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u3a 40th Anniversary Blog

Dunmow u3a's Interest Groups Celebrate u3a

Published : 11 October 2022 Views: 1572

Dunmow u3a member Heather discusses the varied and creative ways that Dunmow u3a's interest groups celebrated the 40th Anniversary.

A library. To the left of a bookshelf is a stand with artwork on and paintings and drawings are on top of the bookshelves too.Dunmow u3a may only be 7 years old but that didn't prevent us from celebrating u3a's 40th anniversary in September.

We started with a 5-day Exhibition in Dunmow Library of paintings and drawings from our two Art groups, attracting interest from the general public and at least a couple of enquiries to buy some of the pieces. The montage of the late Queen Elizabeth II - each member of the Art group was given a sheet of A5 with a portion of the basic outline printed on and they were asked to use any medium to complete their sheet. A piece of artwork, framed and on the wall, that shows a collage of the face of Queen Elizabeth II on a background of the union jack. Above the picture there is blue and yellow u3a bunting.

All the interest groups were encouraged to mark the anniversary by tailoring one of their meetings in September to tie in with the u3a colours, the number 40 or hark back to the 1980s.

The Bridge group picked card-hands which totalled 40, while everyone at one of our luncheon groups all wore blue, yellow and white. The Table Tennis group donned 1980s headbands and legwarmers whereas the Golf group played with yellow golfballs.
A scrabble board with words arranged in interlocking patterns - "University" "Dunmow" "Golf" "Fee" "Wine" "BOP", Bridge", "Dance", "Third", "Eye", "Garden", "Books", "Meal", "Ace", "Jive", "Quilt", "Tastes", "Whist", "Nature"

The Cycling group planned a ride of over 40km and the Walking group attracted 40 walkers for a choice of 3 Anniversary Walks (they walked over 150 miles between them). The Scrabble group created a board using words associated with u3a and the Science and Technology group were put through their paces with a prize quiz around the number 40. The winners were awarded a small can of WD40!

The Nature Walkers took photos of 40 different flora and fauna they saw on their walks during September and the Family History group found 40 wedding photos from between 1910 and 1970s from their collective family albums. The Grow Your Own group planted up pots of blue, yellow and white plants while the Craft group made brooches in similar colours.A piece of paper with a selection of wedding photos, divided into groups. In the centre of the page it says, "40 wedding photos through the years, from 1910 to 1976"

The month was concluded with an Afternoon of Entertainment. Almost 200 members, wearing blue, yellow and white, came along for a 3 hour programme of entertainment from our Line Dancing and Zumba Gold groups, as well as wine tasting and book readings from our Wine Appreciation and Book Clubs respectively. The French group presented a short skit and the Geology leader told us all about the 40 (million) year old Pudding Stone in one of our neighbouring villages.

There were displays from the Outings team, who had found adverts for all the day trips they have organised - thankfully over 40 of them - and the Science and Technology group collected and displayed tech that we were using in the 1980s, including cameras, computers and a genuine Sinclair C5.

A couple of our members baked a wonderful celebratory cake (plus extra pieces) and the Flower Arranging group produced floral displays to accompany the cake. A local sweet shop offered traditional sweets for sale to take us back in time.

A busy hall full of people. There is blue and yellow u3a bunting hanging from the ceiling.We asked all the members to send us two photos of themselves: one from 1982 and another from this year, illustrating how we had changed (or not) over the last 40 years. We also held a competition to photograph "4 similar things" from which a local photographer chose the best 10 photos to make a display of 10 x 4 things for our 40 years. The overall winner (who photographed 4 fireworks exploding at the same time) was announced at the end of the afternoon. There was also a 40 question quiz based on events and people in 1982.

Dunmow's Town Crier held the programme of entertainment all together and the Mayor of Great Dunmow raised a toast to u3a as he cut the cake. We also welcomed Barbara Cordina, the u3a Trustee for East of England, and we would like to invite her back to one of our monthly meetings in the near future.

 

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