Category Archives: Brantford news

September speaker

Your new Program Committee lost no time in searching for interesting and engaging speakers for our 2023/2024 monthly meetings. Therefore, we are happy to announce that in September we will welcome Glenna Young and Akela, her service dog to speak to us. She will outline how service dogs are trained, the various roles they can play, how we, as the public, should behave and interact with service dogs.

Akela is a unique service dog in that he and Glenna help train other service dogs. Akela is a German Shepherd and very well behaved. However, should anyone be allergic to dogs, or have any fear or discomfort around a dog we are happy to be able to offer the Zoom option for our meeting.

The Mentorship Directory: a blast from the past

Way back in 1989, CFUW Brantford had the radical idea of publishing a directory of local women who worked in a variety of careers and professions. These women agreed to be featured in a thumbnail article in the directory, which was distributed to schools and libraries throughout the county. They also agreed to answer students’ questions about their career paths. This was long before google was a thing, but we were mentoring women to think beyond the stereotypes.

Here’s a selection of profiles from that directory.

Significant Lives: Profiles of Brant County Women

In 1998, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of CFUW Brantford, we researched, wrote and published a book on the history of women in Brant County, called Significant Lives: Profiles of Brant County Women. (2000 copies sold). The Library and some Executive have copies if you would like to read this lovely book.

Following the publication, some of us lobbied to have the names of these women used as street names in the city.  With the help of Councillor Marguerite Ceschi-Smith, we now have  almost 20 streets named for the women.

Upcoming Topics and Speakers at CFUW General Meetings 2023/2024

September –  Glenna Young, and her dog Akela, will demonstrate and explain the value of service dogs.

October –  Anca Gaston, wildlife photographer, will bring her beautiful artwork to discuss with us.

November –  Justice Gethin Edward, a local judge, will talk about indigenous justice from both sides of the bench.

December – No meeting but there will be a Christmas social.

January – TBD

February – TBD

March – Mieke Schroeder will lead a panel of recent refugees as they describe their journey from home to Canada.

April – Joan Grundy, author of A Deepening Life, will address spiritual growth and emotional well-being.

 

*Please note that our meetings will continue to be hybrid, except for January and February meetings which will be on zoom.

August book group!

It was such an enjoyable lunch and book chat today, with varied discussions and a bevvy of books! The photo shows some of them, although the one on the left with the lavender book mark was not read, even though the author was at the table. That’s because this is the Ukrainian language edition of Marsha’s novel, Stolen Girl! Jean, our resident historian, brough three fascinating older books, shown above: Man and his world, which we all remembered from high school, Herstory III and a charmingly illustrated book called Still Glides the Stream. Norah told us about the book she’s reading, pictured above, called Lady in Waiting, and she’s really enjoying it. Our newest participant, Jeanne, had an eclectic and interesting variety:

Leslie also had some interesting books:

As did Marsha:

Perfection isn’t necessary

We have fast walkers and slow walkers in our Tuesday morning walking group. We have some who arrive late but jog to catch up and some who take their time and take pictures along the way or identify each bird call as it sounds. Some revel in the rain while others bring umbrellas. No matter what your thoughts are on a perfect walk, ours are all about friendship and exercise and great conversation. None of us is perfect, but we are all interesting and interested.

In tribute to Mary Laurie-Pile

We lost a dear longtime member recently: Mary Laurie-Pile, an amazing woman who left a deep imprint on our community in an amazing number of ways.

Here is her obituary.

She was a long time member of the walking group and as we walked, she would pick up trash along the way, determined to keep our public walkways clean. On our walk today, our thoughts were on Mary as we passed a giant can that someone carelessly tossed in the middle of the walking trail. Here’s Norah, picking up the trash and disposing it, in a tribute to dear Mary.