Gilwern WI met last month for another picnic in the lovely garden of one of our members, writes president Jo Dawson.

We were particularly pleased to be able to celebrate the 105th birthday of the National Federation of WIs with a toast of Prosecco.

We took our own picnic lunch and chair and drink so we were able to socially distance.

After we had all settled and before lunch the President talked a bit about the resolutions for this year, firstly on Stem Cell Donation.

The age range for donation is 18 to 55 years and not many of us fitted that criteria.

Even if you register you will only be called to donate if you are a match with someone needing a transplant.

But most of us know younger people and have children and grandchildren so we were asked to pass on the message of how necessary this is for people suffering from blood cancers.

The second one is Stop Modern Slavery and we were all asked to be aware when we go to car washing places for example to keep an eye open for anything unusual.

We have tried to keep in touch with our members during the lock down mostly by telephone as a large proportion of them don’t do social media or even computing at all.

The committee have met regularly on zoom and we are all surprised that we have become so efficient at this.

Who would have thought six months ago that we would be learning new skills on the computer?

But the WI is all about fun, friendship and learning. The committee had three or four members as their responsibility to keep in touch with.

We had hoped to be able to have our usual meetings again soon but as the village halls are still unable to open, it looks as if it will be after Christmas. But if the weather holds we will have another picnic soon. If anyone is interested in the WI please contact us [email protected]