Our regular meeting entered new territory this month as the European elections meant we had to seek a new venue. Luckily the newly refurbished King Alfred Hall came up trumps and what a find! Its bigger space and a stage proved to be more suitable for our scheduled Zumba Gold activity. Result! Bubbly instructor Sheila Copeman fitted in straight away when she sat down and chatted with everyone during coffee. She then introduced us to the benefits of Zumba Gold, a low-impact version of the full Zumba exercise class, which started by accident in Columbia when a fitness instructor there found exercise to dance music proved more popular than his regular classes. Sheila explained how muscle mass starts to drop when we're in our 30s and that exercise like Zumba can slow down this process and also prevent osteoporosis later in life by ensuring bone density is maintained. It can also help with wellbeing, both through the exercises themselves and it being a more sociable activity.
Soon Sheila took us through our paces and she complimented everyone on how well they did. Lots of laughter, smiles and enquiries about regular classes showed how much Pewsham Belles enjoyed this activity. See the end of this post for a full list of classes currently available with Sheila. Earlier in the meeting we voted on the resolutions going forward to the National AM in June and Michelle now has the full set of voting outcomes from the 4 local WIs she'll represent in Bournemouth next week. Elsewhere this month, there were several successful get togethers under the pop-up banner. The Unofficial Supper Club enjoyed the newly refurbished Akash Tandoori restaurant; the Flexi Club returned to Coffee#1 and went on to view the Timber Street display at the Library; and Diane I introduced a brand new activity to Pewsham Belles in the form of the game Articulate! The Book Club found the Tattooist of Auschwitz more hopeful than harrowing and the Theatre Club enjoyed the poems of Pam Ayres. The Writing and Storytelling group revealed their work in progress and discussed their writing process. This latter discussion revealed a number of useful resources to use for future projects. Further afield, members of the Crafty Crew enjoyed Court Street Gallery's first birthday party and several Belles found lots of new and surprising aspects of Calne during Wiltshire Federation's trail around the town. Finally the Crafty Crew made lots of bugs and bees to add to Wiltshire WI HQ's display for Devizes in Bloom. Sheila's Classes
Sheila has a variety of classes, not just Zumba Gold! Choose from:
Zumba Gold - Wednesday @ 9.30am at Chippenham Sports Club, or Friday @ 9.15am at the Scout Hut, Derriads Lane
Fitsteps (like Zumba Gold, but with more ballroom/Latin dance moves) - Monday @ 9.15am at the Scout Hut Derriads Lane, or Thursday @ 6.15pm at Chippenham Sports Club
Fitness Pilates - drop in sessions available on Tuesdays @ 9.30am at Chippenham Sports Club. Sheila also has two block booking sessions on Monday evenings at Sheldon Dance Studio, at 5.50 and 6.45pm. These are currently full, contact Sheila if you'd like to go on the waiting list
Move It or Lose It for gentler exercising - Tuesday @ 10.30am at Chippenham Sports Club The links take you to Sheila's Facebook pages. Classes are currently £5 to £6.