More about our 2017 charity MHAGS

SHWI’s chosen charity for 2017 was Mental Health Action Group Sheffield (MHAGS). The charity started as a campaign group set up by Dorothy Gilman in the 1980’s under the name Mental Illness Action Group. In 1992 Tim Jones set MHAGS up as a day centre after NHS cuts resulted in the partial closures of mental health day centres across the local region. Tim still volunteers at MHAGS as lead campaigner and project coordinator, and was there to show me around their Hillsborough based premises when I went to visit them.

They currently run as a drop-in centre, providing hot meals (with food donations from Fareshare) and support to local people who are suffering from mental health conditions. Some of MHAGS’s service users are not just affected by mental health conditions, but also learning difficulties and other disabilities. In the past, MHAGS were able to offer day trips, activities and workshops to their service users, as well as access to psychiatric nurses who would be put on placement with the charity. The walls of MHAGS HQ are covered in artwork made by service users in the past. There’s a trophy shelf showing off the accomplishments of the sports teams MHAGS used to run. The office has files full of photographs developed in the darkroom MHAGS used to have.

Unfortunately, Sheffield Council are no longer funding MHAGS and now they do not have the money to run the charity in the same way they did in the past. Having been based in the city centre for many years, MHAGS is now less conveniently located up a hill on the Langsett Estate. Whilst the building itself has disabled access, the new location has proved difficult for some service users to get to. They are looking to start new groups in the near future in order to support their service users, such as a gardening group and a tropical fish-keeping group – the main room in the centre is full of donated tanks of beautiful tropical fish.

But the reality is that without funding, MHAGS wil have to close. This is a unique, “user-led” centre providing friendly support to some of the most vulnerable adults in Sheffield.

Therefore, I just want to thank everyone and anyone who has helped us raise money for MHAGS in the past 12 months. We’ve raised over £3000 for them so far and the final total will be made available in March.

If you want to learn more about them, check out https://www.mhagsheffield.org/ 

Laura B-H
President

CSI: Sheffield

As a true crime nerd, crime drama fan and upholder of the law (admittedly, health and safety legislation) I could not have been more excited for our August meeting! We welcomed two ladies from Huddersfield based Think Forensic (www.thinkforensic.co.uk) who brought a case full of crime scene investigating goodies for us to play with.

But before we got our Horatio Caine on, we welcomed Cavendish Cancer Care, who we presented with a cheque for £300! Whilst not our 2017 charity, CCC were kind enough to let us share their charity stall at this year’s Sunfest. Money made from our boozey bake sale was split between SHWI’s chosen charity Mental Health Action Group Sheffield and Abbeydale Brewery’s chosen charity, Cavendish Cancer Care.

First up for Think Forensic, CSI Sue gave a little presentation showing all the fun stuff they get up to at their centre in West Yorkshire. This included checking out a variety of crime scenes and looking at bloody splatter patterns by whacking dummy heads in until red paint flies out. Who doesn’t want to pretend to be Dexter?

Of course, testing out blood splatter patterns isn’t really appropriate in a church hall – so we started off by learning about footprints! Turns out CSIs are unlikely to give an exact foot size when looking at footprints as the environment can distort them. In fact – CSIs try to be as non-specific as possible when giving evidence in case it comes back to bite them in court. So a black fibre found at a crime scene would be noted as “dark coloured fibre” just in case the defence try to argue specifics. Committee member Victoria volunteered her shoe for a demonstration and sunk her foot into some foamy polystyrene that was then filled in with a quick drying orangey substance. It was dry enough an hour later for her to take home! A unique paperweight methinks.

Next up we looked at fingerprints. We all had the chance to take our own fingerprints using black tiles and squirrel hair brushes pre-loaded with powder. We also learnt that there are hundreds of powders available to CSIs, to handle all the different colours and textures of materials that need testing – including magnetic powder for paperwork and fluorescent coloured powders that I wanted to stash in my makeup bag.

