Maidenhead WI

NEXT MEETING
Date: Tuesday 17 September 2024
Time: 7.15pm entry - to start at 7.30pm
Venue: Altwood School Hall, Altwood Road, Maidenhead
Speaker: ANDREW VINEY,
Deputy Chair and Operational Team Leader of
BERKSHIRE LOWLAND SEARCH & RESCUE.

Andrew will be talking about where the Berkshire Lowland Search & Rescue operate, who they are and who they typically search for. The equipment they use and how they search. Plenty of real life anecdotes from a very experienced volunteer searcher!

We will be holding our famous raffle, collecting recyclables, running the single stem flower competiion and collecting for the FoodBank. However, most importantly we will be serving tea and cake lavishly sprinkled with friendship and fun!
Members - free Non-members £5.00 (includes the tea and cake!)

If you would like to join us for a taster session either as a visitor or a prospective member - please contact our secretary at [email protected] prior to the meeting. A very warm welcome awaits all.

One of our most eagerly awaited trips was undertaken by many of our members when we recently visited the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Europe’s 1st traditional Hindu temple. Built from Bulgarian limestone and Italian Carrara marble which was then transported from their original sources to India where more then 1500 skilled artisans in 14 different sites worked on carving and coding each of the 26,300 pieces. Finally all these pieces were packed and transported to London where they were assembled into the magnificent building it is today. Together with the arduous task of designing a building that conformed to India's ancient architectural texts, the Vastu Shastras and met the requirements of Britain's stringent building regulations - this was all completed within 2.5 years. It is a self-loading building without any steel reinforcement or support. All this was accomplished with the help of thousands of volunteers. This Mandir has been created in London as a place of worship, learning, celebration, beauty, community, charity and peace. When entering the temple there is an immediate feeling of peace, spirituality and wonderment at the carvings. A truly moving experience for those of Hindu faith or not. The tour included a visit to the exhibition of understanding the Hindu faith. Sadly, the on-site restaurant is no longer open on the day we went but we did enjoy some very interesting and tasty Indian snacks at the on-site cafe and some of us even managed a little shopping at the supermarket taking home some unusual Indian delicacies!

This was a most interesting trip and highly recommended to anyone wishing to learn more about global faiths. We were made so very welcome. Some photos to follow, however no photography is allowed inside the temple so just outside views only!

Anyone wishing to join us at our next meeting as a visitor or prospective member, in September, please contact our Secretary for further details at: [email protected].

One of our recent trips was to St Katharine's Retreat, Parmoor at Frieth. We learned that the main purpose of St Katharine's is to be a retreat house where people from all walks of life, from all faiths or none, can come to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the house and grounds and leave feeling refreshed physically and spiritually. We were told of the amazing history of the house from when it was owned by the Knights Templar, then by the Saunders family in the 16th century - then the Doyle’s and then in 1860 by the Cripps family. During the Second World War King Zog and his family rented the house until he moved to Egypt in 1946. From 1947 - 1995 the nuns from Community of St Katharine of Alexandria bought it caring for mainly elderly ladies from the community. Today it is owned and run by the Sue Ryder Prayer Fellowship after the last surviving Mother gave Sue Ryder the grounds and buildings in 1995. We learned this history from the very entertaining Director Stewart who also described many of the finer details of the house and gardens. The walled garden - now named the Sue Ryder Memorial Garden - flourishes under the care of local volunteers and provides productive voluntary work and education for a group of disadvantaged young people who visit regularly. A wonderful home-made afternoon tea was enjoyed by all with a quiet meander around the grounds on a very sunny afternoon. Many tv and film productions have used St Katharine's over the years as a location. Many thanks to Stewart and his team for providing such an amazing trip for our WI. Would recommend it to any local Berkshire, Buckhamshire and Oxford WI!

Next meeting: Tuesday 16 July 2024 7.30pm start.
Venue: Altwood School:
Speaker: Ailsa Bosworth - National Patient Champion, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society
Title of Talk: Rheumatoid Arthritis & Juvenile Ideopathic Arthritis - The Facts and Figures and Impact.

This last meeting before our summer break will bring the usual wonderful raffle, a single-stemmed flower competition, friendship and cake!

If you would like to join us as either a visitor or prospective member please contact our secretary at [email protected] for catering purposes. A warm welcome awaits all!

Next Meeting: Tuesday 21 May 2024
Venue: Altwood School
Time 7.15-7.30pm.
Speaker:
Sue Anstiss MBE

“Advocacy, activism or anarchy - what's the future for women's sport?”

Sue Anstiss MBE is an author, director, podcaster and entrepreneur who has driven change in women’s sport for over 30 years.

Our meetings also include a wonderful raffle, a single stemmed flower competition, some serious stuff and CAKE!

