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Warkworth Women’s Institute had grand plans for celebrating the WI’s New Zealand centenary this year, but Covid-19 has scuppered them all.
One idea was to have women dress up in school uniforms from 100 years ago and participate in traditional playground games of the period.
But Warkworth WI president Moira Dye says the Warkworth group could only look on while other institutes around the country, facing less stringent Covid restrictions, could celebrate in style. In Napier, the local institute erected a statue to the founder of WI in New Zealand, Bessie Spencer.
After the traditional playground games failed to work out, Moira says the group planned a gathering to combine all the recently knitted materials members had worked on to be donated to patients at North Shore Hospital.
But Moira says the hospital was so desperate for the items that it urged Warkworth WI to send them as soon as possible, before such a gathering could be organised.
Last week, Moira with fellow WI member Marian Stolte loaded a car with hundreds of knitted items including baby clothes, knee rugs, comfort cushions, dolls, capes and scarves to be taken to the hospital.
She says the effort represents 750 hours of volunteer work.
Following the establishment of the first New Zealand WI in Napier in 1921, institutes sprang up around the country.
The Warkworth WI is 92 years old.
Info: Moira Dye 425 0089.
