General Meetings & Special Events
General Meetings
Our General meetings start with an invited speaker, and may be followed by a business meeting, where committees report on activities, and club motions are presented and voted on. For the upcoming Speaker Series, we have a varied program of topics and speakers, covering a broad range of topics. An overview of the year is shown below in the Speaker Series Calendar. More details of the next topic and speaker are provided below in Next Speaker – Outline, and the Previous Speakers section contains summaries of previous sessions.
We meet on the first Monday of the month either at the Qualicum Civic Centre, or Knox United Church in Parksville. We invite members and guests to come along at 6:30 pm to catch up with each other, and meet mew members. All programs begin at 7:00 pm unless specified otherwise.
Special Events
In addition to General Meetings and our regular Speaker Series, we have a number of special events throughout the year, to which members of the public are typically invited. Some events are hands-on activities in the community; others are with invited speakers:
- We honour the memories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW); and also recognise the UN 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence with civic ceremonies in Qualicum and Parksville.
- On International Womens’ Day, March 08 2025, we will enjoy a talk from distinguished speaker, Alexandra Morton, who has been called “the Jane Goodall of Canada” because of her passionate 30 year fight to save BC wild salmon.
- Many of our events combine fun with a charitable purpose too. An example is our CFUW PQ Christmas Auction. There have been Christmas auctions for at least 25 years, and originally they were silent. When a live component was added, revenue increased. We have supported shelter/help for abused women in Oceanside for over 20 years. At one time our Christmas contribution amounted to 10% of Haven Homes’ local budget. Our connection with Haven House Parksville is long-standing and was the recipient of of the 2022, and the 2024 Christmas Auction proceeds, during our lunch at the Bayside Inn.
News on upcoming events can be found below in the Special Events Updates section.
Current Special Events
Coldest Night of The Year (CNOY) 2025
a team of CFUW PQ members, family and friends will take place in the 2km walk on the afternoon of February 22, to raise awareness and funds for Island Crisis Care Society (ICCS). Please consider joining or donating to the CFUW PQ Ramblers
IWD 2025
International Womens’ Day 2024 (IWD 2025) – March 08: public lecture on Saturday March 08.
When: Saturday March 08. 2:30 pm to 4:30pm
Where: Knox United Church, Parksville, in the sanctuary
What: presentation from Dr Alexandra Morton on her groundbreaking marine environmental work, open to the public
How much: free or by donation at the door
Speaker Series Calendar
2024-25 Programme Theme:
Shine A Light on the Community
Speakers:
September 9th – Janel Van Dongen
Venue: QB Civic Centre
Introduced and thanked by Jane Atagi
Janel van Dongen’s speech ‘A Future Painted with Light’ highlighted some of the ways agriculture can be part of the solution to climate change.
“I was trying to figure out how an industry that impacted me so positively could be a cause or at least a contributor to these problems,” she said. “And it made me curious if there’s ways we could use agriculture as a tool to not only stop causing damage to our climate, but to improve things.”
_________________________
October 7th – Markham Hislop
Venue: QB Civic Centre
Introduced and thanked by Sonya Felix
Markham Hislop is a Canadian energy and climate journalist. He hosts the Energi Talks podcast, conducts video interviews with experts from around the world, writes the Markham On Energy political analysis column, and writes about the energy future.
_________________________
November 4th – Ievgeniia Galushka
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
Introduced and thanked by Mary Ellen Campbell
Bio to follow.
_________________________
January 13th – Barney Ellis-Perry
ZOOM
Introduced and thanked by Janet Farooq
CEO NRGH Foundation, will speak on efforts to improve healthcare in Oceanside
Barney Ellis-Perry has over thirty years of fundraising and constituent engagement experience.
_________________________
February 10th – Violet Hayes
ZOOM
Island Crisis Care Society = Coldest Night of the Year
Introduced and thanked by Christine Pagan
Violet became the Executive Director of Island Crisis Care Society in April of 2011. Her focus has been on building the society’s capacity, developing new programs, and increasing our visibility in the community.
_________________________
March 8 – International Women’s Day Event
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
_________________________
April 14th – CFUW Resolutions
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
_________________________
May 12th – Shine a Light on our Members
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
Introduced and thanked by our ‘charter’ members Eva Hilborn and Deirdre Laforest
Recent Special Events – – Red Dress memorial 2024
Red Dress Ceremonies
To honour the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women of Canada, and the UN 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence ( November 25 to December 10), CFUW PQ will be hanging red dresses in Qualicum Town Hall, and in Parksville City Hall.