A warm welcome always awaits visitors and prospective members. If you would like to join us please contact our secretary on [email protected] prior to the meeting so we can adjust seating and catering numbers.

Maidenhead WI has been quite busy lately! Our President Sue was pleased to present our chosen local charity 2023/24 People to Places with a cheque for £700. Our talented Craft Group continue to meet regularly and produce some amazing work. In April we celebrated our 12th birthday with a very special guest speaker - actor Tom Chambers, Strictly Come Dancing winner, Holby City star and currently appearing in the BBC's Father Brown. We also supported our member Lucy who ran her first London Marathon with her daughter and together became the Guinness World Record Holders for the fastest marathon run by a visually impaired Mother and Daughter! Our Ladies Who Lunch Group continue to meet regularly with our most recent venue being Norden Farm Cafe where we all enjoyed a splendid meal. We have visited 78 Derngate in Northampton - the only Charles Rennie Mackintosh house in England.

We have many more fascinating and varied speakers booked for this year together with some interesting visits. We enjoy meeting with other local WIs and even have a skittles match lined up in the summer with Littlewick Belles WI!

We always welcome visitors and prospective members - please email our secretary at [email protected] for further details.

Our President Sue has been busy again on our behalf! This time she was very happy to deliver our seasonal donations to Maidenhead Foodshare who were delighted to receive the many items and especially the store gift vouchers that our members have collected. Thank you everyone and especially Sue!

Our members recently enjoyed a brilliant day out to the Bath Christmas Market. The weather kept dry albeit a little chilly but the coach journey there and back was very smooth and comfortably warm! Lots to see and do there and we also managed to raise a good amount of money for our chosen charity this year - People to Places - with our travel raffle!

Our members were very happy to once again help The Baby Bank with their annual Pyjama Appeal and today our President Sue and Secretary Bev delivered 40 bags each containing new pyjamas, a new book and a chocolate selection box for distribution across the borough for those in need. The word is there will be another delivery later with more bags from Maidenhead WI!

Today our President, together with members, laid our wreath on behalf of Maidenhead WI at the Remembrance Service at Maidenhead Town Hall. Our wreath was made by two of our members on a recent visit to the Poppy Factory in Richmond.

Our latest visit to local global faith centres took us to SGI-Buddhist Centre at Taplow Court. Here 22 members were met and made very welcome by two of the staff (and later a third one!) who spent the morning demonstrating and explaining how the daily practice of chanting can empower a person to know themselves by illuminating their lives with the awareness of their potential rather than their limitations. We learned how Nichiren Buddhism began and where it is today. We were also privileged to share in personal stories of how two women found inner strength and peace at a time when they were both struggling in their student lives and were introduced to Buddhism and chanting. Thank you Taplow Court for an inspiring and interesting visit - and the cakes were wonderful!!

National Federation of Women's Institutes This is an opportunity to support our causes and campaigns, and be kept in the loop about all things WI. What are you waiting for?

This month a large group of our members visited Maidenhead Synagogue where we were made so very welcome. Our heads were buzzing with so much interesting information and we all learned so much about the Jewish faith. Our thanks to all who helped make the visit so memorable and answered all our never-ending questions! . Here are some photos recording such an educational morning.

As mentioned in the Meeting last night, here is information about the Christmas Pyjama Appeal from the Baby Bank.
Do bring any gift bags to the next meeting on November21st.
Thank you,

🎄 It’s back! Our popular Christmas Pyjama Appeal where we kindly ask for donations of brand new pyjamas, a selection box & new book in a labelled gift bag for us to gift to local children of newborn age up to sixteen (small/medium & large adults sizes also needed)

🎁 The closing date for these packs is Friday 1st December, however we will advertise if we have any outstanding ages once we’ve had all the orders in. Each year differs in terms of which sizes we need so at the moment all sizes and genders are needed.

🛍 We will be working with our referral partners to distribute our popular pyjama gift bags.

🧒🏼 We expect to have a lot of demand this year so rally friends, family, work teams & let’s make sure no child in our community goes without.

📍 Drop off at our premises, Tectonic Place, Holyport, SL6 2YE Monday, Wednesday and Fridays 9:30-12

🗓 Please note we are closed for a short break over half term (Monday 23rd Oct - Friday 27th Oct)



https://www.amazon.co.uk/baby-reg/thebabybank-windsor-december-2023-windsor/3GW3VJCEDTJCC

Maidenhead WI recently visited the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory in Richmond. It was a most interesting tour and not only were we able to make our own poppies - two of our members made our very own poppy wreath to be laid at our local Remembrance Day service next month too!

Our Ladies Who Lunch group met this month and enjoyed a very tasty and well presented meal at The Shire Horse. The pies were HUGE! Thank you Connor for looking after us so well!

