Looking Back at December…
The Big Christmas Bingo Bash!
To lighten the load during Christmas, we wanted to organise a fun night of bingo where you could win some great festive prizes that could also double as gifts, including some handmade items, too! Our top prizes were our Christmas hampers that we tried to fill with all the things you usually forget to buy at Christmas like tinfoil and napkins.
It was a great time to come together, have a laugh, and a great night’s craic playing bingo together. We can’t wait to do it again soon!
Our Christmas Toy Drive
Each year we ask for donations from our members and local community to help us make sure every child has a gift to open at Christmas. Each year we see an increase in the number of families who need support at Christmastime so we do what we can to help.
We received so much support - whether it was toys, gift sets, gift vouchers, or just an extra pair of hands! We were able to gather up gifts for 428 children, ages ranging from newborn to 18 years old.
We’re glad we could help so many families this year thanks to all of the help and support of our members. Your generosity made this possible!
The Beginning of Novel Women - Our Monthly Book Club!
We wanted to brighten the winter months by starting up a monthly book club! It’s been a lovely opportunity to get together on a Thursday evening, once a month and have a chat over some interesting books. Each month we choose a new book based on feedback from our members. You can expect to find a variety of different topics from autobiographies, to romance, or some murder mystery! So if you need some reading inspiration, get out of your reading comfort zone, or work towards your new year resolution of reading more, why not join us for our monthly Book Club?
This group meets monthly and offers a welcoming space to enjoy great stories, share thoughts, and connect with other women. If you’d like to join, please get in touch.
Christmas with the Getting Together Club!
To wrap up the return of the Getting Together Club for 2025, the ladies enjoyed a fun morning of bingo where we had lots of fun prizes!
Then we took the ladies to the Shipquay Hotel Derry for a delicious Christmas dinner, where the staff were absolutely wonderful and made sure we were all very well looked after.
To round off a wonderfully festive day, the ladies swapped their Secret Santa gifts!
Over the last few months, our Getting Together Club has grown and evolved into something so much more than just getting together for tea and buns. Instead, it's an opportunity for women to come along and have their voices heard, learn something new and different, and ultimately come away each week having made some small improvement to their lives.
At FWIN, we work hard to empower women through education and information - at any age!
If you'd like to join the club, you're welcome to drop in any Wednesday from 10am - 12pm.
So if your new year's resolution is to get out more, meet new people, or try something new, the Getting Together Club is perfect for you!
The Kindness of Strangers💗
We'd like to say a massive thank you to a familiar face Cassie, who organised a wonderful Offline Cafe with her gang at Derry Meet Ups, a space for connection, friendship, and adventure in Derry, who came together to raise money and donations for our toy drive and Foyle Foodbank.
Anna, our Policy and Engagement Officer, was overwhelmed by the amazing turnout and support for such an important cause!
All the donated gifts topped up our tables for our teens and pre-teens and helped us get more gifts packed for another 64 children that morning! The group also raised a huge £220.25 which helped us get more toys and gifts, especially sensory toys.
We'd like to sincerely thank Cassie and everyone who attended the Offline Cafe and donated. You have all made such a huge difference to so many families this Christmas.
The FWIN Christmas Craft Day!
We took over the top floor at Holywell Trust for a fun morning of crafting with some of our members! The ladies created everything from Christmas tree ornaments, and festive headbands, to mistletoe decorations, and more. Then, we came together to enjoy a delicious light lunch and an exciting raffle full of amazing prizes!
Bringing women together through good conversations, plenty of cups of tea, and some cute (and maybe a little bit wonky!) Christmas crafts make those dark, wintery days a little brighter.
One member said "Everyone is so welcoming and gave such good advice and instruction."
Another member said "Great event at FWIN. Great company, great craic, great soup and wheaten bread. Lovely!"
Another member said "I really enjoyed making crafts and the company of the other women."
And someone simply said "I loved every minute!"
If all the laughter and smiling faces wasn't enough, the feedback received certainly confirmed it was a great day all around.
We'd like to thank everyone who attended and made the day so special! We'd also like to thank our wonderful facilitators Charlotte Gormley, Hayley Doman, and Marie and Shauna from the Galliagh Women's Group. And a special thank you to our staff and board members who kept the event running smoothly and the tea topped up!
We hope you enjoyed looking back on a snippet of the fun we had in December! You can always visit our Facebook page to see what else we’ve gotten up to! You can also join us on our adventures by visiting our events page to see what else we’ve got planned.
