52nd INNER WHEEL DAY – 10th JANUARY 2022
After the first Meeting held on November 15th, 1923 at a Cooling room at Herriot’s Turkish Baths, 27 Rotary wives held a second meeting at the Social Club in Lower Mosley Street, Manchester, and officially formed the Manchester Club, President Mrs Margarette Oliver Golding and Mrs W.A. Nixon as first Secretary and Treasurer.
The objects of the Club would be to foster friendship and encourage personal service.
Excerpt from the Minutes of the second Meeting on January 10th,1924:
“The name of the Club to be the Inner Wheel”.
“Meetings to be held on alternate Tuesday and to continue throughout the year”.
The meeting marked the commencement of Inner Wheel!
The first District IW No 5 was formed in 1928, the Association was born in 1934 and 36 years later Mrs Helena Foster, IIW President 1969/70 had the brilliant idea to suggest to hold Inner Wheel Day annually on January 10th.
She wrote a letter to all Club Presidents asking them to link together in action on January 10th to extend service and friendship.
This year 2022 , the 98th Inner Wheel Year, the Inner Wheel Day will be the 52nd since its creation.
Sharing the initiative taken by my predecessor Helena, the second IIW President, in my capacity as the 54th IIW President, I sent a letter to National Representatives, Districts and Non Districted Clubs, asking them to support, in the first ten days of January 2022 ending on the date of the Inner Wheel Day, the “Wheel Can Cerv” campaign launched by the Association of Inner Wheel Clubs in the Philippines Inc. to help eradicate cervical cancer , thus honouring the first priority of my Presidential Theme “Pink First”: Women’s Health.
“Women helping Women” will then result in
“Women saving women”
But what I have just written to you was possible thanks to the farsightedness of our Founder Mrs Margarette Oliver Golding, the wife of a Manchester Rotarian, a capable business woman, a great philanthropist and an excellent speaker. She worked for Inner Wheel from 1923 until 1939, the year of her death, after having seen the 100th Club formed. Since 2000 her name has been honoured by the inauguration of the Margarette Golding Award, in the form of a floral brooch, a marguerite, given to Inner Wheel Members or Members of the general public for highly commendable service on a regular basis in the community, implying personal sacrifice for the benefit of others. It was decided at the 11th Convention in Stockholm in 2000.
The merit of Mrs Golding was to breathe life into a new organization, to guide it through its formative stages and to see it solidly established.
On June 17th 2014 an Asteroid was called “Golding” and dedicated to Margarette thanks to the Club of Torino Europea District 204 Italy.
In April 2010, when I was the 26th Chairman of District 206 Italy, with a few Officers and husbands belonging to my District I visited the IWC of Manchester, the Founder Club, a visit that I considered as a pilgrimage that every IW member should make once in her life.
Some photos taken at the Manchester Club’s meeting during which I addressed a speech to the Club’s President and Members are enclosed in attachment. From a photo held in a picture frame on the table, Margarette was looking at the attendants to constantly remind all of us about the main objectives of Inner Wheel: Friendship, Personal Service, International Understanding.
Two more photos are enclosed: one at the previous IIW Office in Sale and another one taken in 2019/2020, when I was IIW Board Director, under the plaque showing the site where the IW Founder Club of Manchester held its first meeting on January 10th, 1924.
I hope this flash-back will encourage you to visit the Founder Club on the occasion of the Convention which will take place in Manchester in May 2024, during which also the Inner Wheel Centenary Year will be celebrated.
Happy 52nd Inner Wheel Day 2022!
