Scrapbook FWIC 1997 Convention

              The movement that
Adelaide Hoodless
founded is still
helping rural women
around the world.
Right: flashback to the 75th anniversary in 1972
Institute members ( clockwise from left, according to
information provided at the time) Mrs. Llovd Daw
Olive Farquharson, Mrs. E . V Fulton, Marjorie Lee'
Members meet in the Erland Lee Museum in Stoney Creek, where
the Women's Institute was founded 100 years ago.
Adelaide Hoodless
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR Tuesdu>, June 17,1997
• Feb. 19, 1897: The first meeting of
what was to become the Women's
Institute was attended by 101
women and one man — co- founder
Erland Lee — in Squire's Hall,
Saltfleet Township ( now Stoney
Creek) to hear Hamiltonian Adelaide
Hoodless talk of the need for an
educational forum for women. The
catalyst had been the death of her
infant son from drinking impure
milk.
Hoodless together with Erland and
Janet Lee of Saltfleet, who arranged
the meeting and helped draw up the
original constitution on their dining
table, are recognized as co-founders.
• By 1913 there were branches in
every province leading to the
formation of the Federated
Women's Institutes of Canada six
years later. The movement then
spread to the United Kingdom.
Australia and New Zealand and
more recently to South Africa.
• By 1933 the dream of Canadian Wl
member Madge Watt was realized
and the Associated Country Women
of the World was formed as a world­wide
association of rural women,
with representatives from 26
countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and
North America.
• Today the organization has more
than seven million members in
more than 65 countries with seven
representatives in specialized
agencies at the United Nations.
Women's Institute keeps an
eye on the future of the family
Stories by KATE BARLOW
The Spectator
BINBROOK When Cleda Yachetti first stepped into a
Women's Institute meeting she felt as
though she had stepped 50 years back in time —
and that was 25 years ago.
" I remember thinking. I like these ladies, I'm
not quite sure what I'm doing here, but I'm inter­ested
in what they're talking about and in what I
know and can contribute."
She had come at the urging of a neighbour and
because the Mary Stewart Collect, which starts
every meeting, had struck a chord with her.
It begins: " Keep us O Lord from pettiness; let us
be large in thought, in word and deed" and ends,
" And may we strive to touch and know the great
human heart common to us all and 0 Lord God,
let us not forget to be kind."
" It appealed to me because here was a gather­ing
of people together in a non- judgmental fash­ion...
it was straightforward in a lovely way"
Cleda Yachetti's original branch in Blackheath,
near her family's hobby farm, disbanded in the
mid- 1980s and she moved to the Binbrook branch,
where she's held several positions including
branch and district president.
Yachetti, 55, is now a convener, one of several
appointed in each branch to line up speakers on
the variety of subjects which are the focus of
each meeting, held monthly in members' homes
or Binbrook Memorial Hall.
She credits the Institute for giving her leader­ship
training in chairing meetings, making up
agendas, public speaking and formulating resolu­tions,
all within a supportive fun- loving sister­hood.
The Binbrook member- shin in#- in « io » >•
late eighties. Many of the younger members
work full time outside the home.
The membership shares her concerns about
the stresses faced by families today.
Yachetti believes the Women's Institute will
come into its own once again as women around
the world fight to make the family the base for a
healthy social structure.
" To me the Women's Institute represents what
was stable and what we must get back to. I'm see­ing
at this time in my life a huge and wonderful