The purpose of these actions is to raise awareness on both gender-based violence in general, and also the targeted violence against our Indigenous sisters in particular.
The use of red dresses to represent missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls was originated by Métis artist Jaime Black in 2010. In her exhibit. The REDress Project, Black displayed over one hundred red dresses around the University of Winnipeg campus to raise awareness about this issue. Today, red dresses continue to be used across Canada as a representation of the Indigenous women and girls lost to violent crime and as a call for action to prevent future violence. Many CFUW Clubs spread awareness about violence against Indigenous women & girls by hanging red dresses in high-traffic areas of their communities.
Members are asked to visit the Member Area Page to view specific club-based toolkits on how to ‘take action’
International Womens’ Day
From Cairo to Capetown on a Bicycle!
March 08, 2023 – Knox Church, Parksville, 7:00pm. We celebrated International Womens’ Day with a talk from a distinguished speaker. Our speaker was Dr. Brenda Trenholme, a retired physician who cycled from Cape Town to Cairo, and then The Silk Road, and who shared some of her experiences with us.
A self-described “endurance fanatic,” Brenda had completed several cycle tours through Europe when she decided to take on an even longer cycling challenge. in 2016, she set off from Cairo with 15 others to cycle 12,000 km to Capetown. This exciting adventure whet her appetite for exploring exotic places and two years later she joined 15 others to cycle 13,000 km along the so-called “Silk Road” from Beijing to Istanbul. As our speaker for International Women’s Day, Brenda’s presentation focussed on her trip across Africa and and highlight the cultural aspects unique to some of the African women she encountered.
At the CFUW National 2023 AGM, CFUW PQ was the recipient of the International Women’s Day Award for our 2023 International Women’s Day Event.
Upcoming Events
[MEC id=”2685″]
Stay Informed
Launch for Water Confidential: Witnessing Justice Denied
www.youtube.com
you may have seen these posters starting to appear around town...it's the time of year to start applying for scholarships and bursaries for the school year 2024-25.
CFUW PQ has a number of valuable scholarships and bursaries available for qualified candidates.
Please share this information with any local girls (or their families) graduating from our SD69 high school programmes this year who are planning to go on to further education; with those from the area already in University or further education; or with local women planning to return to higher education.
Please check our website for details, and application forms. cfuwpq.ca/what-we-do/scholarships/
The deadline for all applications is COB May 31 2024.
Did you know...CFUW PQ raises funds through a HUGE booksale annually? Books are donated by members of our local community; and are collected, sorted and sold by our club volunteers at A Gigantic Book Sale in late September-early October.
The funds go towards scholarships and bursaries for local girls and women; to help with education for women and girls overseas; and to carry out outreach and education in our local community.
We Need Your Books!
This year the sale will once again be at the Arrowsmith Hall at the Coombs Fairground site. For information on specific dates and times, or what kind of books we are looking for, please contact our booksale team at booksale@cfuwpq.ca , or visit our website
cfuwpq.ca/whats-happening/book-sale/ cfuwpq.ca/donate/book-donations/
Please check out our book-box, and drop off your gently used books with us - we really appreciate it. The book-box is located near the entrance to Save-On-Foods at Wembley Mall - you can't miss it
looking for inspiration for an Easter gift for a youngster in your life - look no more - April 02 is International Children's Book Day 📖
very impactful memoir written by one of our own members - please share widely
**March is Women’s History Month - let's honour some more impactful Canadian Women**
Justice Bertha Wilson (1923–2007)
First woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Born into a working-class family in Scotland, Bertha Wilson trained in law in Canada. When appointed to the high court in 1982, she already had a track record as a justice with the Ontario Court of Appeal, where she was known for her humane decisions in areas such as human rights and the division of matrimonial property. During her nine years on the Supreme Court, she helped her male colleagues to understand that seemingly neutral laws often operated to the disadvantage of women and minorities - thank you Justice Wilson!
**March is Women’s History Month**
Ga’axstal’as, Jane Constance Cook (1870–1951)
Kwakwaka’wakw leader, cultural mediator, and activist. Born on Vancouver Island, Ga’axstal’as, Jane Constance Cook was the daughter of a Kwakwaka'wakw noblewoman and a white fur trader. Raised by a missionary couple, she had strong literacy skills and developed a good understanding of both cultures and legal systems. As the grip of colonialism tightened around West Coast nations, Cook lobbied for First Nations to retain rights of access to land and resources. She testified at the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission of 1914 and was the only woman on the executive of the Allied Indian Tribes of British Columbia in 1922. A fierce advocate for women and children, she was also a midwife and healer and raised sixteen children.