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friendships made in clubs is possibly more imporâ€" tant than the practical training. After commenting on the help received from various clubs in the practical work of keeping a home, Mrs. Culham says: “It is difficult to say What experience or training has been of most help. I think it could be summed up as confidence. The confidence gained from being a good hostess to speaking in public is very rewarding.“ Mrs. James McTavish, mother of three boys and two girls does the sewing for herself and her family making use of what she learned in clothing clubs, and she says: “I find so many new materials in the stores that I wish I could continue in club work so I could keep up with the times." Mrs. Fitchett remarks: “Getting together with girls of our own age is a great way of curing the shyness in some of us." And Mrs. McTavish. wi h five children under nine years of age says. “I do find myself thinking back to club days and club friends. Many happy times we spent. learning and working together. Now I belong to the newly organized Women's Institute at McKay‘s Corners.“ And Mrs. Veldman pays this interesting tribute to the value of club experience: “I have always been under a nervous tension which causes a stop? page in my speech and in doing clth work I have been able to overcome this to a great extent. Reâ€" cently I was able to get up at an Institute meeting and give a demonstration where before I was barely able to answer a roll call. Club work has done wonders for me." Mrs. Earl Boyes, a former club member and now a leader. feels that the club experience she finds of most help is being a leader. Mrs. Boyes says: “I am now a mother of four teenage boys and I find that working with girls in Ital-l Home- making projects helps me to understand my boys. Life today is so diflereni from what it was twenty five years ago and it takes a great deal at adult education to figure out the best solution to many problems that parents and teenagers must en- counter.“ And Mrs. D. W. MacGregor makes a point of the connection between 4-H Homemaking Clubs and the Women’s Ins'itute. She says: “As a club girl I was always anxious to show my achieve- ments at the Institute meetings. This we did each year with the club girls acting as conveners for the June meeting of the lnsti.ute. Now I am an In- stitute member and I enjoy seeing the club girls of today giving the programme. I am now just as interested in the Institute as I was in the club work. I feel that homemaking clubs are worth while for the girls and for the future life of the Institute.“ Why Be a Club Leader? 1 THE Women's Institute convention at North Bay. a club leader, Mrs. Jack Campbell. asked by her district Home Economist, Miss Eleanor Knott, to tell why she is leader of a 4-H Homemaking Club, told this story from her own experience: I am now entering my fourth year as a club leader and I don‘t know whether I can put into words the reasons why I want to continue in the work, To begin with, I was so interested in Miss Patty‘s report at the convention four years ago that before going home I had a talk with her on how to s‘art a club in Trout Creek. I was fortunate in finding a woman as interested as l was in workâ€" ing with girls and together we started our club. We were learning with the girls and like the girls we did dread Achievement Day. However. it was not as difficult as it sounded and we came back home with so many ideas that we could hardly wait until the next club could start. When I moved to Trout Mills l was lost. How» ever, the Women‘s Institute asked me to start a club and they found an assistant leader and we were ready for the first «LH Homemaking Club htt’e. The Principal of the Public School gave me .1 list of those elegiblc and we started with tight girls. This year we haVe eighteen and I'm sure this will Show better than words that the girls are interested. In fact. the younger girls can hardly wait until they are twelve and old enough to join. Being a leader is not a hard. thankless job. I wish you could have been at one of our meetings luSt June when several girls were planning to enter High SChool and were not sure which course they should take. We had a club discussion and I‘m sure that the girls who will be facing the same WINTER 1959 problem next June will remember some of the points we discussed and it will help them to make the right decisions. The girls find the club an outlet for considering problems that they feel their families may not understand properly. The decisions reached are nearly always the same as the family‘s but they have had someone clsr's opinion too. When anyone talks about the “terrible teen- agers" I wonder if they have really talked to them or tried to work with them. Once you have had a girl in your club you have a common subject to talk about and regardless of where you meet her. you will greet one another as friend\. This is quite different from seeing a girl as "so and so‘s daughter." I have met so many mothers on the phone when I‘ve wanted to get in touch wi h the girls that although I have never seen them we are friends because again we have a common interest. Mothers think the club is wonderful and when the girls keep coming back it must be worth while. As Mrs. Haggerty said. when you belong to an organization such as this. you do feel as if you have another family. and you will find that you are just as proud of your club girl as you could possibly be if she were your own daughter. Each club unit is quite different, When a girl has taken several unis she has an allâ€"round knowledge of homemaking that. can never go amiss. I know that if each of you could try being a leader for just one unit you would feel cheated if you couldn't continue. Besides having a lot of fun you are training a girl to be a better ci'izen for her comâ€" munity and her country. ‘19