Our last demonstration looked at hair and fibres. CSIs can take a sample of hair and tell you if it belongs to a human (and what race they are) or an animal (and what animal it is!) Apparently, rabbit hair is the prettiest to look at. We looked at teeny slices of human hair and cross sections of animal hair, and various types of fibres before moving on to THE COOLEST TOY I HAVE EVER SEEN CONNECTED TO A LAPTOP. A super tiny microscopic camera that focuses on an area the size of a pin prick. SHWIers volunteered their sweaters so the group could see what type of fibres were involved in the clothing. Then Sue started putting the camera in volunteer’s hair – she could tell what product they had used on their bonce! As a group of mature and sensible ladies, you’ll be pleased to know we all resisted the urge to shove the camera anywhere unsavoury.

Laura Bainbridge-Hattersley
SHWI Secretary (and Health & Safety Advisor)

Girl Gang Sheffield and our new charity of the year

Our February meeting was a miserable, cold and wet night, several Committee members were ill, but it was the night we discovered our church has some sort of underfloor heating system. It was like winning the lottery, warm parquet is a actual thing. 

We opened our doors and were greeted by our ladies laden with cakes and full of chatter; I can only comment on Karin's incredible kladd kaka (like chocolate brownie) with orange and cayenne pepper - wow!! Our meeting for this month was made brighter by our friends from Girl Gang Sheffield who led our meeting on positivity and self celebration. 

Before we got down to positivity and feeling great, Grace ran through some SHWI business, passing on thanks from Light Sheffield for our fundraising efforts in 2016 and informing us of her successful negotiations in securing a stall for Sheffield Food Festival.

In February we traditionally vote for our charity of the year, this year we had 7 amazing nominations; Ashiana Sheffield, Golddigger Trust, Haven House, Memories from Isla, MHAGS Sheffield, Snowdrop Project and Whirlow Hall Farm Trust. Following a wholly democratic sticky dot led voting process (watch out Electoral Reform Commission) I was delighted to announce that our support for 2017 will be MHAGS Sheffield.  Watch out for our fundraising ideas over the coming months - one definite already in the diary is the Food Fest in May, so get your bake on!

After a swift break, Vanhessa, Ellie and Charly from Girl Gang Sheffield introduced their manifesto to our group and shared the reasons why they set up Girl Gang - their focus being to shine a light on women in Sheffield and support and promote the work they are doing.  

Girl Gang started by a core group of like minded women in Sheffield and has now expanded to Leeds and Manchester where their events centre around creativity, artistry, music and talent, and have a feminist undercurrent to encourage us all to value ourselves more.  The Girl Gang website states that a girl gang can be whatever you want it to be - encouraging skills sharing, self love and the power of female friendships - all of which I get from our fantastic SHWI girl gang.

Our activity for the evening was poster making focusing on making a positive statement to ourselves, taking back the negative perceptions and opinions we have about ourselves; the little voice in your head which can appear to be shouting you down and making you feel crappy.  What followed was an hour of positive reinforcement, shared experiences and laughter; and what resulted was a whole array of amazing posters, many adorned with a vast repertoire of swear words.

When I joined SHWI in November 2015 it was because I was missing nights like this. I was existing in a city I had called home for over 10 years with friends living 40 miles away becoming more and more remote, what I craved was the company of like-minded people, women supporting women, sharing experiences and offering advice.  We all lead such busy professional and social lives, living in a digital era where the restorative power of an actual conversation can often be forgotten.  Thank you Girl Gang for your support in delivering such an inspirational and uplifting evening!

Rachel White

Vice-President

Not just fundraising: A post on becoming a trustee for Light Sheffield

Our members have been involved in more than just fundraising for Light Sheffield, our charity of the year. Emma Clarke has volunteered to be a trustee for the charity and has written the following post to introduce what she has been doing so far and why the charity is so important. 

It was her smile upon leaving the room at the end of the session that stuck with me. Its softness, that it reached her eyes.

