Christmas Table Arrangements

This week we did a Christmas floristry workshop, we learned how to create a festive candle arrangement.

We used local foliage leftover from our wreath workshop the previous week. We arranged the spruce, holly and conifer around a candle and then wired dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks and pine cones to decorate the centre piece.

Everyone created a fabulous table arrangement to take home with them.

Christmas Tree Festival

In December we exhibited a tree at St George's
Christmas Tree Festival. The theme for our tree was was inspirational women. Our members chose women throughout history right up to the present day.

Some people chose local women who have made a huge difference to our community, some chose scientists whose discoveries saved many lives. We chose women from activists to athletes, it was difficult to only choose a few women each.

Our members made the decorations during a craft session the previous week. We were pleased with our tree, it was a sparkly celebration of incredible inspirational women.

This is all the inspirational women featured on our tree. Rosa Parks, Mary Anning, Gwen Moffatt, Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, Valentina Tereshkova, Virginia Wolf, Lady Gidiva, Golda Meir, Irena Sendler, Malala Yousafzai, Emmeline Pankhurst, Angela Carter, Maya Angelou, Jeanette winterson, Janet Allen, Joyce Marlow, Megan Markle, Jameela Jamil, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rachel Atherton, Greta Thunberg, Oprah Winfrey, Cathy Freeman, Anna Freud, Florence Nightingale, Rosalind Franklin, Brit Marling, Margaret Astwood.

Co-op Local Cause

We would like to say a huge thank you to Co-op staff and customers who have supported us through the Co-op membership scheme. We were selected to be one of the local causes this year. We have received a cheque for an incredible £5975. 87. It will make such a difference to the group and we are very grateful.

Fused Glass Workshop

This week we did a creative workshop with Kay from Simply Glass.

We learnt how to make wonderful fused glass Christmas tree decorations. It's a perfect mindful activity which the whole group enjoyed.

We can't wait to see how the decorations turn out once they've been in the kiln.

Our New Venue Chalkers

We are very pleased to announce we are moving to a bigger venue. From 7th November we will be holding our Thursday meetings at Chalkers Pool & Snooker Club.
Due to unprecedented growth of the group this year, we have had to temporarily close to new members. Our current venue is at capacity for safety and comfort.
Chalkers has just undergone a major refurbishment, we will be making their lovely function room our new home. There is plenty of space for  new members and for our activities. Creche will still be provided at First Steps Nursery which is a short 3 minute walk away.

Pay It Forward

During the dam incident in Whaley Bridge, several roads and bridges above the River Goyt in New Mills were closed as a safety precaution in case the dam collapsed.  The road blocks were manned 24 hours a day by Police and road workers who had been drafted in from all over Derbyshire, some on their days off.  They worked 12 hours shifts outside in the hot weather and were not able to leave their posts to get food or drinks. Bele Bakery organised a suspended food and drink scheme that members of the public paid into for the people working at the road blocks. Women’s group collected sandwiches and drinks twice a day from Bele Bakery and delivered them in teams to 6 locations around New Mills where police and road workers were posted.

Some of the public also helped us deliver when we were short of group members to cover all the road blocks. We took them on foot with our little ones (who were delighted to meet officers and see Police vans), as there was no way to get around town in a car with the road closures. In the morning hot breakfast sandwiches and brews were delivered. During the afternoon sandwiches, cold drinks, cakes or ice lollies were offered. We also delivered food donated by local takeaways to New Mills fire Station in the evenings as they had a lot of extra personnel at their station who were helping in Whaley Bridge. New Mills WI delivered hot drinks to the workers at road blocks during the evenings. 

 The whole community pulled together and raised so much money that there was enough to deliver food and drink for the five days the roads were closed and send some toiletries to Whaley Bridge when they were running low. Thankfully following the incredible work of the RAF, Royal Engineers and emergency services, the dam was saved, residents were allowed home and the roads were re-opened.

Vision Boards

Today we created some boards of our goals and aspirations with images from magazines and brouchures. It was really motivating and helped us focus on the positive things in our lives. It was scorchio this week so we cooled off with ice lollies and we also enjoyed homemade flapjack.

Balsam Bash

We spent a great morning enjoying our beautiful countryside whilst balsam bashing recently. Jill from Transition New Mills led us on our first Balsam Bash. Himalayan Balsam is a non-native plant that has an invasive habit. It crowds out native flora and spreads rapidly on wet ground.  It has become a big problem in the Torrs and along the riverbanks of New Mills. Each plant can produce hundreds of seeds, pulling the plants up before they set seed prevents it spreading. Thanks to Jill for guiding us today.  Transition New Mills lead regular Balsam Bashes, if you'd like to join them please check their Facebook page for future dates.

One World Festival 2019

We had a stand at One World Festival recently with our legendary tombola. As part of our commitment to being more environmentally friendly we had a display of reusable products from our members, including cloth nappies, reusable wipes and sanitary pads. We had a great day raised £186.92 with our tombola and raffle. Thank you to everyone who donated prizes and supported us on the day.

