Camberley WI
Previous Meetings
More photos may be found by clicking on the date of the meeting.
11th January 2023 - Health & Beauty Evening
We celebrated the start of the new year, with one of our ever-popular Health & Beauty evenings. Members were each able to attend two sessions from the eight therapists, and get a taster of the services they could offer. Carly, Paula, Vicki & Zoe from Clarins talked about anti-ageing skincare & demonstrated hand & arm massage; Robin & Lawrence from Specsavers gave hearing advice and showed us modern hearing aids; Janet Gabriel, a Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist told us how to improve our self-esteem; Madeleine Lewis led a seated yoga class; Liz King, a Reflexologist and Chiropodist, covered foot health; Jenny & Davina from The Massage Company, demonstrated soothing massage; and Vicki & Heidi from Body Reset Clinic showed us how to improve our strength & balance with simple exercises. The evening is a lot of hard work from the committee to organise, but it was worth it to see everyone having such a great evening.
21st February 2023 - Emergency First Aid
For our first meeting at Camberley Cricket Club, we had Ian from St John’s Ambulance giving us some great advice on emergency first aid. He gave us easy to remember instructions on CPR, what to do if someone is choking, use of Epipens and automatic external defibrillators, demonstrating on the dummy. It was good to have a refresher on this important subject, as hopefully it will give us each the confidence to have a go, should it be needed.
Bob Whelpton from Chocolates~Continental gave us a very interesting talk on the history of chocolate, including a couple of tasty samples, before we had the opportunity to stock up on lots of lovely supplies for Easter. We didn’t realise that Easter Eggs were introduced so long ago, nor that boxes of Black Magic have been available for nearly 100 years! It was a nice, light-hearted evening, and everyone seemed to go home with bulging bags of goodies!
18th April 2023 - Samaritans
For our April meeting, Chris and Sue from the Farnborough branch of the Samaritans gave us a really interesting talk about the work of the charity. They explained that their role was simply to listen, and to try and help the people who contact them to solve their own problems. There are 23,000 listening volunteers around the country working around the clock to answer calls, emails, online chats and even letters.
It was fascinating to hear about their Outreach work – training staff in prisons and the military, and visiting homeless shelters and hospital A&E department to provide additional support.
Samaritans don’t charge for giving this talk, but we gave them a donation of £100 to support their work, in lieu of a speakers fee.
Wow! What a fun evening we had at our May meeting! Emma looked fab in her corset, fishnet tights and high heels, and brought lots of props to demonstrate Burlesque dancing to us. She explained it was all about the “tease” in striptease, where a whole dance could just result in removing a pair of gloves! We were all able to have a go with either gloves, fan or boa, twirling, flicking or peeping from behind, and Lin & Rosie got right into the spirit with some huge red fans. If you are ever flustered or lost for a response, just remember your vowels ladies!
20th June 2023 - "Afternoon tea" & Race Night
Ascot at its best - outfits, hats, and the tea flowed while we enjoyed a delicious ‘afternoon tea’ and evening of horse racing. A massive thank you to the committee and all those who worked so hard to put on such a lovely spread as well as serve/clear the tables during the evening. Great fun was had and risks were taken – one table pooled their remaining resources and placed a bet of £10,800 on one horse to win on the last race (but it didn’t!). Some were winners but there were no losers when you use pretend money!!
Lucky member Carole took home the bottle of bubbly with winnings of £4,200 at the end of the evening.
18th July - Tom Way - Wildlife Photographer
We were delighted to welcome Tom Way, Wild Life Photographer, to our July meeting. What an amazing talent!
Tom shared his passion and dedication to getting ‘that perfect shot’ involving much travelling to remote locations, trekking through jungles and many hours of patience. His work has taken him to some amazing destinations including Borneo, Kenya, Uganda, Sumatra and the Indian Ocean.
Tom’s passion for photography developed whilst taking a travel break after gaining his Sports degree. I’m sure many lives are richer for enjoying the beauty of his work and pleased he chose this career. Thank you Tom.
19th September - Indian themed evening
What an entertaining & enjoyable evening we had at our September meeting! Embracing an Indian theme, we were treated to traditional Bollywood dancing from ladies in fabulous costumes. Much fun was had during audience participation learning dance moves.
Vijaya, one of our recent WI members, shared her knowledge of the traditional sari dress and brought along examples for us to view, including her beautiful red wedding sari, which is 9 yards long! Dressed in a beautiful sari herself, she demonstrated how to ‘make’ a sari using 6 yards of intricately decorated material. Carole and Jackie were great models!
Henna hand tattoos were also on offer, and lasted on our wrists for several days after the event. We finished the evening with both savoury & sweet traditional Indian food.
17th October - Gold leaf fir cones
Christmas preparations started early at Camberley WI with October’s meeting being a relaxing evening making gold, silver and bronze leaf fir cones. Melanie kindly prepared all the packs and with clear instructions everyone had a lovely time, chatting and creating! These were deceptively simple to make, and the finished articles look really festive.
We also did a collection of food items, toiletry packs and children's toys for some local charities. Most of the food items and children's toys are for Besom to distribute to local needy families, with the toiletry packs, plus luxury Christmas treats being used by women's refuge Your Sanctuary to help their residents celebrate Christmas.
21st November - Annual Meeting and Bring & Buy Sale
We reviewed the last year and welcomed in the new President, Melanie, plus our new committee, in the business section of the meeting, then thoroughly enjoyed our annual Bring & Buy sale, which raised over £200 for charity. We also had four other stalls selling Xmas cards, craft items, preserves & confectionary and a charity tombola.
19th December - Christmas Party
Fun and laughter was had a plenty at our December meeting. With nibbles and refreshments flowing, our Committee did a fabulous job of entertaining members throughout the evening. We were treated to a quiz, party games and even a super fun performance of Cinderella (with thanks to GirlGuiding for the abridged script).
Click on the title to see more pictures and the Cinderella video.
16th January 2024
Former Surrey Heath Mayor, and local businesswoman, Sarah Jane Croke, came to talk to us about how she'd been keeping busy since standing down as a local Councillor. She has certainly not let the grass grow under her feet, and has been building up her wedding planning business alongside her millinery, and has also recently been appointed as Charity Manager for Surrey Heath Age Concern. She spoke passionately about the work the volunteers do to improve the social lives of elderly people in the borough, and how this in turn alleviates their loneliness.
20th February - Rag Wreath Making
We found a fun way to use up scraps of fabric - tie them around a metal frame to make rag wreaths! These can be made to suit any time of year, from Spring to Christmas, by altering the colour combinations used. Thank you to Mandy for leading the session, and to the Creative Chaos craft group for preparing piles of fabric scraps.
19th March - Forensic Scientist
Camberley WI had a huge turnout at our March meeting to listen to speaker Hayley Scott of The Forensic Experience.
With 14 years experience as a former Crime Scene Investigator for the Metropolitan Police, Hayley gave a fascinating talk on the world of forensics. Sharing processes followed when investigating crimes, along with facts and anecdotes from experience of examining over 15,000 crime scenes, we were kept enthralled. Who knew that our unique fingerprints are not genetic but formed at between 6-20 weeks in the womb?. The Amniotic Fluid pressure on the pads of the hands forms the ripple like lines. How mind blowing is that! Each person has their own unique fingerprints, even identical twins!