As I drove home I thought of the labels which had been attached to this young woman over the previous six months. Teen mum. Mental health service-user. Perinatal mental health patient. Post-natally depressed. I wondered at what point she lost her identity and I tried to imagine just how alone she must feel.

It was Sarah's* first visit to Light Sheffield's weekly group. She came with her mum and her beautiful six-month old daughter. She'd travelled across the city and was too nervous to join in at first, so Jess, project manager, and Amy*, a volunteer, welcomed her in a separate room, telling her about Light, offering compassion and tea, letting her know she'd found a safe space, that she was amongst people who understood. She had found her tribe.

As the three generations of this family - grandma, mum and baby girl - sat on the floor with other mums, surrounded by toys, with a jungle gym providing helpful distraction to an inquisitive little one, I witnessed the power of fellowship. A group of mums who, through conversation, laughter, the swapping of tips and the provision of a listening ear, generated Light and shared it with one another. In professionalised terms this is called peer support, in the real world it's called friendship.

As Sarah headed out of the door at the end of the session – showing that soft smile - she took with her information on sling types, an alternative to Bonjela which came with high praise, the phone number of another mum whose own daughter was only a few weeks older and had joined a WhatsApp group to use in those lonely moments in the middle of the night or to share the good ones. But the most precious thing she took with her was the knowledge that she is doing just fine and there is Light ahead.

The two hours I spent getting to know some of the mums who use Light Sheffield confirmed in my mind becoming a Trustee was the right thing to do. And I hope this small insight in to the work of the charity shows the difference your cake-baking, beer brewing and general drum-banging makes for women in Sheffield.

Emma Clarke 

SHWI member

Visit Light Sheffield's website for more information on their work and support

SHWI Brew

We were ecstatic when Abbeydale Brewery asked us to become their brewing partner for their SunFest beer festival brew.

One of our newest members, Laura Rangeley works for Abbeydale and knows how much some of our contingent love a good beer so she suggested we pair up and create our own beer which would be Abbeydale's special beer for their ever-popular SunFest beer festival. Not only did it mean mucking in and making our own beer - they were going to give us 10p from every pint sold to our charity of the year - Light Sheffield. Plus they wanted us to sell our ever-popular homemade bakes at the festival for the charity. How could we refuse such a generous offer?

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take part in the brew day as it fell on the Saturday when many of us were at Eroica festival in Bakewell with another charity cake stall. But 8 of our gang went along to help brew the beer with Laura. We weren't left to our own devices - Baxter, Brewer at Abbeydale, was there to show us the ropes.

Laura Rangeley and Baxter

Laura had decided in advance (with suggestions from the rest of our group) that a lemon and earl gray pale ale fit the bill for our own special beer. Different enough to intrigue but safe enough to please real ale fans!

Laura B-H, Jules and Di get zesting

The brew gang got stuck in - zesting 100 lemons by hand. Tea was supplied by Sheffield tea-makers extraordinaire Birdhouse Tea Company and added to our brew.

By all accounts, a fun day was had by our SHWI brewers. Many can't actually remember the whole day - I wonder if the samples beers during the process have anything to do with that...

Baxter shows SHWI the ropes

A month later and the beer was ready for the festival at the Rising Sun pub. And it was delicious - so delicious in fact, it was the first beer to sell out!

We planned to keep things simple for our bake stall as we wasn't sure how popular we would be at the beer festival. Would real ale drinkers fancy homemade cake over the professional bbq stand? Bex and the gang thought a good amount of savouries would go down a treat and they were right - sausage rolls, savoury muffins and cheese straws were sold quicker than hot cakes. Friends of SHWI, Smo-Fo donated some of their delicious bar snacks which we sold to soak up the beer. And Di's SHWI lived up to it's legendary status and was all gone in less than an hour.

On both Friday and Saturday, we sold out of all our baked goods and raised an amazing £800 over both days.

Laura R, VPM, LBH and Kirsty

A big thank you to Laura Rangeley and Abbeydale Brewery for inviting us to the festival and allowing us to have our own beer. The beer is heading to pubs across the country in the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled for 'Not Just Jam'.

