Local Women’s Institute raise funds for CLC

Raising Funds for the Creative Living Centre

The Prestwich and Whitefield branch of the Women’s Institute, which has raised over £1,000 for Creative Living Centre in 2020, is a very active and lively group of about 85 women who usually meet every month at St Margaret’s church hall in Prestwich, organise regular days out and have a range of interest groups including a walking group, a ‘culture club’, a reading group and a ‘crafternoon’ group. They often invite a guest to their monthly get-together to give a talk or lead an activity, and if the guest is from a charity the attendees usually do a collection for the charity at the end of the meeting.

In late 2019 the committee decided that they would like to choose a charity to support over the course of a whole year, for the first time. Two charities were considered and Creative Living Centre was chosen.
​Jackie Hardy, President of Prestwich and Whitefield WI, said, 

 ‘Your support can get absorbed and lost in a national charity.
We wanted something that’s local and can make a difference for our members, ​their families and people living in Prestwich and Whitefield’.

Fundraising for CLC started at their Annual General Meeting in February 2020, with a tombola which raised £80 – a great start. To continue the fundraising, the crafternooners planned to sell their homemade items at meetings over the year but the March lockdown put paid to that, and crafternoon and other WI meetings moved online. 

Lucy Nye, who leads the WI crafts group, then had the inspired idea of setting up a travelling craft shop in the boot of her car. She started visiting WI members at home to sell the crafts from her boot in a socially distanced way, and many also gave donations for CLC. Driving round had the added bonus of allowing Lucy to check how members were doing, since some had not been leaving home, and some did not have the technology to attend the online meetings. The travelling craft shop even made a visit to CLC so staff could buy some of the wonderful craft items and Lucy could hand over a cheque.

We are so grateful to Prestwich and Whitefield WI for their very generous support. Lucy Nye said, ‘I can’t believe we’ve raised this much!’ It feels particularly appropriate that the money was raised through crafting, an activity which is popular at CLC as well as the WI and has therapeutic benefits. Jackie Hardy said,

‘We’re all about friendship and connection,
so mental health is a big issue for the WI.
​Creative Living Centre is a great fit for us.’

If you would like to raise funds for CLC, we would love to hear from you. Please give us a ring on 0161 696 7501 or email fundraise@creativelivingcentre.org.uk.
​Paula Jones, Fundraising Coordinator