Inner Wheel Club of Ashburton members say they feel honoured to have their hard work acknowledged with an award.
The club has received the International Inner Wheel Presidential Citation, signed by president of the worldwide women’s voluntary service organisation Zenaida Yungco Farcon.
The club’s immediate past president Rosemary Moore was president for the period covered by the award, the 2022 to 2023 Inner Wheel year.
She said the citation, the only one to have been awarded for the club’s district NZ297 of the upper South Island, was for meeting goals of the organisation such as undertaking meaningful and inspiring work in the community.
This had included mentoring a new fellow Mid Canterbury club called Inner Wheel Club of Braided Rivers, and general service such as baking for the Cancer Society every month, fundraising for the society’s Look Good Feel Better initiative, helping Presbyterian Support, and supporting the Rotary Club of Ashburton’s Bookarama.
The club also fostered connection through a variety of groups for members, including a ukelele group, coffee group, walking group and craft group.
Membership of the club was soon to reach 60 after climbing from about 40 three years ago.
‘‘Our club has a big membership because we have really focused on that friendship angle,’’ Moore said.
Fellow Ashburton club member and former international board director Carol Haskett agreed.
‘‘I think that Covid has meant people have really needed to connect,’’ Haskett said.
Current president Wendy Smith said the club, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2026, had new members who had recently moved to town, alongside long-serving members aged in their 90s.
Haskett and fellow member Clare Chapman, who is the current chair of district NZ297, plan to attend the International Inner Wheel’s 100-year anniversary convention in May, at Manchester. The English city was where the organisation formed.
‘‘It will be really nice to connect with women internationally,’’ Chapman said.