Also, big thanks to Laura B, Bex, Grace, Anna T, Laura K, Cat De L, Anna P who helped on the stall and all our other amazing SHWI-ers who made or bought bakes for the weekend.

Kirsty Bowen
SHWI President

Raising money with cake at Eroica Britannia Festival

We've just about recovered from a weekend in Bakewell at Eroica Britannia festival - and what a fab weekend it was! 

Photo: Brook Hayes

It was at the beginning of the year when Eroica invited us to have a stall at the festival. They had seen how successful we had been at events like Sheffield Food Festival and wanted us to bring some WI flavour to Eroica. 

Eroica (not Erotica like some people think!) is a 3-day family lifestyle and cycling festival in the Peak District not far from Sheffield. Now in it's third year, the festival is based on the original L’Eroica (meaning 'the heroes') cycle ride held every year in Gaiole, Tuscany, since 1997. It's a of good old-fashioned cycling before carbon fibre, lycra gear and energy gels.

But it's not just cycling - there's lots of vintage clothing, crafts, music, entertainment, and most importantly for SHWI, food! 

Photo: Brook Hayes

Grace and I worked together on organising our stall like previously at Sheffield Food Festival. We try and divide it straight down the line - she deals with our WI volunteers and I sort the logistics and liason with the organisers. 

This time we were camping which provided an extra layer of complexity! But luckily, we had some excellent help all weekend from Charlotte, Brook and Cat who helped Grace and I get fed and stay dry. We had been concentrating so hard on our stall that we forgot essentials like toothpaste, wellies (we arrived to a mud bath on site), and food. 

We were supplied with extra hands bringing fresh cake every day too which meant we got to have a wander round the festival, soak up the atmosphere or go for a much needed kip! 

Photo: Brook Hayes

Saturday was our best day and we had a steady stream of customers buying our brownies, flapjack and lemon drizzle cakes. It was great to see so many WI members too from groups around the country! Grace and Lucy had entered the Best in Show cake competition and Lucy came third place. Other competitions included Best Dressed, Best Home Brew, Best Dressed Dog and Best Moustache! 

Photo: Brook Hayes

Sunday was the day of the big bike ride and cyclists set off from Bakewell early to ride 30, 55 or 100 miles through the beautiful Peaks. It was a quieter day for us as families and friends were busy watching the ride. However, we still had a good day and loved watching all the bikes arrive at the finish line. 

We're so happy that we raised another £600 for Light Sheffield, our charity of the year who support families affected by perinatal mental health illnesses. 

Photo: Ellie Last

Thank you to everyone who made cake or volunteered, or came to buy some cake from us! And a big thanks to Eroica for inviting us. 

Our next fundraising event will be SunFest - Abbeydale Brewery's beer festival at the Rising Sun, Fulwood Road, Sheffield. 

We raised over £1000 at Sheffield Food Festival

We've raised over £1000 selling homemade cake for a local charity at this year’s Sheffield Food Festival.

For the fifth year in a row, our city centre WI group have been at the festival by baking and selling cakes. This year’s stall in the Peace Gardens was extremely popular with the stall selling out of cakes every day. We raised £1024 in total.

Kirsty Bowen, President of Seven Hills WI said “Our stall was a massive hit once again at Sheffield Food Festival. Thank you to everyone who came down and bought cake or entered our raffle and a big thank you to all our members who worked hard to volunteer or bake.”

All the money raised will go to Light Sheffield, a local charity run providing support across Sheffield to families affected by perinatal mental health illnesses, including post natal depression and anxiety. Our members voted to support Light Sheffield as their charity for 2016.

Jess Rennie from Light Sheffield said: “It’s fantastic that Seven Hills WI have raised so much money from cake! We want to thank all the members who volunteered or baked cake. The Money will go to helping mums and their families who are affected by perinatal mental illnesses in Sheffield and the surrounding areas, to access valuable support provided by Light Sheffield.

