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Branch Profile ALMA WI History in the Making By Ruth Grose & Margaret Hall By way of encouragement of Mrs. Mabel Trask, the Alma Women's Institute (currently Wellington-Halton District, Guelph Area) was formed in 1973 with the assistance of Mrs. Rose Schneider and Mrs. Jean Austin. Mabel was 77 years of age and as our local historian became the first curator. She was well prepared to carry on the tradition of Lady Tweedsmuir. Recording history was Mabel's past-time and many articles and pictures had already been saved in her many scrapbooks and diaries that she kept from her youth. Mabel, along with Ruth Grose, visited many cemeteries, schools, families and businesses gathering community information to be recorded. She attended many local functions just to talk to people. Soon our Tweedsmuir History grew to eighty pages and it became time to introduce our book to the community. A Tweedsmuir Tea was organized and the invitation went out to all. Due to this, interest was stimulated and many family and family farm histories were written for us. The committee included Mrs. Mabel Smith, Mrs. Bessie Bosomworth, Mrs. Margaret Hall and Mrs. Ruth Grose. Ruth spent many hours typing stories, printing pictures and organizing the contents and chapters. A proposal was put to the WI membership that we were ready to have our Tweedsmuir published. "Our Heritage: The History of Alma and District" was the title chosen. Reflecting on the success of Alma WI's first venture into publishing, Ruth Grose recalls the "learning experience" as we moved forward and our first book of 190 pages was ready for sale. In the front of the book, our historian, Mabel Trask, is quoted: "Histories are books of Historical Facts about a given community and its people to be used and treasured by that community. Communities are gradually losing their identities as regional government and cities engulf us, so their histories will be our link with the past. Pioneering means labour and doing with little or whatever is at hand and this our forebearers did in hope of a better life. And we in our remembering of their labours have reason for Thanksgiving." Our book was unveiled to the community at Alma's Bicentennial Celebration in 1984 before Mrs. Trask passed away in October 1987. Mrs. Enid Whale, Mabel's daughter, continued to gather and write articles for the Tweedsmuir until she passed away in October 2013. We have continued the legacy of Mabel Trask and on October 2, 2014, we unveiled book #2, containing 390 pages. Pictured: Mabel Trask with book #1 in 1984. Great news! FWIO's discount on print and copy services has increased from 10% to 20%! This is a temporary increase (until fall 2017), however, if our combined spending reaches $5,000 we can stay at this level. Be sure to send in your Staples receipts whenever you take advantage of this discount so we can track our spending. Please visit the Members Section of the FWIO website to access the new FWIO Business Discount Card number.Thank you to Rie Van Steeg and the Strathroy Staples for arranging this discount in honour of the WI's 120th Anniversary this year! MEMBER BEN EFIT 8