Like so many other clubs, the Inner Wheel Club of Sherwood have not yet been able to get together physically, but they still have their ways of keeping in touch and active. Their technological skills are growing rapidly. They have discovered Zoom and other webcam methods for services and meetings. Emails have become the means of fun and brain activity and the imagination has gone haywire in devising quizzes and ways to make our members smile and share time together. The spirit of Inner Wheel is alive and well.
The club have a new president, Dorothy Bastow, who has previously held this position with WI locally. The Ye Olde Bell, where the club meet, is open again and the group will find a way forward so that their meetings can resume in due course.
Depending on the age group of members, many clubs recently, in different parts of the country and worldwide have, volunteered for roles to help out the communities in which they live. Inner Wheel operate in 104 countries. They have representatives in the UN who follow and assist work in human rights for women and children, drugs issues and in living conditions for family and the elderly. The 3,979 clubs worldwide including Retford, have peace at the heart of their work and help towards education initiatives where little exists.
The making of masks and distributing food has been undertaken under the auspices of a COVID-19 initiative. Also a new fund has been set up, using the logo and strapline ‘Together we can overcome and save lives’. Its purpose is to help towards the immediate after effects of the virus and to help move towards a long term solution. In Italy, Inner Wheel members donated 6,000 Euros towards the vaccination research fund.
Club colours are blue and yellow, which together make green. This has been used to promote a green project by clubs in Malaysia to encourage everyone to think green! It was designed to have potential for repetition, to involve the community, to be of educational value and to promote public awareness. The principal of the five Rs was its essence… reuse, reduce, repair, recycle and rethink. This principal is something we should all try to achieve. Inner Wheel is about endeavoring to make their clubs worthwhile for the benefit of others.
