Copmanthorpe Women's Institute

Flamborough WI are opening their hall on Saturdays and Sundays during June which means their bra collection bank is also available if anyone wants to drop off their donations.

We added a little elegance to our June meeting last night with our hats or fascinators as we welcomed James Brennan from York Racecourse. He talked about the history of racing in York, the economic impact of the racing and some of the social and charitable work they do. Interesting and entertaining.
To add to the effect of an evening at the races, we enjoyed canapés and a glass or two of fizz.

Look out for this dropping through your letterbox soon.

It is finally here - our newly rebranded WI Magazine: and a new way to provide you deep-dives and longer interviews on all things NFWI.

Fittingly for a summer issue, we present 10 pages on beach life, and spotlight some wonderful coastal WIs. We've also got a new section where your questions are answered by a WI panel in 'WIsdom'; a piece on slow crafting; and all your favourites from recipes to campaign updates.

We really hope you enjoy your new magazine, and that you find it a great read for the summer!

Read more about The WI Magazine here: https://www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre/blog/blog-listing/2026/introducing-the-wi-magazine

Cop WI Social Scene - three of us went along to Middleton’s Hotel for an afternoon tea collaboration with the Estée Lauder team from Browns of York.
A make up demo, goodie bag, voucher against any purchase and, of course, afternoon tea.
A lovely afternoon, though we all agreed that our own make up routines are far more simplistic than the ‘daytime look’ that was demonstrated!
Sadly, Louise was unable to join us on the day but we did manage to get her tea and goodie bag to her later that day.

Our Cop Cooks subgroup goes from strength to strength with thirteen members coming along this week. Our theme was ‘foods/ingredients beginning with b’ and, as usual, we had a wonderful spread.
Savouries included Brie and courgette bake, bacon frittata, chipotle beans, bean and sweet potato chilli, beetroot with rocket and feta, pigs in blankets and a home baked loaf of bread with butter.
We followed with blueberry muffins, banana and choc chip muffins, blueberry cakes, banoffee pie, baklava, brandy snaps and bread and butter pudding.
Apologies if I’ve missed anything - there was so much!
A great evening, sharing supper with friends.
Next month - yes, we’re on a roll so the letter C is in the spotlight!

Sounds like this woman needs to join the WI!

Great evening of Make, Do and Mend putting together boho beads. A riot of colour with sari ribbons, threads and beads. Making them is quite addictive! 😄

Lots of colour at our Make, Do & Mend session last night as we made boho beads. Sari ribbon, threads, beads and wire turned into bag charms or key rings. Inspiration too for Christmas decorations, adding to gift bags to give an extra decorative touch or threading together for an alternative style of bunting. Whatever you do with them, making can become addictive!

Taboos about removing a woman's bra could be standing in the way of lifesaving first aid...

In the UK, women in cardiac arrest may be less likely to get lifesaving treatment because people are worried about touching their chest, or using a defibrillator properly on them.

A defibrillator is a machine that’s used to give an electric shock to the heart of someone who is suffering a cardiac arrest.

Now, organisations offering first aid training are trying to break down taboos.

“We are trying to focus on people removing the bra and placing pads directly on the chest so the defibrillator can do its job,” says Josh Lawrence, Community Training Programme Manager of the East Anglian Air Ambulance, in the UK.

Flat-chested mannequins are usually used in first aid training. But models better representing the female body can help eliminate hesitation to offer first aid to women.

Chest compressions alone give a person an 8% chance of survival, but using a defibrillator in the first three minutes of a cardiac arrest can increase the chances of survival to between 40%-70%

Women's organisations are joining the call to remove taboos.

"I think it's really important that men, under certain circumstances, know it's OK to lose a bra to save a life," says Carol Wood, of the Beccles Women's Institute, UK.

🎧 Find out about the world's first resuscitation dummy on Witness History: https://bbc.in/48SzhyE

We held our Annual Meeting this week and formed our committee, or team as we prefer to call it. With Elisabeth, Val and Sarah stepping back we have some new and very welcome members on the team. Wendy is President for another year and we all look forwards to working together. Here are our team members for 2026/27:

Wendy Louise Mary Diana
Vicki Steph Viv Marie

We discussed the Resolutions being put to the NFWI Annual Meeting next month and ended with a quiz around matching the resolution to the year. That was great fun and both enlightening and quite tricky! It just reinforced how the WI has been ahead of the curve in terms of its campaigning. Sadly, it also illustrated how relevant many of the resolutions still are today - some issues never go away. 🙁

Our next meeting is Tuesday 2nd June - A Day at the Races with James Brennan of York Racecourse. Wear your most flamboyant hat!