In this Newsletter...  

  • President's Message
  • New Location
  • Welcome Executive and Chairs
  • Overview of the Program for 2024-2025
  • September 24th Meet and Greet
  • Membership Survey
  • Special Events
  • Advocacy
  • Interest Groups
  • Scholarship Committee News
  • CFUW National AGM, July 2024
  • GWI News
  • In Memoriam 
  • Extra Extra
  • Contact Information

      President's Message

We’re back! Welcome CFUW Stratford members to our new Program year.

CFUW Stratford is 70 years old in 2024! To celebrate this incredible anniversary, our upcoming program is called Past, Present and Future: Living Your Best Life. Over the next nine months we will be:

  • Celebrating our Past - reflecting on seven decades of fellowship, community impact and our outstanding 68-year legacy of Scholarship awards. And of course, there will be our big birthday bash in December!
  • Investing in our Present - we are reinstating the social time at our monthly meetings, introducing some fun new interest groups, and continuing our very active advocacy projects, the successful International Women’s Day breakfast, and partnerships with other community organizations.
  • And finally, focusing on the Future – our slate of expert speakers will bring new insights and knowledge to help improve our lives, our health, our community and the world at large. They will be covering topics such as new developments in housing, community design, mental health, and aging that will shape our next decade.

NEW LOCATION!

We kick things off at our first meeting, the Meet and Greet, on Tuesday, September 24, at 7pm, at our new location, Stratford District High School, 428 Forman Ave. Many thanks to the staff of the Huron Perth Museum for hosting us for the past few years. However, based on feedback from our membership, we explored new locations for this year that were in town and had more room to accommodate our social time. And what better location than the high school, where we have provided scholarships for girls for 68 years!

Finally, have you seen our fabulous new website? Our VP and Chair of Communications, Pat DeSanti, has spent untold hours  this summer updating both the design and content of our site. There is a new interactive calendar, and updated sections for all of our groups and activities. Please take some time to visit CFUW Stratford  and reach out to Pat at communications@cfuwstratford.ca if you need anything added to our site.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the 24th – please invite your friends and neighbours. We will have Interest and Advocacy group sign-ups, a very special Scholarship presentation, and more!

​​​​​​​

PLEASE WELCOME!


EXECUTIVE

President: Cambria Ravenhill

Vice Presidents: Pat DeSanti

                             Leora Rissin

Secretary: Nijole Tinits

Treasurer: Verna Dennis

 

STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Advocacy: Cynthia Hastings

Program: Andrea Steinhauser

Communications: Pat DeSanti 
Communications Team: 
Contributor: Sue Bailey Newsletter: Bev Symons, Social Media: Wendy McNaughton, Website: Pat DeSanti,

Interest Groups Convenors: Leora Rissin and Patsy Berton

Membership & Special Projects Co-Ordinator: Wendy McNaughton

GWI Co-Ordinator: Pat Reavy

 

SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE

Chair: Charlotte Gillett

Treasurer: Heather Tremble

Secretary: DJ Anderson

Education Lieason: Margaret Thompson

Member: Catherine Uffen

Scholarship Liason: Rotating

 

Past, Present, Furure - Living Your Best Life

Our Meet and Greet

Tuesday, Sept 24th, 7 pm

Celebrating 70 Years!

Join us to reconnect with old friends, sign up for exciting interest groups and hear our advocacy plans for the coming year. We are celebrating 68 years awarding scholarships to Stratford young women for their post-secondary education.

What can you bring to the party?

  • Joy 😀
  • Bring twonies for our 50/50 draw
  • Food for Emily Murphy - see below Extra! Extra!

October 22, 2024
Melanie Hare
Creating resilient and liveable communities for all - incl. the re-development of the Cooper Site

November 26, 2024
Dee Tripp
Alternative models to long-term care

December 14, 2024
Birthday and Holiday Celebration
Club lunch and party

January 28, 2025
Mike Masse
Be kind to your mind:
How the mental health crisis is impacting our next generation
and how to reset the stress

 

February 25, 2025
Advocacy in Action

March 25, 2025
CFUW Resolutions
Evaluate and support policy development

April 22, 2025
Peggy Edwards
How age-friendly is our city?

May 20, 2025
CFUW Stratford AGM
Supper and Festivities

We'd love to hear about your interests and hopes for our club!

Please complete our membership survey so we can get to know you a bit better.

