By Elaine Hennessey
Contributor
Greetings from the Women’s Institute for the District of North Renfrew. The following branches have reported on their meetings and activities for the month of September 2019.
Forester’s Falls: Six members of the branch met at Café 349 in Shawville Quebec for lunch at noon on September 18. After a delicious lunch and some shopping at Giant Tiger and Stedmans, the group moved to the home of Marion Horner for the business portion of the meeting. President Betty Black welcomed everyone and opened the meeting with the singing of the Ode and repeating the Mary Stewart Collect in unison. The Roll Call “Share a driving experience”. Adventures included having the instructor taking you and letting you use his car for the test, emergency brake not working on the test, going the wrong way on a one way street in Ottawa, narrowly missing the neighbour’s stone wall, tester being more interested in your brothers hockey success than your driving skills, car salesman anxious to make the sale gave lessons in driving a standard transmission vehicle. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. The correspondence was read. Information and registration forms for the Area Convention in Vernon Ontario on Oct. 28, 2019 have been received. Members were reminded about the FWIO contest for a slogan that will inspire women to join W.I. The deadline is November 3. The branch received $56 from the Cobden Fair for two firsts, three seconds, and two thirds. The President thanked the members who sold tickets on the District Quilt at the Cobden Fair and the Renfrew County Plowing March. Volunteer sheets were completed. Alisa Page reported on the District Directors meeting she attended. Greenwood branch will compile the Fair List for 2020 and Forester’s Falls will be in charge of the District Quilt Draw in 2020. The District is asking for suggestions for a ROSE program. The next District Directors meeting will be held in Greenwood on February 10, 2020. Plans were discussed for the October meeting when we entertain Alice-Locksley branch. Betty Black was program convenor. She had two readings—“Something to Ponder” and “11 Reasons Why Chocolate is Better Than Sex”. A motion was made to adjourn the meeting.
Greenwood: Members met for their Sept. meeting with the President Sheila Kenny presiding. The meeting opened with the Institute Ode, followed by the Mary Stewart Collect. Gail Fletcher introduced the guest speaker Stephanie Petermann who with her husband and daughter opened up the Homestead Cheese and Gelato Shop recently on Greenwood Road. Mrs. Petermann advised she and her husband operated a dairy farm on French Settlement Hill for several years, and have raised 4 children. They were making cheese for 15 years. They visited Fox Farm in Nova Scotia where cheese and yogurt was made. On a trip to Italy their daughter Fiona found a school where she learned to make Gelato ice cream. The course is a one month program and students come from all over the world. The kitchen in their shop is commercial and the machines for making the Gelato are from a firm in Toronto that sells the Italian equipment. Gelato is made from milk rather than cream and is very dense in texture. It is churned rather than whipped like ice cream. They also sell local products from Renfrew County such as Maple Syrup, Baked Goods, Christian Books and Resources, Coffee, Wilkies Sour Dough, Tanglewood Honey, and Yogurt. During the summer months they hired 6 girls to help out. A lady from Nfld. has recently joined the staff and they are hoping they can expand their business into a Phrase 2 Project and make sandwiches. The shop hopes to sell more cheese baskets and trays before Christmas. They don’t have a Website, but are on Facebook. Gail Fletcher thanked Mrs. Peterman for her interesting talk, and presented her with a gift. Several items from the shop were on display. Following the Institute Grace, refreshments were provided by Mrs. Petermann, and members got to eat different types of cheese, along with crackers. The convenors for the meeting were Gail Fletcher, Carole Whitmore, and Sheila Kenny. The business portion of the meeting continued and Secretary Kathy Bennett read the minutes from the previous meeting. The Roll Call was “Do you have a beef about something? Tell us”! The Treasurer Gail Fletcher gave her report. Charlotte Cotnam-Isea had the ribbons from the Beachburg and Cobden Fairs. The Greenwood branch came first overall at the Cobden Fair. A cheque for $30 was received from Beachburg, and $60.00 from Cobden. A Thank You card was received from Sharon Neff for the donation and the support given to her upon the tragic death of her husband Randy. Sharon Cotnam thanked all the members for their wonderful support following her husband Bob’s heart attack in May. Charlotte Cotnam-Isea gave a report from the District Directors meeting as follows: The proceeds from the quilt ticket sales will be split 50/50 with half going to the District and half to the branches. The Greenwood branch will be responsible for compiling the Fair List for 2020. The Display Hall in Beachburg has offered the Hall to the District if they wish to do a ROSE Program. Ruth Douma hopes to hold a ROSE Program in April or May of 2020. She is looking for ideas. A report was given about rabies and 59,000 people die all over the world from rabies. The Eastern Area Convention will be held in Vernon, Ont. on October 28. A $25 Gift Card is to be donated at the Convention. The White Water Historical Society will look after the Snake River W.I. Books. The next District Directors meeting will be held in Greenwood on February 10, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. The Greenwood branch will host the Beachburg/Zion Line members at the Oct. meeting. Sheila Kenny reported the Ziploc Bags are no longer allowed for the Days For Girls Project. The branch is pleased to welcome a new member Helen Coburn. Teuna Cotnam won the Door Prize.
Queen’s Line: The meeting was held at the home of Mary Campbell. Seven members answered the Roll Call: “How do I pamper myself”? and discussed the Motto: “What is coming will come, and we will meet it when it does”. Since the branch had not met since June, minutes of the May and June meetings were read and approved. Issues discussed from the minutes were selling quilt tickets for our fund raising, reminding members of our donations to Wheels of Hope, for transportation for Cancer treatments in Ottawa. We discussed the information from the recent District Director’s meeting. A local issue, brought up by a member who is on the Seniors Task force for Whitewater Township, is trying to keep Seniors in the Township, when they feel they have to move from the country into a town with more facilities that will meet their needs We have been asked to think about what we will need, where we might want to live, and how the Township can provide things for us. We discussed our Agricultural Fair display, and the results. We realize we did not do much decorating for the display this year, and will try to have more ideas next year. After the meeting was adjourned we watched a DVD of a tour of the Erland Lee Home in Stoney Creek. We would be pleased to share this video with any other Institutes who would like to view it. Mary Campbell had a quiz for us, with common sayings using parts of the body. We were surprised how many of these could not be recalled when we needed them. Lunch and conversation were enjoyed. Our next meeting is October 16 at the home of Ruby Bennett.
