The Story of the Alberta Women's Institute

              THE

STORY

OF

THE

ALBERT_-\

WOMEN'S

INSTfTUTES

women not only raised nearly three thousand dollars for Red Cross and patriotic purposes, knitted five hundred pairs of socks and gave hundreds of dollars worth of farm produce, fruit and groceries to the Convalescent Soldiers' Home but spent over one thousand dollars on surgical and hospital treatment for a crippled child who was clIJ'cd through their efforts. Many other stories of splendid service could be related but space forbids and the memory of the W.I's good deeds are recorded and will live in the hearts of the people. Many W.I.'s Organized While the women had been so bU3Y the Women's Institute Branch with Miss MacIsaac as Superintendent had been establishing short courses in Home Nursing, Child Welfare and Household Science. The Mixed Farming Special Train added two cars for demonstrations and lectures in vvomen's work and a nursery car \,here babies and young children were cared for by a nurse \vhUe the mothers attended the demonstrations and lectures. Many institutes were organized on this train and during the years '17, '18, '19, and '20 follow-up work Vias carried on by Miss Noble and Mrs. A. H. Rogers in an effort to assist these nevv branches to get a good start and to encourage the women in thdr work. There were difficulties and hardships of travel in thme eady days of W.I. work. In spite of m.ud and snow, washouts and muskegs, with ferries in and out of the rivers so that sometimes the visitor was obJiged to cross on the cable in the "cradle" with the mail, just as "His Majesty's Mail" must go on, the W.I. visitor did likewise, never missing a meeting though sometimes the speaker was a little late in arriving. There was scarcely a cow-path and certainly not a regular line of travel but was covered by one or other of these officers. Words cannot describe the kindliness, the hospitality and the graciousness of the Alberta Women's Institute members, who not only made the visitors so welcome and comfortable but whose courage, endurance and determination have made the work of the Women's Institutes in Alberta so successful throughout the years.

The Third W.I. Convention At the 1917 convention, held in the Palliser Hotel, Calgary, the Club Women's Creed, which Mrs. John Mavor, of Daysland, had heard on a visit to the New England States, was adopted by the Alberta Women's'Institutes by a resolution which recommended that it be read at all meetings of the A.W.I. The constituency organization was begun in the same year when a convener was elected in each constituency to act with the Director as a District Advisory Board. Each institute was asked to elect one member to act with the Convener to form a constituency committee. Resolutions adopted at that time included one calling for a conference to be arranged for the purpose of consummating the federation of
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