Women's Institute Week

Each year, the week surrounding February 19th signifies Women's Institute Week. This day in February is very special to the organization as it was on this date in 1897 that the very first WI Branch was organized in Ontario. Throughout the week, thousands of WI members in Nova Scotia and across the country celebrate the founding of the organization and the impact the members volunteer efforts have made through the years.

Events such as "Light Up For WI" are held during the week. Women's Institute members decorate their homes with festive lights to celebrate the birth of the organization over 100 years ago. The organization's founder, Adelaide Hoodless, started the Institute to teach women domestic skills, but it has evolved into much more than that. Women's Institutes is an organization that keeps its members current on today's issues. From it's humble beginnings, this Canadian movement has grown into the world's largest international organization of rural women with a membership of over nine million members in 70 countries.

WI Week is an opportunity to celebrate the impact the organization continues to have on the lives of its members, their families and the general public.

Lights, Ribbons, Action!
Here's some ideas to help your branch celebrate WI Week:

‘Light Up for WI': On the evening of February 19th, string a row of white mini lights in a tree or shine a flood light on your home or WI hall. Decorate a wreath with white lights and hang outside your door. Promote ‘Light Up for WI' in your community and through the media. Let the ‘light' shine on the great work of the Women's Institutes.

Ribbons: Place blue and yellow (what ever colour your provincial WI chooses) ribbons on your front door, on your rural mail box, attached to your vehicle's antenna, etc. Wear your WI membership pin all week and place blue and yellow ribbons looped under your pin. See how many people ask you what the ribbons represent. A great way to start a conversation about WI!

Here's more ideas on how to celebrate WI Week in your community:

• Give a press release to your local newspaper
• Give a press release to your local radio station. Even better take the press release to the station with a basket of muffins or cookies!
• Put WINS brochures in local mailboxes
• Have a Community supper
• Have a tea and sale
• Invite a friend to your meeting during February
• Have an information table during WI Week at a local grocery store or pharmacy.
• Have a special church service.
• Deliver treats to school children or seniors
• Visit your MLA or MP's office
• Visit local hospital patients
• Visit nursing home residents
• Donate books to libraries or schools
• Have a fashion show with outfits from 1913 to current day
• Post WI Week posters throughout your community
• Place a WI Week notice on a local cable tv channel
• Have a cookie bake-a-thon and deliver cookies to local police, ambulance, fire and hospital staff
• Have a chili cook-off
• Visit local businesses with a thank you card for support given over the past year.
• Have a talent show
• Give packages of lifesavers to supporters of your branch through the past year with a note, "You've been ‘one' for us this year!"
• Give packages of gum to supporters during WI Week with a note, "Thanks for sticking with WI"
• Hold a rummage sale
• Read about Adelaide Hoodless
• Have a sing-a-thon
• Have a dance-a-thon
• Have a walk-a-thon
• Donate to the food bank
• Donate to a local animal shelter
• Visit the WINS office in Truro
• Send a card to your twin branch
• Visit your twin branch
• Bring a friend to the February WI branch meeting
• Send a card to our provincial branch twins in British Columbia
• Visit a local museum
• Have an auction
• Give a WINS cookbook to a friend
• Have a recipe exchange
• Have a plant slip exchange
• Have a program on the Mary Stewart Collect
• Take time to look at the WINS website at www.gov.ns.ca/nsaf/wi/