The Belles of the Bay - Clue#2

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WISH Clue #2 submission

Name of creation: ‘The Block Party’

There is something about children and imaginative play. The wonder and creativity are boundless, and toys like LEGO are integral to that developmental stage in a person’s life.

As we get older, sometimes the roles and responsibilities we assume keep us from using that same creative process. But put a group of women in a room with a couple of boxes of LEGO…and it’s like we’re back there once again.

That’s what happened as the Belles of the Bay tackled this challenge. We came to the Colpoy’s Bay Women’s Institute Community Hall. We sat on the floor. We dug through our bin and our play mat full of LEGO. We had an idea before we started - to build a tea set, which we felt represented the social connections and camaraderie that is an important base of the WI. We were inspired by the monument created by the Keady Women’s Institute - a local institute that has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating Women’s Institute in the world. That monument, situated at Keady Corners, is a replica of a tea party, and we endeavoured to re-create that idea.

We had some expert help, as two of our children, one 4 and one 13, were on hand to support us as we built our creations and reminisced about our own childhood toys and memories from our younger days. One of our team members is expecting a child - her third; another had just watched her youngest set of to tackle the Bruce Trail from end-to-end, and another member of our group reflected on her own journey toward a family, in whatever form that may take.

We talked about how the blocks we were working on could represent a multicultural aspect of our communities, with each block representing a different culture, a different nationality, a different religion, and that the representation of those colours together in our cups and teapot could a goal of the WI to work together to understand and accept those around us.

When we were finished our project, each of our tea cups were unique in their design. We retrieved a copy of the book For Home and Country to find another reference photo to include in our group photo. Though we couldn’t find a photo that showed the kind of gathering that we wanted to represent, we did find photos of the building that we were in, and of the original Colpoy’s Bay WI group, which we felt connected us to the history of the organization.

So that is what you see - our group, the Belles of the Bay, seated in the Colpoy’s Bay WI Hall, drinking from our multicultural tea set, with our connection to family and future represented by our member Ana’s daughter seated in her lap, and our history book open to connect us to our past.

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