Monthly Meeting – Celebrating our 99th Birthday!
Tuesday 14 October
Ruskie members and friends gathered in Thornhill Church Hall for a birthday party games night – there are no strangers at Ruskie and we each had a badge so we could match names to faces! Anne rang the bell to start our meeting and after brief apologies, Helen Little updated us that we have received money from Wild Fox for our stewarding at the Quadrathlon and Glencoe Marathon which is great fun to do, in spite of the early start! The Federation of Stirling, Clackmannan and West Perthshire celebrate their 100th birthday this year at the Autumn Business Meeting in the Stirling Court Hotel on Saturday 8 November which everyone is invited to either the business meeting, and lunch, or either! There is also an interesting u3a talk on 29 October from Ginnie Willis on ‘A Life in Quilts’ (at the McLaren Leisure Centre). The Port of Menteith Food Festival, with donations from Ruskie, raised over £350 for Strathcarron Hospice. At our November meeting we will be collecting donations for Start Up Stirling Food Bank – either easy to cook food or small gifts. Members then read out their Ruskie submissions for the Warnock poetry competition – although we did not win, Ruskie poems were as high quality as ever with consistent themes about the Scottish weather and multiple seasons in one day!
Anne then encouraged everyone to form into groups and started the fun with pass-the-parcel (with a question and a treat in each layer!) For the rest of the games we moved again to make sure everyone had an opportunity to meet people they would not typically sit beside, and played a range of different games… some competitively, others just for fun, and the jigsaw team for the pride of finishing😊 The games finished with a round of a ‘Beetle Drive’ before another super Ruskie Supper from Catriona Burnett, Libby MacGregor and Sheena Gibson and our raffle and competitions:
Best Party Hat – 1) Anne Artis (Puskie Plate), 2) Sharon McRobert, 3) Alison Smellie
Favourite set of dominos – 1) Sharon McRobert, 2) Liz Black, 3) Mary Muirhead
It wouldn’t be a birthday party without ‘goodies’ and each party guest received a bag of Liz Black’s award winning tablet to take home at the end of the night. Even without the Ruskie Hall fire, members left warmed by good food and cheer, fun and friendship!