Seven Hills WI have been invited to take part in Eroica Britannia family festival in June, bringing our popular charity cake stall to Bakewell Showground. We will be at the festival on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June 2016.

Seven Hills WI return to Sheffield Food Festival

South Yorkshire’s largest Women’s Institute group, Seven Hills WI will be selling cakes once again for a local charity at this year’s Sheffield Food Festival.

The group have taken part in the festival since it began in 2011, selling homemade baked treats by women from the group. 

Members at Sheffield Food Festival 2015

This year, the Seven Hills WI stall will be in the Peace Gardens on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May 2016. All money raised will go to local charity, Light Sheffield.

Light Sheffield is a small local charity run by volunteers providing support across Sheffield to families affected by perinatal mental health illnesses, including post natal depression and anxiety. Seven Hills WI’s members voted to support Light Sheffield as it’s charity for 2016.

Kirsty Bowen, President of Seven Hills WI said: “Every year, our members pull out all the stops to bake some impressive cakes for visitors at Sheffield Food Festival.

“We hope to beat last year’s amount raised and help Sheffield Light who provide a really important service to women and families in our community.”

Jess Rennie from Light Sheffield said: “We are absolutely delighted that Light Sheffield were chosen as Seven Hills WI’s charity of the year.

“We are a small charity so the money raised at Sheffield Food Festival will really make a difference to our work supporting women and families who are affected by perinatal mental health illnesses.”

Sheffield Food Festival is an annual event in the city centre, celebrating the quality and diversity of food and drink produced within the region.

Kicking ass and taking names: SHWI do self-defence

Another fantastic meeting with the Seven Hills ladies in March, this time with added kick!

I actually mean that quite literally as we had the wonderful Radek Kalas who came to see us and teach some pretty punchy self defense in the style of Krav Maga. Long gone, it would seem, are the days of handing over your purse and being nice about it, its all kicking ass and taking names these days.
The meeting kicked off with our annual vote for our charity of the year. Judy Kelso from SAYiT, our previous charity of the year was there to explain how they would be using the money we've raised. It was great to hear how we have made a difference to this small charity and she even brought along some of the young people who will benefit from the funds raised.

Treasurer Vicky with Judy and some of the young people from SAYiT

Then we heard a bit about the charities our members had nominated to become this year's charity of the year. All of them were worthwhile causes and it's a shame we can't support them all but we feel like it's important to have a concentrated effort each year for one charity.

After counting all the votes, it was announced that our charity of the year for 2016-17 will be Sheffield Light. Sheffield Light is a small local charity run by volunteers providing support across Sheffield to families affected by perinatal mental heath illnesses, including post natal depression and anxiety. We can't wait to get cracking and help support this worthy cause. 

Then we moved onto our activity - self defence!

Members with instructor Radek

Anyone who happened to be walking past might have been forgiven for being a little nervy -after hearing some of the shouts and seeing a lot of the punches and kicks going on in there I was a little nervy myself! I wouldn’t have wanted to get on the wrong side of most of the ladies that night after hearing rowdy agreements to the instructor suggesting you put your thumbs in the attackers eyes and ‘touch brain’. How splendid. I’m not sure the uninitiated would believe the WI could be quite so rambunctious. Tea, cakes and elbows to the crotch!

On a lighter note, everyone seemed to have a fantastic time - nothing like a good workout and pad pummeling to get the endorphins flowing. Plus, everyone is settling really well to the new venue, feels like we’ve been there a lot longer than a few months. Thanks for another great meeting. Same time again next month everyone?

Jodie Winters
Committee member

Christmas meeting and cocktails

December is always a special time for us SHWI-ers. Secret Santa and our Christmas quiz always gets us in the festive mood. However, this meeting was to be our last at Electric Works and we wanted to celebrate. 

Our last meeting at Electric Works - December 2015

Electric Works has been great for us. It’s allowed us to expand to 135 members. We’ve been able to accommodate disabled members and guests easily. We’ve had a ceilidh, cheerleading, crafting, parties and a market. But it’s time for us to move on, but not before one last go on the helter skelter!