Next meeting: Tuesday 19 September 2023

Speaker: Barbara Walmsley

Topic: “My Love Affair with Oxfam”

Barbara has been an Oxfam volunteer for 70 years - since she was legally old enough to shake a collecting tin in the street! She started the first Bridal Outlet in her home and there are now 8 Oxfam shops with Bridal Departments on their first floors. She has appeared on many tv programmes and is known as Oxfam's Green Granny. Come and listen to her fascinating story!

Visitors and prospective members are always welcome to our meetings - do please contact us beforehand for further details of the meeting and for catering purposes at [email protected]

We will be featuring our regular single-stem flower competition, fantastic raffle and collecting our usual recyclable items. As always we offer friendship and fun along with cake, coffee and tea!

As part of our journey of discovery learning of different faiths we visited our local Maidenhead mosque. What a delightful group of women they were who so warmly welcomed us and explained to us so much of their faith and what it means to them. We learned of the architecture of mosques, the reason why they have domes, the call to prayer via the minaret, the history of Islam, the five pillars of Islam, why the rituals of washing and praying are so important and we were taught the meaning of the various actions of prayer. We learned so much more in discussion in smaller groups too. These women were so generous in giving of their time, some delicious refreshments and a beautiful copy of the Qur’an - in English - together with a symbolic long stemmed white rose to each of us who attended. It was a very memorable visit. Thank you Maidenhead mosque!

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday 18 July 2023

TIME: 7.15 for 7.30pm start.
VENUE: Altwood School

TOPIC: “ A Mystery, Surprise, Fun Evening!” to see us into the holiday season!

Our regular collections of recyclable items, single-stem flower competition, a magnificent raffle - and of course tea, coffee and cake will also feature at our meeting along with a lot of fun and friendship!

Visitors and prospective members are always very welcome but please contact our Secretary at [email protected] if you would like to join us.

Maidenhead WI meet once a month (except in August) when we may listen to interesting speakers or craft something together, engage in a quiz or attempt to achieve something quite outside our comfort zones! We have numerous clipboards where members can sign up for a selection of events and trips often being able to include friends and families. However, there are some things we always love to see at all our meetings - including of course current members and new faces! Here are a few pictorial reminders.
Please contact our Secretary if you wish more information on visiting our WI. [email protected]
Visitors and prospective members are always welcome.

NEXT MEETING

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 21 June 2023
Venue: Altwood School
Time: 7.15pm to start at 7.30pm.

Speaker Topics: The First Golden Age of Women's Football, Iconic Fashion of the 1940s and Not Just a Trolley Dolly!

These fascinating subjects will be shared by three of our members whose lives have been changed because of their passion and interest in them.

Our regular collections of recyclable items, single-stem flower competition, a magnificent raffle - and tea, coffee and cake will also feature at our meeting along with a lot of fun and friendship!

Visitors and prospective members are always very welcome but please contact our Secretary at [email protected] if you would like to join us.

Our chosen charity for the past year has been Maidenhead and District Talking Newspaper Association. Here is a picture of our WI President Sue Ingram presenting a delighted Diane Hayes the chairman of this vital local charity with a cheque for £1,000. Our thanks to everyone who helped us raise this money.

Maidenhead WI celebrated the coronation with a cream tea in Windsor! 30 of us were royally entertained by Windsor Farm Shop with wonderful service and HUGE scones! It was a memorable afternoon and some of us even indulged ourselves with a little retail therapy!

Our May meeting will be held on Tuesday 16 May 2023.
Venue: Altwood School.
Time: Arrival 7.15 - 7.30pm and ends at 9.15pm
Speaker: Paul Johnson
Topic: "BE SCAM AWARE"

We will have the usual competitions, raffle, refreshments and above all - friendship!
Lots of information of local and national WI events.
Visitors and prospective members are always welcome.
Please contact our Secretary if you would like to join us at
[email protected] and we will be ready to welcome you!

Become a Supporter Interested in our campaigns and the WI movement but unable to attend regular meetings or living overseas? Become a Supporter and get involved.

Would you know what this is?

All our members who attended our March meeting do!

Our chosen charity for 2022/3 is The Talking Newspaper in Maidenhead and speaker Diane Hayes came along to tell us all about it and how much they need our support. We learned that every person with visual impairments who wishes to use the services of the Talking Newspaper is given one of these (a USB reader) and then they regularly receive the USB stick via the post. Thus they can then hear the the local news read by local volunteers. A very worthwhile local charity that we are proud to support this year.

Visitors and new members are always welcome at our meetings. Please contact [email protected] for further details.

The ladies from our Knit and Natter group have been busy knitting and crocheting these wonderful blankets for our local Thames Hospice. These are just a few, some having already been delivered to the Hospice!

The blankets will be used as part of their 'Blanket Therapy' providing comfort to patients and their families.

A truly fantastic effort for a wonderful cause - a huge well done and thank you to all involved.