Membership Survey

CFUW Stratford at the SLAAA Open House

Our amazing executive committee members represented our club at the Stratford Lakeside Active Adults Association convention held on Saturday Sept 7th. Bravo Cambria, Leora, Wendy, Charlotte, and Nijole!  They shared information and enthusiasm and distributed the very cool bookmarks designed and produced by Pat DeSanti.

Have a look at our beautiful banner also designed by Pat DeSanti!

Thanks to our Special Events Co-Ordinator, Wendy McNaughton, for organizing our participation in this well attended community event.

 

Join CFUW Stratford as we support 

STOP Violence Against Women

Take Back the Night! 

We will gather at 
Market Square on Friday, September 20th at 6:30pm

CFUW is assisting StopVAW Coordinating Committee of Perth County. There will be speakers and a short march.  It would be wonderful if our members attended to help build awareness that women do not always feel safe in their communities.

Optimism Place Tour

Optimism House has offered to host a tour for CFUW members on the evening of October 29th.  There will be a maximum of 10 people per tour but there can be multiple tours.  If you are interested please e mail lrissin@sympatico.ca or sign up with Wendy McNaughton at our generall meeting, Sept. 24th.

 

Please sign up for our Women's Issues Advocacy Group at our Meet and Greet on Sept 24th.

 

Our Climate Action Group

Joined our club booth at the SPAAA Open House. Here we see Marylu Moyer and Sheila Clarke with their excellent table of alternatives to the use of plastic. 

This advocacy group will continue with their focus on the environment and the many ways we can effect change in the upcoming year.

Please sign up to participate in this Advocacy group at our Meet and Greet Meeting on Sept 24th.

 

Check out this year's Interest Groups on our new website! You will find groups for: Arts, Exploring, Food and Social Time, Fun and Games and Reading.

Interest Groups

Four New Interest Groups:

Brief Books led by Cynthia Hastings: for those who would like to read books under 200 pages :-)

New Beginner Bridge Club led by Verna Dennis

Cinema Club (held once a month at The Little Prince) led by Leora Rissin

Mahjong if we can find a teacher.  If anyone would like to teach beginner mahjong please contact patsyberton@gmail.com or lrissin@sympatico.ca

 

Once again our Scholarship Committee had a great year and will be sharing the names and photos of their recipients at our first meeting as well as the scholarships and grants awarded. Look for details in our October newsletter and on our website. 

July 22 - July 24th,  Edmonton

Congratulations to CFUW's Advocacy Committee for their resolution on Aging in Place as well as their Incentives to Adopt Current Standards for Long-Term Care – 2024.  All the other resolutions that we reviewed last spring were passed as presented and we will be receiving some action plan ideas from these clubs in the near future.

"...Our first in-person AGM since 2019 and our first ever Conference Day ... And it is with great pride that I took on the position as the new CFUW President, along with the new CFUW Board of Directors for 2024-2026.”
Linda Sestock, Incoming President, CFUW National, 2024-2026

I encourage everyone to sign up for the CFUW Club Action Newsletter on the CFUW website. The newsletter comes out once a week and does not take much time to look over. It is interesting to see all the varied activities CFUW is involved in

Our support of GWI contributes to the 6 grants awarded this year to the following grass roots projects:

We send our condolences to a past-president, Hélène Crabb, on the passing of her husband John Crabb on July 17th.

We also remember former member Marion Isherwood, lifelong friend of our member Eleanor Kane. Marion passed away on August 23rd.

 

Please remember to contact Louise McColl, our card convenor, if you become aware of one of our members who may appreciate hearing form us.

Support for Emily Murphy

Our greatest need is food assistance including school snacks, coffee, tea, grocery gift cards, toiletries, cleaning supplies, toilet paper and paper towels..

Thank you so much for your ongoing support!

Lisa Wilde

 

Friends of the Festival is inviting CFUW Stratford to join their bus tour to New York City!

Kathy Serednyska will be making a short announcement at our first meeting.

 

Contact Information

General inquiries and Membership: president@cfuwstratford.ca                                                                                         
For inquiries to our treasurer or email transfer: cfuwstratfordtreasurer@gmail.com 

For donations to the scholarship fund: scholarshipfundcfuwstratford@gmail.com

Visit us on Facebook - CFUW Stratford: Cfuw Stratford

Newsletter submissions - newsletter@cfuwstratford.ca

Newsletters you can subscribe to:

CFUW National,

Ontario Council

GWI