CHURCH AND OSWALDTWISTLE ROTARY
HYNDBURN U3A
A GOOD turnout, in view of the horrible weather this morning, was rewarded by an excellent speaker and blue skies to go home under.
Jennifer opened the meeting with apologies from Les, who we all hope will recover soon, and a reminder that tickets for the Christmas Lunch on the auspicious date of Friday, December 13, are now available and limited.
She then introduced Steve Tomkinson, who was to enlighten us on the aims and operation of ‘Outdoors 4 All’.
With a background in the Scouts, Steve had become convinced that the principles would be beneficial to much wider range of children, if they could be offered the opportunity.
This, he believed, applied particularly to those with challenging behavioural problems.
After a couple of years he has been able to demonstrate that this adaptation of the Norwegian Forest School programme for preschoolers, produces real benefits for older children.
The principle is best expressed as ‘learning by doing’, but with minimum direction, maximum support and encouragement from tutors, in an informal setting.
The aim is to develop confidence, teamwork and basic skills in a challenging environment.
Children learn to solve problems and gain maximum satisfaction from being actively encouraged to be creative.
An emphasis is also placed on allowing them to demonstrate, to themselves, that manual dexterity extends well beyond the thumbs.
This programme is largely supported by schools, from their own budgets.
Which must be, in itself, an endorsement.
The school also identifies much of Steve’s raw material, children who were a difficult fit in the traditional, three R’s classroom.
Where else would they get to explore, build stuff and cook their own nettle fritters?
Steve’s interesting presentation was enthusiastically endorsed, by an audience which included a high percentage of grandparents, as an inspiring way to tackle Nature Deficit in young people.
The breadth of stimulating activities available in your local U3A, supported by the National organisation, is only limited by the imagination of the members.
You can find our website, with details of the existing groups, at u3asites.org.uk/ hyndburn.
Come and meet us on Friday, November 8, at our usual venue, Trinity Church, King St (off James St) Great Harwood.
Use the free car park in the middle of the town.
We start from about 1.30pm, with the meeting opening at 2pm, with a guest speaker, followed by coffee/tea and biscuits and the chance for a natter, from about 3pm.
If you are attending alone, tell one of the members at the door that you are a visitor, so that you can be introduced to someone and talk about your interests.
GREAT HARWOOD DISTRICT WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
INSIGHT into Dolls’ Houses Members were entertained when local lady Sandra Robinson, revealed her passion for dolls’ houses at the meeting.
Initially they were not made for a child to play with but were replicas of very wealthy family homes, copying the houses and contents to show them off.
These occurred from the 15th century onwards, German ones being notable.
Large mahogany cabinets housed lavish palladian houses in the 18th century full of candelabra, pictures etc and including the servants’ rooms as in the 1745 Amstel House.
In Victorian times they became more popular, being put in nurseries and also being used by the lady of the house to teach their servants household tasks.
A well known dolls’ house was that designed by Edwin Lutyens for Queen Mary which was to be the ultimate house aiming to show how the King and Queen lived then.
1,500 people contributed to it - many famous, including Singer for a sewing machine, Cartier for clocks and miniature books from Arthur Conan Doyle.
Running water passes through the pipes and the house can still be seen in Windsor Castle.
This inspired many more houses here and, in the USA, and were followed by Tri-ang houses, metal houses, and Sindy and Barbie examples.
Today they are delightful toys for children to play with often replicating periods of history such as Tudor times.
Sandra became interested in dolls’ houses as a child, picturing what they would contain from Littlewood’s catalogue, but it was not until her mid-thirties that she actually bought one and spent hours making things for it, knitting, crocheting and doing tapestry work.
She enjoyed copying things she loved such as a Beatrix Potter picture as a tapestry.
Nowadays she also obtains miniature items from craftsmen, charity shops and gets ideas of what’s available and what can be made from Pinterest.
Many miniature items were displayed including tools to make miniature cakes and knitting.
Tiny beds and bedding, rugs, dressed dolls, a trolley with cakes, a display cabinet with crockery and a fisherman resting on a deck chair by his boat.
Photographs of her doll’s houses were also on show.
The next meeting will be the AGM at 2pm on Wednesday, November 13 at Bank Mill House. CHURCH and Oswaldtwistle Rotary was recently approached by a small community group from Immanuel Church on New Lane in Oswaldtwistle.
The group, ‘Darling Buds of Praise’ which is a baby and toddlers’ group, was in desperate need of some kitchen facilities for when they meet on a Wednesday morning.
There are around 12 children to cater for, and Church and Oswaldtwistle Rotary were able to provide a cooker and a fridge.
The group, which started in 2007, is run by Church Warden Sonia Marshall, Eunice Holmes and the Reverend Martin Joss.
The equipment will also be used for other church events, and it is hoped that in the near future a new group will be formed for older people.
The hope is to be able to provide perhaps some soup and a sandwich in a space where people can get together and chat and attend a church service if they wish.
President Lyndon Heap and Rotarian Margaret Barry went along to the baby and toddlers’ group to meet Sonia and Reverend Martin, and chat to the mothers and children.
They were delighted to be presented with a homemade ‘thank you card’ and some delicious iced buns, which spelled out the words ‘Thank you Rotary Club’.
President Lyndon Heap said: “Church and Oswaldtwistle Rotary was pleased to be able to be of help to this small community group. They provide a great meeting place for parents with young children.
“Their plans to expand into running a group for older people is just the kind of thing we at Rotary are keen to encourage and help, as loneliness and isolation are a real problem in society these days, and a group such as the one planned by Immanuel really begins to tackle the problem.
“Can I also say that the cakes were excellent!’
In 2018 Church and Oswaldtwistle Rotary began a 2-year project to finance cataract operations and provide eye medicine and spectacles to poor people in rural areas of Bangladesh, who would normally have no access to health care.
Blindness in these areas is a tragedy not just for the sufferer, but for the whole family, as it can mean no household income.
Soon after the project began enough money had been raised to hold the first two Eye Camps in the region. The scale of the problem was obvious when over 700 people came forward for treatment.
For the majority of those attending, a simple course of medicine, and a pair of spectacles solved a problem that had caused immense difficulty for many years due to lack of access to medication.
Around 30 people were referred for cataract operations.
Recently Church and Oswaldtwistle Rotary were able to fund another Eye Camp in a different region.
Again, this was immensely successful, with over 400 people being treated and 17 being selected for cataract operations, which will take place shortly.
The last of the Eye camps will take place in the New Year, when a group of Rotarians from the Club will be travelling to Bangladesh to see first- hand what a difference this project has made to people.
President Lyndon Heap said: “This project has been a huge success and we are immensely proud to be doing it.
“We have had great support from the public who have attended our fundraising events and given very generously.
“We were also lucky enough to be awarded a grant by the Rotary Foundation, which was a great boost to our funds.
“A project like this requires a great deal of organisation and I would like to thank our International Chair, Harun Miah, for all the work he has done.
“Also, we couldn’t have done it without the support of the Rotary Club of Sylhet in Bangladesh.”