Our Club
The Inner Wheel Club of Barnstaple, North Devon, is thriving with 48 members. At our February meeting this year we celebrated our 79th birthday. This meeting includes welcoming our District Chairman who, both last year (Gay Ross) and this year (Louise French) are from our own club.
We meet at the Barnstaple Hotel at lunchtime on the first Tuesday of the month except for January and August, and the December meeting is a Christmas celebration to which we also invite husbands, partners and friends.
The incoming President arranges a social tea party in August, and in January we have a fundraising Friendship Lunch to celebrate Inner Wheel Day, to which we also invite guests, with ourselves providing the food.
We are delighted to have welcomed our new President for 2023/24, Sue Thomas (below) and also NINE NEW MEMBERS this Inner Wheel year. Please look for more information about who we are and what we do in our Newsletters.
Above Sue, our president is attending her first official engagement with Maureen Jeacock our Treasurer – The Barnstaple Fair Proclamation and lunch.. The next day Sue was invited to the Rotary Club of Barnstaple Fair Lunch.
The charities we are supporting in our 2023/4 year
November saw our Supper and Quiz fundraiser for The Smile Train – a very enjoyable evening with lovely food and following a talk about the charity in September
Our Club’s first 100 for 100 Fundraiser for this year – recycled Christmas cards for sale, created at member Pat’s craft sessions. We have also knitted 100 squares for kitten blankets, our second challenge. (Our Inner Wheel Post Box Topper is our next challenge and part of the GB&I ‘100 for 100’ Toppers, advertising our presence in Barnstaple – watch this space!
WE ARE SHINING A LIGHT ON cr2ee
The photo below is of Pat Bunch, our International Service Officer, and members with 41 shoeboxes. They have been taken to Exmouth, together with a large donation of bedding, sheets, clothes, etc., to take to Exmouth, to be forwarded on to Moldova and Ukraine, through cr2ee. To find out much more about cr2ee CLICK HERE
December saw the Appledore Ladies Choir entertaining us with their singing after our Christmas lunch, and raising money for the Fern Centre at Lorna’s Christmas coffee morning. At the District Christmas meeting, we raised money for the South West Blood Bikes.
What else do we do!
As well as socialising and fundraising our monthly meetings include a speaker and we try and make the programme as interesting and varied as possible.
19 of us attended the District Meeting and Skittles Competition at the Waie Inn in March – We entered 4 teams and team 2, randomly picked, of Gay, Sally, Maureen J and Tina won, beating Dartmouth in the final. Look in Bridget’s March Newsletter for photos and more information.
Our main Business meeting is in March when we agree on the club officers for the coming IW year. Our speaker for March 2024, will be talking about Cyber Crime, a topic so important for us all to be aware of!
As far as volunteering and service is concerned, we have adopted a garden plot along the riverside walkway from Barnstaple Town Council which we maintain, and this is very colourful for most of the year. We also take part in the Rotary reading scheme in a local primary school.
Various activities started during the Covid Lockdown, and some continue. Our member Pat Bunch started a weekly Zoom keep fit session which continues with seven or eight taking part each time, Member Bridget Kettle, who was Secretary during Covid, started a monthly newsletter to try and keep in touch with members, and this continues by popular request. Enjoy!
Bridget’s Newsletters
If you would like to get in touch please email iwd17sec@gmail.com
District 17 latest news
International Inner Wheel 19th Convention – Celebrating 100 years in 2024
International Inner Wheel 19th Convention is coming to Manchester. Come and celebrate 100 years of Inner Wheel - Friendship and Service “Dear Inner Wheel Friends, it is with great pleasure that I am able to offer you the possibility of joining together at...