At Coleshill WI’s January meeting, Helen Whitaker from the Town Council gave us a guided tour of the immaculately refurbished Coleshill Community Hub at the Town Hall. This provides information and advice for local people and supports those suffering from loneliness, depression, unemployment and poverty. The Hub, funded by compensation from HS2, is currently preparing to help anyone in the area affected by the disruption if the rail link goes ahead and now comprises several rooms and private areas where residents can hold meetings and receive advice and counselling.
Because of problems in finding WI members willing to take on the executive roles of Secretary and Treasurer, we had feared we might be unable to continue but at the meeting one member volunteered to become Treasurer and we hope to be able to identify a possible Secretary shortly. Ruth McCartney from Warwickshire Federation gave us an encouraging talk on possible ways ahead, emphasising the value of the WI to the town of Coleshill and the need to try to recruit more members aged between 40 and 60. Although we have decided to suspend Coleshill WI temporarily, we shall continue to meet informally for afternoon tea and to learn a range of different skills, on the second Tuesday of the month at 2pm from February 11th at the Sumner Road Meeting House, at the lower end of Sumner Road– everyone welcome. We hope to restart Coleshill WI, firing on all cylinders, in the near future. Our members will also continue to enjoy monthly lunches at different pubs in the area, Scrabble sessions each month and darts and other traditional games every Monday afternoon, all organised at members’ homes.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the WI, joining our (hopefully) revamped Institute or even taking on an organisational role will be very welcome. For more details please ring President Elaine Partridge Tel: 01675-462621
