Neepawa Inner Wheel celebrating 60th in 2016

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Published on Thursday, December 3, 2015

Submitted article

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The Neepawa Inner Wheel, which is an organization affiliated with the International Inner Wheel (IIW) and Neepawa Rotary Club, is celebrating its 60th anniversary next year. Plans for the celebration were highlighted at the Rotary Meeting on Nov. 20, where several Neepawa Inner Wheel members brought reports about the group, their past and present activities and plans for the future. 

Mary Ellen Clark shared how Neepawa Inner Wheel members annually host the welcoming orientation for  incoming participants of the International Youth Exchange Program sponsored by Rotary District # 5550  — that serves Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario — from Thunder Bay to the Manitoba border. In September, 15 international students from across the world were welcomed here in Neepawa, including Christina Pichardo from Seville, Spain, the current Rotary Exchange Youth studying at Neepawa Area Collegiate.  

Just recently, local IIW members nominated the active Neepawa Chapter of Victoria Quilts to receive the annual ‘national’ donation of Inner Wheel District 555. This award provided $1,000 to local Victoria Quilters for their continuing service to craft hand-made quilts and gift these to cancer patients across western Canada. 

Inner Wheel members are also active in the annual Neepawa Rotary Auction, serving in many roles, including introducing auction items on camera, taking telephone bids and making sandwiches and cookies available to everyone volunteering and bidding on site at the Roxy Theatre.  They have also supported Neepawa’s Palliative Care to purchase coffee, tea and juice and general supplies for families who are supporting a family member at end of life.

Other local Inner Wheel projects include monthly visits to Country Meadows, bringing flowers to residents for their birthdays, and two annual fundraising projects. ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’ — is a series of parties on one evening — where hosts don’t know who will be arriving at their door and guests don’t know where they are going until they are leaving their home. IW’s ‘Visiting Gift Basket’ rotates between members’ homes to encourage catching up with friends and making new ones. Neepawa’s IW monthly supports a foster child in Tanzania through Plan Canada, annually sponsors a Grade 4 or 5 student to attend Camp Wanacumbak in Onanole and provides a District Fine Arts Festival Scholarship for a Grade 1 Piano Student. They have also participated in Mary Murray’s project to create teddy bears to be shared with paramedics, who then gift these toys to children they have contact with.

Bev Finlayson reported that, while Inner Wheel is not huge in Canada, the International Inner Wheel is the largest women’s service organization in the world, with 3,895 clubs world-wide. The Neepawa Club remains one of the strongest in the IIW District 555 of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and, nationally, across Canada. 

Current Neepawa Inner Wheel President, Deva-Marie Beck, reported that the group is planning their big celebration for their 60th anniversary on Sept. 16 and 17, 2016 in Neepawa, by hosting and entertaining all members of IIW District 555 for their ‘Fun & Friendship’ annual general meeting. She invited Neepawa Rotarians  to mark these dates and be prepared to support their dynamic Inner Wheel partners. 

Active membership in Inner Wheel is available to women 18 years and older.  Traditionally, Inner Wheel members have been eligible if they were related to Rotarians and former Rotarians or to Inner Wheel members or former members. However, at the 2012 IIW International Convention in Istanbul, this older ruling has been revised to now allow members at each community level to invite any lady friend to fully participate, providing that a majority of the Club members agree.