Our main entertainment for the evening was Ed, Cocktail-Maker-in-Chief at The Broadfield and all-round spirits connoisseur. He showed us how to make three cocktails, the history behind it and we all got to taste. Hiccup!

Ed shows us how it's done

I also put together my annual Christmas quiz which this time was a picture round of clips from Christmas films. Congrats to the winners!

Winners of the quiz

Secret Santa is always popular with our gang. Members who want to take part bring a wrapped gift worth £5 and get to take away one themselves. I saved mine until Christmas Day and was thankful for some special festive beers. Thanks Santa!

Our Secret Santa presents

We also invited Jo and Theresa from the Young Women’s Housing Project to have a photo with the big cheque totalling all our fundraising from 2014. They gave us an update on where they money we raised has gone and how this has benefitted the women and children they support. We’ll be inviting our charity of 2015, SAYiT to do this same early in 2016. 

Jen and Kirsty hand over the cheque

I was very emotional to see the big pile of food we collected this month for local food banks. Members really dug deep into their pockets (and cupboards!) and brought Christmas puddings, mince pies, stuffing and gravy to make sure the vulnerable people in our community had a great holiday too. This month, I took the donations to St Thomas’ Church in Crookes and they were very grateful so thanks to everyone who helped. 

Our donations to the food bank

Here’s to a successful and happy Seven Hills WI in 2016 at our new home!

Kirsty Bowen
President

Shelley Richmond talks about Rain Rescue and how photos can save furry lives.

November is always an exciting month, as it's our group Annual Meeting….. Which means we get to sing Jerusalem. Our youngest attendee Polly also joined us in song which was wonderful, a future member indeed! 

Kirsty took us through her first presidential address. Laura took us through the highlights of our year which were many. It's so great to look back over the last 12 months and see what we've achieved in our Centenary Year with both a new President and Secretary. Vicky took us through our financial statement and we have a healthy bank balance once again meaning that we can continue to offer the very popular Denmark bursaries. 

After a quick break we were onto our speaker. We were joined by Shelley Richmond, although not to craft with felt as per the programme, but instead to talk about her work with Rain Rescue. 

Rain Rescue are a Registered Charity founded in 2002. They are dedicated to supporting the local community by ensuring the provision of a reputable rescue centre to help pets in true crisis. Rain Rescue has saved the lives of thousands of dogs and cats from crisis situations in and around Yorkshire. Primarily savings dogs due to be put to sleep in the stray kennels and cats abandoned on the street who have no one else to care for them. Shelley showed us some images which were upsetting to some (I may have been squeezing Zoe and Anna's hands a bit tight… sorry about that!) and a few moist eyes dotted the room. 

Shelley’s passion and love for dogs was clear as she told us about a few cases, Colin in particular stuck in my mind. He was in a bad way when Rain Rescue picked him up, with awful injuries inflicted by heartless people. Rain Rescue has nursed him back to full health and Colin is also one of the stars featured in the Rain Rescue calendar which Shelley has taken photographs for. 

Photo by Shelley Richmond

The meeting ended on a high note hearing the recovery stories and seeing the ‘after’ photos. We also got to know about Shelley’s mission to change how people feel about the Staffy breed and their owners through a series of beautiful photos. Thank you to Shelley for her visit and to her and Rain Rescue for all they do for vulnerable animals. 

Sarah Willoughby
Committee member

Tea and Tents 2015

Avid readers of the SHWI blog will know that I usually write the posts after the SHWI Getaways at Currer Laithe and I felt it was only fitting for me to do the same for another getaway comprising of WI fun. However, typically, I write the post within about 24 hours of returning because I am pining so much and trying forlornly to relive the memories, sobbing quietly onto my sofa. Well, this time, I am looking back on the event a whole fortnight after returning. You slacker, Pilson, I can hear you all tutting. However, I have good reason. The delay is due to the fact that I have spent approximately 23 hours and 45 mins of each day following my return (sleep’s for the weak, dude) on the Tea and Tents Facebook page conversing, commiserating and chortling with my many new WI sisters across the country…

