Feeling welcome in Wolfville
Newcomers club has something for everyone to enjoy
Kathy Lepold-Madigan remembers being welcomed to Wolfville before she and husband Mike had even moved here.
They were house-sitting for a friend during the winter of 2018/19 when there was a knock on the door on a Saturday morning. The lady at the door introduced herself and invited them to a potluck.
“It was a newcomers club potluck,” Lepold-Madigan recalls. “We had a wonderful time. We knew then that this was the town where we want to buy our new home because we knew we would have friends here.”
It was less than six months later, in June 2019, that they found the house they wanted and moved to Wolfville that September while maintaining their summer home in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Wolfville and Area Newcomers Club has been welcoming people to the area since the early 2000s.
“People are looking to make social connections when they move to a new area,” Lepold-Madigan says. “When you meet people with similar interests that really helps to form friendships.”
The club meets once a month from September through May at the Lions Club. Each meeting features a guest speaker who gives a presentation on an interesting aspect of life in the Annapolis Valley. One recent speaker was Garry Leeson, an auctioneer, horseman, farmer and author of The Dome Chronicles, for which he received the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for non-fiction.
“We’ve had wonderful, interesting speakers including silversmiths, artists, craftspeople, museum curators and the people who launched Tap Root Farms in Port Williams,” Lepold-Madigan says.
“People from local service organizations and charitable groups have come in to tell us about the important work they do.”
In-person meetings resumed in December after being shut down because of the pandemic. There were about 30 newcomers at that meeting, Lepold-Madigan recalls.
“It just blew me away,” she says. “They had heard about the club and they were just waiting for the in-person meetings to resume.”
There are plenty of options to keep members active. The newcomers club has no fewer than 13 special interest groups on everything from needlework to hiking, biking and snowshoeing.
“Four of the 13 groups are food-related,” Lepold-Madigan points out. “Obviously, dining is a great way to get to know people.”
Many of the groups moved their events online during the pandemic, including the book, bridge, needlework and film groups.
People hear about the club
through word-of-mouth and local papers, while realtors in the area also help spread the word.
Lepold-Madigan grew up just outside Philadelphia and bought a house in Newfoundland with her husband in 2010. Since moving to Wolfville she has become a member of the newcomers club and is in charge of publicity. She estimates the number of club members is about 110.
“What’s interesting is that many people in the club were born here and they joined to help others feel welcome and also because it’s great to belong to the special interest groups,” she says. “They really know the area and the history here.”