This years Dorset Womens day was the most successful yet - we counted more than 527 women attending! No wonder the lunch queue was so long! The event was opened by the Deputy Mayor of Dorchester, Kate Hebditch, who also tried on the 'Stamp Out Domestic Violence Shoe' -it didnt fit....

The day kicked off with an energising street dance workshop, which was well attended by women of all ages - the activiity hall with it's energetic workshops was busy all day, and everyone really enjoyed the variety of creative workshops that were available - we hope to announce the winner of the photo workshop competition soon. Everyone also enjoyed making art from recycled materials with Lal Hitchcock, sharing their favourite poems, learning how to grow their own food, and how to belly dance!

As well as all the fun workshops we also turned our attention to some of the serious matters facing modern women, from learning how to manage a budget, becoming more assertive, raisng awareness of employment rights and exploring feminism in the new century,

Lunch seemed to be enjoyed by all, and hopefully next year (if we get more volunteers....) we will be able to provide tea and coffee over lunch as well, but in the small kitchen it was hard to do both, but we have listened to your feedback and will look at other arrangements for next year.

We must say a huge thank you to both our WAND committee members who worked so hard, planning the day, setting up - and more importantly clearing up afterwards - and an even bigger thank you to those women that saw we needed some help, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in ( literally - thanks Jackie for the washing up....)

We are already planning our event for next year - along with some other events and actvities - remember , you can all help in a little way - by putting up posters, helping at events, and giving us feedback on the forum pages.

I do hope to see some of you at the AGM on June 11th

Best wishes Sue, WAND Chairwomen