So let’s get back to the weekend of wonder itself. With school being out for summer, I excitedly headed towards the wilds of Walesby to participate in Tea and Tents 2. This belter of a camping trip was first organised last year and attended by several SHWI members, whose amazing feedback made this year’s event THE hot ticket for many SHWI-ers (apart from Keighley of course). So 19 of us descended en masse to a campsite usually reserved for scouts! After setting up our tents (thank you

Sarah and Bex for saving an ace area for us), we headed to the main tent for the fuddle. Can you imagine the cornucopia provided in that tent by the cooking of 500 WI members? AMAZING! However, it was quite difficult to get to the food given the organisation of the tables in the tent, so sadly I was unable to participate – this may be my only SLIGHT area for improvement of the whole weekend – next time perhaps have food on all of the tables and everyone eat al fresco. Luckily, we had a guerrilla fuddle at SHWI camp HQ and I was ‘forced’ to abandon my #veganlifestyle by Liz’s

divine mackerel pate. It was a real hardship I can tell you…

Once we were Christmas Day-style stuffed, we welcomed around 30-40 women from other WI’s to Laura’s beer swap. It proved so popular that we had to break into 4 groups. We organised the beer by ABV from weakest to strongest and supped to our heart’s content, sharing opinions on the booze and generally chatting about our WIs. Although I met lots of lovely ladies in my group, I must give a special mention to our nearby neighbours, Youlgrave WI, whom we will definitely visit soon. Despite

us making a valiant attempt, there was so much beer left that many ladies took a bottle home with them and Laura was left with a beer pyramid for her own personal consumption. I imagine it lasted

approximately 2 hours…

Saturday was a day full of activities for all – some more sedate than others. Carolyne and Liz got the  ball rolling (quite literally) by participating in a game of Quidditch! It’s not just all tea and cakes in  the WI you know, well at least not until the afternoon! Other activities across the weekend included Pilates, crochet, flower crown making, paper cutting, self-defence, a market, best in show competition, quiz, afternoon teas, yarn bombing, sports day (special mention to the UK WI Egg and

Spoon champion Liz Mitchell here!) There was a myriad of talks, including one by the fabulous Joanne Croxford of the Daisy Change WI. I mention this talk in particular because we are lucky enough to have Joanne coming to talk to us at our Centenary Mixer on Saturday September 26th about how the WI changed her life and about setting up the country’s first WI at a psychiatric unit – members, you should come! Tickets only £1! Also, there was a particularly competitive game of Rounders. Did you know that our president, Kirsty Bowen, whom we trust to lead us with dignity and valour, is actually a ruthless Rounders cheat? A victory is not a victory when gained through pernicious means…(Editors Note: Kirsty in no way cheated and is in fact a Lincolnshire district rounders runner-up champion 2002 - KB).

Some of us also chose to take part in Walesby’s standard scouting activity programme, with lake- based frolics or an action-packed activity course. Liz, Bex and I braved the mosquitoes of Walesby by trekking through the forest down to the lake to participate in body-boarding and kayaking. The body boarding basically consisted or jumping headfirst down a ‘slip ‘n’ slide’ on a hill into the lake. It was great fun, unless you let go of the body board and end up sliding down the rocky ground on your belly. As Liz discovered, you may not get to the bottom with everything intact. Don’t worry, she wasn’t hurt, but let’s just say that she gave the young gentleman overseer a treat that he wouldn’t get from the Scouts! On Sunday morning many ladies blew off the cobwebs with a brisk session of axe throwing, zip wiring and climbing. SHWI ‘sensible is my middle name’ Secretary Laura Bainbridge had been very well-behaved up to this point over the weekend, so OF COURSE she had to leave the  latter activity with a suspected broken wrist! It certainly made the Sunday night a bit different for  myself and Becky, who accompanied her to Bassetlaw A and E for an X-Ray (thank you to Theresa and Rachel who patched her up in the meantime, and fear not - it turned out to be a sprain). Who’d  have thought that ACTUAL HEALTH AND SAFETY PROFESSIONAL Laura would sustain a  NON-ALCOHOL-RELATED INJURY? Mindblowing.

