CWA exhibits all in a good cause

HUNDREDS of Country Women’s Association members crowded into the Old Cheese Factory in Berwick last week for an annual exhibition.
Between 600 and 700 entries were received in categories including handicraft, cooking, photography, and floral arrangement for the exhibition, which encompassed CWA groups from the West Gippsland area.
Berwick branch member and event steward Mary McGrath said the locals were prominent with several victories, including the prestigious Colles Cup for the best branch at needlework.
Ms McGrath said she entered a chocolate cake in the cooking competition and won first prize for a photograph taken of aboriginal children during a trip to Western Australia.
Ms McGrath said the CWA would donate most of its exhibited goods to organisations and places which relied on donations.
“We have the exhibition because we like to show the public what we can do, but it is also important the public knows we are like a nonprofit organisation.
“With a lot of things we make, we donate them to different charities, for example, the knitted squares we make into rugs we had a lot this year go to Vic Relief.”
Ms McGrath said hospitals also received CWA generosity.
“We are doing some work for them in the way of helping out with clothing for premature babies. We also make up trauma dolls, of calico that have no face. Sometimes when people go in they give them a doll as a comfort mechanism to take into the theatre.
“The doctors can draw on it with a texta and show where they are going to do the operation.”
Anyone wishing to join the CWA in either Noble Park or Berwick should call Ms McGrath on 9707 2020, or Ms Napier on 9795 1969.