Cape Breton District’s “Rally The Troops”

After the Provincial Board meeting in October, District Director Cheryl Durham discussed with her fellow W.I. members in Cape Breton the concerns of the future of Women’s Institutes of Nova Scotia (W.I.N.S.).  At the Fall District meeting, Cape Breton W.I. Branches agreed to hold a workshop on how they could grow WI.  At their workshop (pictured above) they brainstormed a number of actions that could be done locally and/or provincially.  One strategy was to have a display table at the Coxheath Market together with the Department of Agriculture.  They displayed information on W.I., had cookbooks to give away, door prizes and of course food – carrot cookies and potato/apple muffins. Pictured below are Cheryl Durham, District Director and Effie Ferguson enjoying the  Market. Pictured below  right aremembers Marilyn Singer, Pauline Singer, Gerry MacAulay, Laurie Boudreau and Cheryl Durham.

Cape Breton District at the Rally The Troops Event

Another  strategy  was to arrange to have a regular column about W.I. in the free paper that is wrapped around delivered flyers in their area!  An editor of the paper met with them beforehand and gave them some valuable pointers on  newspaper journalism -how to catch the readers’ interest, etc. and now each Branch in their  District is taking turns on a rotational basis to write about W.I. and what their Branches are doing.  The first article was published in early January and they are already seeing the results:  There have been enquiries about joining existing branches and even interest in forming a new branch.

If you are  interested in learning more about Cape Breton’s “Rally the Troops” contact your local District Director.