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, the Parksville 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.
- We celebrated International Womens’ Day, March 08 2023, with a talk from a distinguished speaker, 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.
- 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 Christmas Auction proceeds, during our lunch at the Bayside Inn on December 05.
News on upcoming events can be found below in the Special Events Updates section.
Coldest Night of The Year (CNOY) 2024
a team of CFUW PQ members, family and friends will take place in the 2km walk on the afternoon of February 24, to raise awareness and funds for Island Crisis Care Society (ICCS). Please consider joining or donating to the CFUW PQ Ramblers
IWD 2024
International Womens’ Day 2024 (IWD 2024) – March 08
We have an exciting plan for IWD 2024. Instead of an evening public lecture from a notable woman, this year, on Friday March 08, we are planning a club-only potluck brunch, to celebrate each other’s friendship and camaraderie, and to honour two young women who came to Canada as refugees and have made successful lives for themselves and their families.
This will truly be a celebration of International Women
When: Friday March 08. ~11:30 am to 1:30pm
Where: Knox United CHurch, Parksville, in the lounge
What: sit-down main course and desert, informal presentations, meet and mingle, chat and fun
How much: just bring a meal item for the potluck table, and your enthusiasm
2024-25 Programme Theme:
Shine A Light on the Community
Speakers:
September 9th – Janel Van Donegan
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.”
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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.
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November 4th – Ievgeniia Galushka
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
Introduced and thanked by Mary Ellen Campbell
Bio to follow.
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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.
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February 10th – Violet Hughes
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.
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March 8 – International Women’s Day Event
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
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April 14th – CFUW Resolutions
Venue: Knox United Church, Parksville
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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
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
Stay Informed
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