It is great to hear that Kaniva has a newly reformed Country Women’s Association branch, an afternoon group of 10 young working mums.

The group is meeting on the second Monday of each month, from 4.45pm to 5.45pm, at the communal room in Kaniva College.

Interestingly, nearly all have either pre-school or primary school children.

In September this group will be making items for Kaniva Show, where they hope to have a stall.

In October they will provide spring garden hints and tips as part of adopting a garden bed at the Kaniva community gardens.

Growing summer vegetables, they will share details with school students through the Stephanie Alexander kitchen garden scheme, having a class where they all come together to cook with the produce and the students. 

A cake-decorating masterclass with this group is also on the cards. 

Plans are afoot for a West Wimmera Group to organise a date in spring for a get together at the Horsham Botanic Gardens.

The idea is to present the event at a rose garden area, where the CWA of Victoria, Friendship rose, celebrating the 90th birthday of Victorian CWA, has been planted. 

In other news, it’s also great to hear that next year’s August Craft Exhibition will be in the region –  in Ararat. 

A foretaste was the West Wimmera Group Craft Exhibition in Horsham last week.

There is also a Central Wimmera Group craft day at Warracknabeal Fire Brigade hall on September 16. This is always a fun way of learning new skills. 

As part of an enterprising fundraiser through CWA Victoria, a colourful and informative calendar, ‘Silo Art of Victoria, 2020’ will be sold.

The calendar would be a great Christmas gift. I have mine to forward to my Kiwi pen pal. 

Beulah branch has taken the initiative of selling the calendars as a fundraising idea, with a dollar from the sale of each calendar going into the area where the calendar was purchased. 

Silos from Rosebery, Warrnambool, Fyansford and Rochester, through to Goorambat, to name just a few, feature in the calendar. 

I attended both West Wimmera and Central Wimmera group conferences and found much can be learned from these days.

Both groups featured excellent guest speakers, who were able to give us a wonderful insight into their individual roles within their communities. 

Keith Fischer, a member of Wimmera Against Cancer in Kids, WACK, was a guest at the West Wimmera event.

WACK works to improve the lives of young cancer sufferers and their families, with involvement in South Australia as well as Victorian Ronald McDonald House projects and the Royal Children’s Hospital. It provides financial and emotional support, often in times of very short notice. 

At Central Wimmera, Julieanne Phelan, a young mum, spoke of the ongoing challenges her family faces with her son, Charlie, battling neurofibromatosis type one and working with the Children’s Tumour Foundation to raise awareness about this little-known illness. 

The Warracknabeal community came together last month for a NF Hero March, to raise money for research. 

The entire September 11, 2019 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!