The Cornwall & District branch of Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) had an exceptional year in 2021-2022. This local club of around 50 friendly, interesting, and engaging women met monthly via Zoom, and eventually in-person, to discuss current events and issues, gardening matters, local charity initiatives, and loads of other topics. When we were finally able to meet in-person, our meetings included delicious meals as well. If you’d like more information about our upcoming club activities this Fall, please contact us at cornwallcfuw2020@gmail.com to receive the latest electronic copy of our newsletter, The Dispatch.
An additional bonus last year was that we won two of the three prizes offered by CFUW Ontario Council to the 49 provincial member clubs. The Carolyn Day Award for Environmental Action was awarded to our club for a year-long program that had us avoiding the use of single use plastics, wrapping our Christmas gifts without any waste, turning down our thermostats, picking up litter in Lamoureux Park and re-purposing our pumpkins, among other things. We also won the Award for Club Member Retention for the support that our members provided for one another during the pandemic, including social media sharing, “sister” phone calls, and recognition of special moments in our members’ lives.
Now the end of summer has arrived, and we can look forward to another exciting CFUW year in 2022-2023. This year we hope that most of our club meetings will be in-person, since we love to see one another. We also enjoy sharing a meal and sometimes a glass of wine together. Our upcoming monthly program includes a presentation by Cornwall’s Dr. Rachel Navaneelan in September; Evelyne Smit, one of our members, will discuss her personal insights into Higher Education for the Blind during our October meeting; and our very popular Holiday Auction Finale will take place in November. In December we will meet for our annual Christmas dinner. In 2023 we have more treats in store, but I’ll leave that for another day.
In addition to our whole club meetings, we have smaller groups that get together for Book Club, Outdoors Club, and Gourmet Club. Our Scholarship Committee organizes 12 Scholarships of $800.00 each that are awarded to local graduates who will be starting post-secondary studies this year. Our Advocacy group steers us as we contribute to some of our community organizations such as Baldwin House and the Cornwall Children’s Treatment Center.
If CFUW Cornwall & District sounds interesting to you, we would love to have you as a new member. Why not attend a couple of meetings as a guest, and bring a friend? We meet the fourth Tuesday of every month, usually at 6 pm. We hope to see you soon.
