LoW W.I. elects new executive

Submitted by
Rebecca Wood

Lake of the Woods (Bergland) Women’s Institute News (March/April 2005) Meetings in March and April were held in the homes of Margaret Helder and Asta Westberg.
With 6 members present. Annual membership fees were paid. Three members of the WI Museum Board met with the Emo Municipal Council to present a package and their proposed terms of a lease agreement for the 2 OPP buildings. The Board is planning a huge garage sale/flea market to raise money for the Museum. The WI is asking all members (and neighbours) to donate their not-needed items. The sale will be held on June 18th in Emo, the exact location is yet to be decided.
Spring Tea/ROSE (Rural Ontario Sharing Education) session: About 40 present enjoyed a lasagna lunch at the hall.. The speakers were Brian Hebert and 4 others(2 from Thunder Bay) from Investors Group. There was good group participation and the presentation was interesting.
Door prizes were a bird house donated by the Branch won by Ruth Huntley and a tin filled with toffee donated by Ruth B. won by Wanda Lundgren. The auction raised $125.50 in • hour for the WI Museum.
The deer have chewed the columnar Cedar trees that line the Cemetery grounds for the second year in a row so they now look like topiary trees. Rebecca Wood will organize the building of the new planter under the big sign at the Bergland Cemetery, making the purchases from Lowes. She is also to discuss with Mary Withers at Diamond Willow Greenhouse the planting of the cement pots as well as the new planter. Marjorie Meek has an example of small metal plaques with sizes and prices from a company in the US - to be followed up. Rebecca Wood will head up the committee for the planter projects. Secretary will contact some community members for help with moving the stone.
A 100 cup coffee perc., soup spoons and a sturdy step stool were purchased for Bergland Hall. We will purchase the cream and sugar sets this month. A date was set to clean the kitchen cupboards at the hall.
All members are asked to bring to the next meeting, the program, motto, roll call, etc for their month and this will be compiled into the program booklet for the coming year. Winter education projects for 2005-06 will be organized early in this year. Correspondence: Donations were made to the Can. Cancer Society, the WI Museum in memory of Sam Visser, and to the Lionel Berg family. -This year is the 90th Anniversary of 4H and a celebration will be held in Toronto in Mid July. -A note from McIrvine Branch asking our Branch to bring sandwiches and cakes for the Museum s Spring Tea on May 7th. Correspondence from FWIO included the annual reports package and info regarding the Connecting Link the latest communication tool that head office has added to their web page. Area Convention to be held on September 8th & 9th. ROSE update regarding the National Ovarian Cancer Assoc.(NOCA) educational training sessions down East to be held on April 27th; we received word on the 13th. Secretary will contact them re: the possibility of a training session here in the northwest.
Reports: District Annual will be held on April 30th at the Museum. Registration at 8:30am.
Branch donation a casserole, a salad, dessert and 4 dozen buns. LoW will do the sale table.
Presentation will be Sharing our Heritage by all members.
Municipal Council has accepted an official Recreation Committee, and have changed some and added some hall rental fees. We will track down the Friendship Basket and get it sent on it s way again. The Multi Use Fitness Program proposed by Nicole Thierren, to be held at the R.R. Hospital is in the process of being organized. Mrs. Thierren will notify us when they have the equipment installed and let us know what she needs. She did say they probably will need a water cooler and may need some volunteer hours from our branch later on.
ANNUAL MEETING:
President declared all seats vacant. Marjorie Meek acted as President, Ellen Chojko-Bolec as Secretary. The year end Financial Report had been examined and found correct by Anita and Adrienne Olson. All officers have agreed to keep their offices for 2005-06, with the addition of 2nd Vice Chair which will be shared by Marjorie Meek and Rebecca Wood. President - Asta Westberg ; First Vice Chair - Ellen Chojko-Bolec ; 2nd Vice Chair - Marjorie Meek (summer) and Rebecca Wood (winter); Secretary/Treasurer - Ruth Brett; Assistant Secretary/Treasurer -April Chojko-Bolec; District Director - Ellen Chojko-Bolec; Alternate District Director - Ruth
Brett; ROSE (Education) Coordinator - Karen Sepers; Public Relations - Rebecca Wood;
Tweedsmuir - all members.
New Business: Our Branch will raffle a quilt again this year. Marjorie Meek and Margaret
Helder will purchase the materials and notions needed to make the quilt. May 14, 25 and June 4 will be sewing sessions. Members will go to Ruth Brett s home at 10am on Monday, April 25th to check on the material donated to us. The June Bake Sale and Flea market will be held on June 11th under the school canopy from 9am to 12noon. We will meet at 9am on April 28th at the Bergland Hall to clean the kitchen cupboards and take stock of what is needed there. The Good Citizen Award for the Grade Eight student at McCrosson-Tovell School will be dealt with as
soon as we hear who is the recipient. The 2005-06 program booklet was discussed; each member
is working on the page for their meeting date.
A paper was given on Sweet Potatoes a super vegetable, the best you can have . They contain
Vitamin A , Vitamin C and Vitamin E and are a good source of dietary fibre. They are low in
carbohydrates and sodium and are cholesterol free.
A discussion was held on a new birth control pill, approved in 2003 by the FDA, created to
reduce women’s menstrual cycle to only 4 periods a year. No studies have been done on the long
term effects of those additional weeks of hormones. We feel this is tampering with natural body
processes and will have detrimental effects on women.
Mary won the door prize. Members enjoyed a tasty lunch and good visit.