourselves to and do something with in the future.
Watch this space!
Keep Strolling, Strolling, Strolling
Hive Strollers and Cafe Society update
Thank you to Trish for volunteering to lead the Hive Strollers on Saturdays, and to Katie for volunteering to help lead the Cafe Society.
All WIs depend on volunteers so we really do appreciate what members do for us.
If you have an idea for a subgroup that you’d be willing to organise, please get in touch and we will give you the support and encouragement you need.
If you are interested in “strolling” midweek, please feel free to join and use the Strollers’ Messenger group to arrange to meet up yourself. There is, of course, the Facebook group, but you might have more luck on Messenger as members will get an alert on their phones.
Uh Oh, Not Already…
Not… Christmas?!
Oh (ho ho ho) yes.
We want to know if you have any ideas of what we can do for our December meeting.
The Supper Club is planning on meeting for a meal if this is possible.
Some ideas suggested at the committee were:
- Crafts
- Ceilidh
- And “carols and chips”.
Please note that your suggestions don’t have to start with the letter C even though for some reason ours all did!
We will put your suggestions up for all members to vote on.
The most popular suggestion will be the activity for our December meeting.
Regular Information
Time and Location
This month we are meeting at the earlier time of 18:30 in Dovecote Park.
The Hive’s July Calendar
What’s on when
Please note that the quiz is a week later this month.
- Wednesday 14, 18:30: Picnic in Person at Dovecote Lane Park
- Saturday 17, 14:00 – Crafternoon
- Thursday 22, 20:15 – Publess Quiz
- Monday 26, 19:30 – CAKE Fighters
- Wednesday 28, 14:00 – Cafe Society
- Wednesday 28, 18:30 – Committee Meeting
- Thursday 29, 18:45 – Book Club: Parasite by Mira Grant
- TBC: Walking groups
Recurring Events
Your shortcut to the subgroups
- CAKE Chat: Every first Monday (19:00)
- CAKE Fighters: Varying dates and times
- Publess Quiz: Every first Thursday (20:00)
- Main Meeting: Every second Wednesday (19:30-21:30)
- Crafternoon: Every third Saturday (14:00-16:00)
- Supper Club: Every third Wednesday
- Committee Meeting: Every fourth Wednesday (18:30)
- Cafe Society: Every last Wednesday (14:00)
- Thursday Book Club: Every last Thursday (19:00)
- Walk ‘n’ Talk: Every last weekend of the month (10:00)
Please get in touch if you would like to lead a subgroup.
For a list of the reading lists for our book groups, please go to our website or check the reminders on our Facebook group.
Walks for the Walk ‘n’ Talk will be listed on our website as soon as they have been planned.
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 