At our May meeting we had our Annual General Meeting. Reports were read out by the President, Secretary and Treasurer, highlighting what a successful year we’ve had. A new President and committee were elected, overseen by a WI Advisor.

We had one visitor. Three of our members are celebrating birthdays this month and were each presented with a plant.

As usual, we were helped by a team of volunteers :Maureen and April ran the raffle, Karen and Janette provided the refreshments and Karen W arranged the beautiful flowers for the top table.

Certificates were handed out for long service, outstanding contributions and to members passing a first aid course.

Our ‘Competition of the Month’ was to display a single bloom in a vase. Members vote for their favourite by placing a silver coin next to their choice. This money is donated to ‘Associated Country Women of the World’, a WI charity supporting rural women and their organisations all over the world.

The winning flower belonged to Jean C.

As usual, our upcoming events were highlighted, including lunch, walking and craft group activities and a forthcoming outing to Wilton House.  Plus, activities such as croquet, skittles and quizzing.

Our immediate focus is on our stall at the Brockenhurst D-Day celebrations on 1^st June where Brockenhurst WI are having a stall at Brockenhurst Football Club. We are celebrating the contributions of Brockenhurst women in World War II. Do come and have a look at this village-wide event.

We are planning our entries for the WI tent at the New Forest Show, where we showcase our skills in flower arranging, cooking and a variety of crafts. You can see the schedule here.

Our speaker was a Brockenhurst born and bred woman, Sophie Paulson. Sophie talked about volunteering for the charity ‘All Hands and Hearts’, a disaster relief organisation. Sophie has volunteered for ‘All Hands and Hearts’ on two occasions during her annual leave from her job as a Cardiac Physiologist for the NHS in Oxford.

Sophie first volunteered after the hurricane in Puerto Rico in 2017. Sophie went out to Yubucoa in 2019. Sophie told us of how she worked in the recovery phase of repairing and weatherproofing roofs of houses damaged by the hurricane.

Sophie’s second spell as a volunteer for ‘All Hands and Hearts’ was in 2023 when she went to Turkey using two and a half weeks of her annual leave after the earthquakes earlier that year.

Sophie was involved with distributing food, building work in the displaced people’s camps and sorting donations of clothes to be distributed.

Sophie told us about the gratitude of the locals on both occasions and the teamwork and camaraderie of the volunteers.

It was a very interesting and thought-provoking talk.

Our next meeting is on Monday 10th June 2024 Monthly Meeting where speaker Gavin Blackman will be talking about “Hypnotherapy & Wellbeing” .

Our meetings are held at Brockenhurst Village Hall – arrival from 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Visitors are welcome.

Please contact us  for more information.