High Lea Park Litter Pick

We did another litter pick this week in High Lea park ahead of One World Festival.  The park was very well kept and there wasn't much litter to collect at all.  Thanks to New Mills Litterpick Party for loaning the equipment.

Metal Stamping Workshop

We did a creative workshop lead by Kim from Darn It! this week. We learnt how to metal stamp jewellery. 

It’s very therapeutic hammering the metal although quite noisy.  We all took home several pieces of personalised jewellery.

Care Home Visit

In June we visited a care home in New Mills with our children. We had a hot drink and a good chat with the residents. The children really enjoyed meeting the residents and interacting with them.

Mindful Whittling

This week Rachel from Being Outdoors did a whittling workshop with our members. Whittling is a great mindful activity, the group made some lovely plant markers.

New Mills Under the Hammer

In May we organised an auction of promises with One World Festival. Over 80 lots were donated from local businesses and individuals. We had a huge variety of lots, everything from artwork, to Forest school classes and a song written and recorded for the winning bid.  We raised an amazing £2025 which was split between New Mills Women's Group and One World Festival. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the auction and donated lots.

Co-op Local Causes

We are one of the Co-ops local causes. This means whenever you shop at the Co-op and buy selected products, 1% of your spend goes to a local cause and 5% goes into your account.  You can choose us as your local cause by logging into your membership account online. This can add up really quickly for you and us. If you haven’t got a membership card you can sign up here https://www.coop.co.uk/membership

New Evening Socials

Following feedback we are excited to announce Women’s Group evening sessions. Some people have said they are unable to join us during the day due to work but could meet in the evenings.  We are planning to trial some evening meets at Bele Bakery. We hope you can join us for a chat and some of Bele’s delicious bakes.

Spring Litter Pick

We do a litter pick around New Mills every term, we enjoy a walk around our beautiful town and help to keep it tidy. We were happy to find a lot less rubbish on our rounds than previous litter picks. Thank you to New Mills Litter Pick Party for the loan of the picking equipment.

Our First Evening Meet Up

We listened to feedback requesting some meet ups that people could attend outside working hours. The result was our the first evening social at Bele Bakery in May. Everyone had a great night, we met some new faces and did a beginners crochet session lead by one of our members Sarah. Bele Bakery provided some fabulous cakes to go with our brews.

Edible Planters at First Steps Nursery

We are working with Incredible Edible New Mills grow to vegetables at the nursery. We have grown a variety of fruit and vegetables from seed and planted them up in large containers for the children to tend. We hope to inspire the children with a love of nature and gardening, as well and learning about where food comes from. Later in the summer the children should be able to help harvest the produce and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

2019 AGM

We held our 2019 AGM on 11th April, the meeting was well attended. Below is a brief summary of the meeting (the full report can be found on our Facebook page).

After a break in 2017 the group was relaunched in January 2018 and has quickly grown in numbers from 4 to around 20 members. 

During the last year we have spent a lot of time focusing on mental health and how we can better support local women. Some of our members have completed a mental health first aid course and we have had held several workshops including an assertiveness and confidence session, a session run by a CBT therapist on anxiety and a mediation and wellbeing workshop.

The environment is an important issue for the group. We have had sessions on cloth nappies and reusable products and held regular litter picks in New Mills. We held a session making seed bombs to grow flowers for pollinators. These were given out in local businesses. We also held a stuff swap to save waste by reusing clothes and household items. We plan to continue with regular litter picks and also fund raise for the local litter pick group.

As a group we regularly raise money for charities and community groups. Last year we held a Macmillan coffee morning raising £151.73 and a bake sale in aid of Red Nose Day which raised £122.50. We helped organise New Mills Under the Hammer, a local auction of promises which raised over £3000, funds were split between New Mills Women’s Group, Chernobyl Children’s Project and One World Festival. We also donated food and toiletries to the fire fighters at the Saddleworth Moor blaze.

To raise funds for our group we ran various stalls at local events including One World festival, New Mills Christmas lights Switch On and Action for Africa Christmas Craft Fair. We ran a pop up cafe at an antiques fair and held a Christmas Wreath making workshop with the public. Our Ladies Pamper Night was very successful, we raised over £500 with local stalls, a bar and pamper sessions.

We hold regular craft sessions run by group members or local tutors. Last year we did rock painting for HP Rocks, hair braiding, crochet, fused glass, papercraft and felt Christmas decorations. We sold some of our makes at various stalls throughout the year. We also did a car maintenance session with a local garage and visited a care home at Christmas with our children. It’s important to us to fund a child free social occasion for members each year, last year we went to the POP INN for afternoon tea.

We planned a number of things for next year including a refresher session on crochet and for car maintenance. We plan to make termly visits to local care homes and run regular litter picks. We have also planned a forest school trip with our children, a mindful whittling session, a gardening workshop and more craft sessions.

Overall we have had a very successful year and have grown dramatically in numbers. We have several talented members who use their abilities to help the group learn new skills. We are happy with our current venue but have discussed the possibility of moving to a larger venue if our numbers continue to grow as we are limited by the venue size. We look forward to the exciting sessions and events we have planned for next year.