The January meeting of the Town and Country Women was highlighted with an International Relations program, to which all members contributed with thought-provoking items generating a lot of discussion.
The meeting was held on Jan. 9 at the home of Edith Jacobs, with seven members attending. As the weather was cold and stormy, president Margaret Lukey remarked, “We are having a real Saskatchewan winter.”
The meeting opened with members repeating the Club Women’s Creed, and for the first meeting of 2017, Margaret expressed some thoughts. “Let’s try to be the bright spots burning this coming year. The easiest thing to do is to complain, but how often do we stop and tell about the good things that have happened?”
The thought for the day was, “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.” (J.K. Rowling)
Secretary Kathryn Groshong read the minutes of the November meeting, and treasurer Edith Jacobs gave the financial report.
A donation to the Canadian Mental Health Association at Weyburn will be sent by the club. Food stuffs will be collected at the February meeting for this worthy cause.
Ruth Prost and Margaret Lukey will act on the nominating committee for the annual meeting in February.
For the roll call, members were asked to tell a way that they felt Canada is a leader in international relations.
This roll call combined with news stories from each member to make up the program, convened by Clara Bell. The responses were as follows.
• Canadian soldiers fought in Holland during World War Two and those people are eternally grateful. They and their children help look after the gravesites of Canadian servicemen in Holland.
• We are one of the countries of the Commonwealth. People want to come to Canada as a democratic country. Immigrants want to come to Canada as a refuge from terrorism and starvation. We need screening and background checks on all immigrants coming to our country.
• The Weyburn community and the Canadian government have played a leading role in getting refugees from other countries into Canada. Three families have been welcomed to Weyburn. The last family, the Kabbabes, with their 12-year-old twin sons cam from Syria and are very happy to come to a peaceful country like Canada.
Their home city of Aleppo has been all but completely levelled with bombing. They are so thankful for the efforts on their behalf to settle them in this new country. The snow is quite different from the Syrian desert, but they adapted quickly.
• Lily Wong is an amazing lady. She was born in Ogema, and when she was five, her family moved back to China and she took six years of Chinese school, then helped in the fields. When she was 17 years old, she married Art and in 1938, they came back to Canada and eventually to Lake Alma, where they ran a general store and lived with their six children in the living quarters above the store. They were all baptized at Lake Alma Lutheran Church. In 1956, they moved to Regina, where she drove elderly people to church, to the doctor or to buy groceries. She played the organ for church and helped many people until she was 88 years old. She passed away at the age of 96 years, an amazing lady with an international background.
• Every woman in Canada owes thanks to Nellie McClung, who was a leader for women’s rights in Canada 100 years ago, and was instrumental in gaining the vote for women in 1916 in Manitoba and eventually across Canada in 1918. This affected the United States where it came about in 1920. This was always of great interest to me as my mother as a young person met McClung at a Weyburn Young People’s Temperance meeting at a church, and she always admired her spirit.
• Saskatchewan under the leadership of Tommy Douglas and the CCF party established the first publicly-funded medicare system in the province in 1961. It would later spread from Saskatchewan across Canada. We can be proud of our health care in Canada and the example it sets throughout the world, and I’m proud it started in Saskatchewan.
• Canada is presently open to negotiations with other countries such as Cuba, who have been avoided in the past. Canada has a history of welcoming immigrants from other countries. This is how this country was settled.
• It’s a shame how the First Nations people of Canada are treated here, with housing, health, education, jobs and so on. There is not enough to improve their conditions, but there is hope for better education and leadership.
Edith Jacobs showed a collection of books. Her daughter, Dianne Jacobs, has a new published book, “Demo Neuro Modulating”, which is for sale on a world-wide basis. She also showed some old cookbooks, the “Midale Homemakers Club”, “Saskatchewan Homemakers Kitchens”, “Five Roses Flour”, “Blue Ribbon” and “Cooking the Co-op Way”.
A potluck lunch was served after the meeting.