Members from other WI's enjoyed dining dining with us for a curry feast!

Luckily, she soldiered on long enough for us all to enjoy Sarah’s curry feast – who else could cater  for 30+ people on a camping stove and make it quality better than most Indian restaurants? We  welcomed ladies from several other WIs and I must admit I got a bit teary-eyed sitting round and eating that curry (and not because of the spices). It was just such a wonderful example of the do it yourself, everyone muck in, everybody welcome spirit of the WI. Jeez Willoughby, wasn’t making half the crowd cry by beginning a rendition of Jerusalem when we were taking an aerial photo of the group emosh enough for you?!

Finally, I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there and tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air. But, alas, that’s another story. Instead, I’d like to take a minute to thank some of the people who, in particular, made the weekend so special for all of us. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped run the site and activities programme so smoothly (including Becky, Cat,

Holly and Vicky of the SHWI-ers). Secondly, thank you to all those who gave their time to run workshops, deliver speeches or organise activities – it’s a cliché, but there really was something for

everyone.

Thirdly, thank you to my own personal hero and SHWI camp mother, Sarah Willoughby. This women organised our shopping, hired various pieces of equipment (including a van), had a hand in various erections (oo-er) and catered for 20 plus people all weekend (I haven’t even mentioned Saturday’s AMAZING paella) – without your amazing efforts the weekend wouldn’t have been what

it was. Next year, try to do a bit more work though, yeah, Willoughby? I’m sure you sat down for at

least 3 minutes over the weekend… Fourthly (is that even a word?), thank you to the generosity of all participants who through simply having fun, have raised £3000 for the charity Refuge, as well as providing donations of food, bras and crocheted daisies for various other worthy charities. Last but

most certainly not lease, the biggest of THANKS must go to the organisers: Sue, India, Claire, Meryl

and Rebecca, who have basically done a full-time job organising T&T on top of their own work and family commitments. It was certainly no mean feat and I know that there are around 530 women who owe you a massive debt of gratitude.

So to sum up - Tea and Tents? More like booze and banter, cakes and crochet, FRIENDSHIP AND

FUN! Until the next time, campers…

Anna Pilson

Committee member

We raised £1024 at Sheffield Food Festival 2015

Anna, Jen, Kirsty, Grace and Chelle help on the stall

We're very happy to say that our stall at this year's Sheffield Food Festival raised an amazing £1024 for our charity of the year. Our members worked really hard to bake some delicious treats and volunteer on the stall all weekend. Committee member Sam made two beautiful rainbow pinata cakes for us to raffle on both days. Thank you to everyone who helped, bought a cake or raffle ticket from us!

All the money we raised will go to SAYiT Sheffield. They provide support for young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) or who are affected by HIV.
 

One of Sam's incredible pinata cakes

We choose SAYiT as our charity of the year

At our February meeting, Seven Hills WI members voted SAYiT as our charity for 2015. A local independent organisation, SAYiT (Sheena Amos Youth Trust) supports young people who are LGBT or who are affected by HIV.

Fundraising events planned include Seven Hills WI’s annual baking stall at Sheffield Food Festival. Last year, we raised £1170 over two days by selling cakes and organising a best in show competition.

Sally Carr, Strategic Manager of SAYiT said “In the on-going quest to address homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in our society we know that we still have a long way to go, and the support of the WI will help to address this outdated and hurtful prejudice. We will use the money raised to continue our educational and awareness raising work which aims to make society a better place for everybody.”

Kirsty Bowen, President of Seven Hills WI said “I am very pleased that we have chosen SAYiT to be our charity in 2015, the WI’s centenary year. The WI has never shied away from important issues and we hope that we can make a real difference to young people affected in our local area.”

For more information on Seven Hills WI and our fundraising, email us at sevenhillswi@live.co.uk