First Responding to Harmonious Hubs

Welcome

I have been somewhat remiss in welcoming our new members over the past few months. So, I’d like to wish a warm welcome to Natalia A, Wendy C, Kim S. You have all been attached to a Hub and your Hub Leader will keep in touch with you. Now that we have moved to a larger premises we can gradually increase our membership to 70, in the first instance.

Carol and Sarah S are working for us in the background to raise the profile of ARWI with the local media and on social media, for which I am very grateful. Of course, if you have a friend who would like to join, please bring them along for a free first visit.

Happy Birthday

I’d like to wish the following ladies a very Happy Birthday, all of whom were Autumn babies and have their birthdays in September…

Maureen, Gill and Wendy

Thank You

To the Committee for a long but productive meeting last Thursday and to Carol for hosting. We always have a healthy debate on various items on the agenda, in order to produce the best programme for our members.

Monthly Meeting on Thursday, 15th September We will be welcoming back Sally Holmes, a passionate First Responder, to our next meeting. Sally will be giving us a whistle stop tour of the protocols surrounding being a ‘lay’ first responder to any medical incident and allaying any fears which you may have. She will also be guiding us how to use a defibrillator and giving everyone the opportunity to have a go on a mannequin. Since this will be our first proper meeting in our new venue, it seems appropriate for us to take the opportunity to evaluate what we are currently doing and how you would like our WI to progress in the future. To this end, we will set aside time for us to sit in our Hubs, take a look at our finances, consider fundraising ideas and complete an anonymous questionnaire. The results of this questionnaire will guide the Committee in the future. Any absent members will be sent the questionnaire via email so that everyone has the opportunity to have their say. We have a lot to get through at the meeting and approximate timings of the evening will be, 19.30 – 20.30, Talk from Sally Holmes 20.30 – 21.00, Refreshments and free time to practice CPR on a mannequin 21.00 – 21.20, Hub discussions 21.20 – 21.30, Raffle draw and sharing of Good News Please remember to bring along a pen, cash for the raffle, the bar and charity donation (which this month will go towards a defibrillator fund that Sally supports), empty pill blister packs and green bottle tops.

And the final word from John Keats:

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too -

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Whether Autumn is one of your favourite seasons or, like me, it denotes the end of summer and the coming of long winter months, it cannot be denied that the colours of Autumn are simply stunning!

Aileen

x