Atherstone Inner Wheel Club    News and Events

Congratulations on our Club’s 40^th Anniversary!

It has been an amazing 40 years. Looking forward to hearing all the stories and memories at the meeting. Long may we carry on putting service before ourselves and raising lots of money for worthy charities!

We got 290 toys wrapped and a bag of small toys for a lucky dip, for Dickens Afternoon on 27 November 2021 in Atherstone. After which followed lovely soup and fresh bread for lunch to keep us going, made by our host Wendy.

Recently we were asked by our local hospice, Mary Ann Evans hospice, to provide some extra cakes (we supply cakes once a month for them to help keep their costs down and to give the patients and their families a little treat) This was for a Thank You party that they were going to put on for their staff and volunteers, as a treat, to thank them for all their hard work over the pandemic. 

Of course, we said yes and started baking. We needed to cater for about 120 guests which we easily managed and there were plenty of cakes left over for the cook to provide to the patients and their families over the next few days.

The weather was brilliantly hot and sunny which added to the wonderful atmosphere, as did the

bubble blowing, the magician and a golden statue lady.  There was street food like nachos, ice cream, hog roast, pizzas, face painting, disco bouncy castle and a bucking bronco which the children enjoyed.  

President Ann handing a cheque over to Beeline Community Transport charity. (Carol and Bernie).  The considerable sum raised will support the drivers who volunteer.  They need to recruit more drivers as they have lost a few to Covid as they are shielding. They pay 45p a mile and the people needing the transport pay something towards it too but still much cheaper than a taxi.

Last night we held our 1st face to face IW meeting for over a year.

A Royal theme, lots of red,white and blue. We met in the garden of secretary Wendy's house. Wendy provided a wonderfully Coronation inspired supper, so lovely to see everyone and hear what they did as children on Coronation day, one member not born ! and to catch up on family news. Flowers to President Ann for keeping us going. The evening closed with the toast to the Queen. 

Wonderful to take advantage of the sunny evening. 

Atherstone IW member Marlene's granddaughter. 

Natalie has started a crowdfunding  campaign to raise money to go to Germany for specialist treatment for her brain tumour, she has had 2 operations, lots of chemo and radiotherapy, but it keeps coming back. Atherstone IW has made a contribution but fundraising is not easy with the lockdown. Please click the link to find out more:

Help Natalie Fight Brain Cancer

President Ann and Secretary Wendy Atherstone IW  handing over gifts to Edible Links Food Bank who are preparing 226+ Christmas Hampers for the local community.  We have collected lots of items including body washes, soaps, sanitary items, tooth brushes and toothpastes, sponges, deodorants, hair brushes and a few luxury food items like chocolates, puddings and mince pies etc.

Atherstone IW members raised £2000 for a local scout group (1st Hartshill Scouts) by doing a  Dickens evening in Atherstone in November 2019 and various coffee mornings. Atherstone Rotary club has donated a considerable amount to as unfortunately they have disbanded.  The scout group are over whelmed by the amount we managed to raise and are excited to be able to take the children on a day trip as a treat, as this year has been so awful for everyone. They are busy renovating their premises as it is just a prefabricated building and very cold and draughty in the winter.  They have managed to get some funding to do the renovations so this money can be used purely by the children.

Pictured is Atherstone member Tracy with her son handing over the money.

The handover to incoming President Ann took place recently - still in compliance with social distancing rules! 

Ann has a full programme planned which we are waiting to finalise, she will be supporting  Bee Line a charity that takes local people to appointments. 

President Tracy has had the Hartshill Scouts as her Charity for 2019/20 and we have a nice cheque ready to present when the time is right.

The Scouts decided to try to give some sort of gift to all the residents, 94 in total in the 3 local Care Homes in Hartshill to cheer them up and asked if we would like to make a contribution.

We made cakes, muffins,biscuits, collected toiletries, socks games, flowers, books, pencils and lots of jigsaws.

It will be interesting to see the final results, the scouts wrote letters, made cards, drew pictures, told stories, decorated stones etc.

We have also sponsored a worker at the Mary Ann Hospice here in Nuneaton, Heather, who runs the kitchen. She usually receives our cake contributions each month and she was thrilled to bits that we had nominated her.

Atherstone ladies manning the Toy Tombola Stall at Atherstone's Dickens Event. Only a £1 a go with a prize every time, plus a free lolly, kept us and the children of Atherstone busy. A substantial sum of money was raised for President Tracy's

Charity this year, Hartshill Scouts. A few aches and pains with all the hard work but the childrens' smiling faces made it all worthwhile when they received the prizes.

Our speaker for the November meeting was Carol Collins who folds books into Angels, Hedgehogs, Christmas Trees and Cottages to name a few, we now hope to hold a workshop coffee morning to have a go ourselves.

Money raised goes to MacMillan Cancer Support, and she is happy to do talks if anyone would like to try this fascinating hobby of Book Folding.

In August we had a garden party at the home of Sandra and Brian, monies raised were for President Tracy's Charity for this year - Hartshill Scouts. 

In September we enjoyed a talk by Brenda and David Lincoln about the wonderful Quilts they make for Injured Servicemen, Q4IS, amazing work shown in the photo.

President Sue Smalley handing over an interim cheque to Clare and Leigh-Ann from Polesworth Homes. 

Sue passing the chain of office onto incoming President Tracy Kobrin. Tracy gave us details of her plans for the year, it will be a busy year !