Coeliac UK Local Café Meet Up

DO you have coeliac disease? Do you need to live gluten-free? Do you know someone who does? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then why not pop along to a new Coeliac UK Local Café Meet Up?

Our first meeting occurred in April at Iron Acton Garden Centre Cafe and was attended by 27 people. The cafe had kindly reserved us tables in a specific area of the café which meant we could talk and mingle easily.

After purchasing a cuppa and a gorgeous slice of gluten free cake, there was a good deal of talking to be heard – sharing tips, discussing supermarket gluten free products and prices, and comparing life experiences of having coeliac disease or needing to live gluten-free for other reasons.

The next meeting will be on Thursday June 15, from 10-11.30am at Iron Acton Garden Centre café. Just pop in for a chat any time.

All future meetings will be on the third Thursday of the month at the same time and venue.

The Coeliac UK volunteer host looks forward to meeting previous attendees again and welcoming new people. Everyone is welcome. For further information email volunteering@ coeliac.org.uk.

Coeliac UK is a charity for people who need to live without gluten – the website can be found at www.coeliac.org.uk.

Sodbury Vale Quilters

the challenge in their own way.

The rest was left to our imagination and these miniature masterpieces ranged from a single strawberry to a whole tree laden with oranges.

It was a fitting end to a busy year, when we had had interesting speakers and workshops introducing us to techniques we possibly hadn’t tried before.

A whole range of subjects are set to be covered at future meetings and if you’d like to come along we meet at 7.30 pm in the Watkins Room in the Old Grammar School, Chipping Sodbury (behind the Library) on the third Wednesday of the month.

At our meeting on June 21 we will be making small items (pin cushions, needle cases, for example) for the Quilters’ Guild Tombola at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in August.

For more details contact Gillian on 01454 854735.

Chris Gough

Yate WI

IN May we held our own indoor street party for King Charles III's Coronation, due to the poor weather.

We have a visitor talking about Guide Dogs in June.

Yate WI meet on the second Monday of the month at 7pm for 7.30pm start at Poole Court in Yate. Our Committee works hard to ensure that we have a variety of activities from Speakers to quizzes, games and demonstrations.

We always enjoy a hot drink, biscuits and chit chat. We meet in a small cosy room which means no-one is left out, Making friends is our aim.

We also meet in smaller groups for craft, coffee mornings, supper club and, when the weather improves, for local walks.

If you would like to join us, you will be assured of a warm welcome.

THE Chair’s Challenge to Sodbury Vale Quilters comes around annually, and members assembled for the big reveal at our AGM in April. We were to make a fruit-themed 12in quilt; not a competition – just everyone interpreting

For more information email us at yatewiavon@gmail.com, or just come along to our next meeting at Poole Court.

Sharon Bower

Chipping Sodbury Rotary

ON June 25 we will be staging our major fundraising event of the year, the annual Classic Vehicle Run.

Entrants will line up in Chipping Sodbury High Street for a start at 8.30am, and return to the Ridings by Chipping Sodbury Rugby club from about 1pm onwards.

As always, members of the public are encouraged to come along and see the eyecatching vehicles of all ages and sizes on display.

The Rock Choir will be entertaining all present at the Ridings from 1pm.

Entries are still open. For further information please e-mail rotary.classic.run@hotmail.co.uk or phone 01454 311712.

On May 7, several members of the club and the Inner Wheel joined the Sodbury and Yate Clean Up Group to spend an hour clearing up litter, shopping trolleys, car wheel covers etc in the area near Yate Shopping Centre.

As can be seen from the picture, it's astonishing that so much discarded litter can be collected by 20 or so volunteers in such a short period of time. The group usually meets on the first Sunday of each month in an area of Yate or Chipping Sodbury.

The final tea dance of the season was held in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall on May 4.

Once more, the dance floor was full, with some 90 attendees enjoying an afternoon of singing and dancing.

The ladies of the Inner Wheel Club provided delicious home-made cake and gave the hall a coronation theme.

Thanks to the generosity of attendees, over £1,200 has been donated, all of which will be recommended to go to dementia-related causes. A new season of dances is planned from October.

Our annual charity golf day was held on May 12 at Chipping Sodbury Golf Club, with 16 teams of four and 11 sponsors. The profit from the event was over £2,000, a sum that will be shared equally between the Jessie May Children's Hospice and Rotary support efforts in Ukraine.

The winning team was JP Fannon Estates.

Stuart Fraser

Chipping Sodbury Inner Wheel Club

UNUSUALLY, the club has had social meetings in two consecutive months. Our April meeting has always involved some sort of 'birthday' celebration, as this is the month when the club was founded.

This year we visited The Old Bank Hotel in Chipping Sodbury, for cocktails and a buffet supper - both of which were delicious! It was a convivial, friendly evening much enjoyed by those who attended.

Next year will see the club's 40th anniversary so we are already planning something special. (Our oldest member - in her mid 90s - liked the idea of a weekend in Paris!)

Our May meeting had to be rearranged at short notice when we were let down by a speaker, so instead it was organised 'in house' with a royal theme.

Members got together for a cream tea and cake (beautifully made and served by members Annie and Sheena) followed by a quiz (with an unusual Royal theme - thank you Liz L)

The winning team are pictured below with their prizes.

Inner Wheel members have also helped once again at the Tea Dance organised by Rotary. Some of us also help out at the Memory Cafe held in the Baptist Church, where once again we enjoy a chat or playing cards or doing quizzes with the cafe's 'customers'.

You can contact us at chippingsodbury@ innerwheeldistrict10.co.uk

Liz Pattison

Yate & Sodbury District u3a

ATTENTION all artists! Looking to join a friendly and supportive art group?

We are a group of people who like to paint and draw in a relaxed and non-competitive environment. While we don't offer formal lessons, our members are always happy to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it.

Each week we all bring along a piece of art we are working on to show to others, and to get tips and ideas on how to improve.

We welcome all levels of ability and our meetings provide the opportunity for members to do some art, circulate and chat.

We encourage potential new members to come along to a 'taster' session.

Annual membership is just £8 a year. You can visit any one of our groups or attend our monthly speaker meeting twice to experience the u3a for yourself before joining as a member.

For more exciting u3a groups, from garden visits to indoor kurling, visit our website at u3asites.org.uk/yate-sodbury/welcome

Pauline Mullholland

Yate-Genieri Community Link

OUR communities have been linked in friendship over many years, and ‘The Link’ proved literally to be a lifeline during the pandemic years, providing the village with a monthly truckload of rice distributed fairly by the Alkalo (headman of the village).

Modernisation is gradually being extended to the rural areas away from the capital Banjul, and we have been able to send enough money to allow an electricity connection to the Primary Healthcare Centre.

The power consumption will be small - just for internal lights, an external security light and power sockets for a computer and mobile phone charging. We have allowed for an extra socket for the inclusion of a refrigerator at sometime in the future, but this is not currently a necessity. The monthly costs will be covered by a small increment to the very low charges made for treatments and medicines dispensed, so the Primary Healthcare Centre will continue to be self-sustaining.

Any help with any of our projects in the village of Genieri is always welcome!

Find out more at www.yategenierilink.org.uk.

Marian Gilpin