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On Thursday 21^st August Leigh and District WI held their 2008 Summer Lunch at Checkley Village Hall. 

This is an annual event and is very well popular with the ladies of the other WI Institutes in the area. It is an occasion when 150+ friends, old and new, can meet together, eat a delicious lunch, be well entertained and generally have a lovely relaxing time.

This year the theme for the lunch was Salad and Serenades.

All the food, the salads and a host of delicious deserts were provided by the combined efforts of the busy ladies of Leigh and District.

After lunch the ‘Serenades’ were courtesy of the Kajami Palm Court Orchestra and soloist Linda Hammond.

The Summer Lunch event was started in 1986 by Edith Durose, current secretary of Leigh institute, as a competition to raise money from an initial stake of £1. Edith held a lunch for 85 guests at her home that year and this proved so popular that the lunch has been held annually ever since. In 2000 with the guest list in excess of 100 a new and larger venue was found at Checkley. This year, with careful seat and table planning, 144 guests and entertainers sat down for lunch.

Several of the guests this year attended the early lunches at Edith’s. One in particular should be mentioned, Mrs Doreen Adams, now aged 96 and a member for 60 years of the Leigh and District institute, was a most honoured guest this year and everyone was delighted to see her.

The theme for the lunch was Pink, following the lead of WI National who have chosen this as their colour. All the tables were decorated in pink and the hall looked splendid. The Leigh and District Institute members acted as hostesses and many were dressed very colourfully in pink. The Chinese Auction table, an exciting form of raffle, looked wonderful. It was filled with eleven super prizes all of which followed the pink theme.

Much credit must be given to the prime organisers of this year’s lunch – Wendy Kirk, president and Edith Durose, secretary.

A good deal of detailed planning and very hard work goes into making this such a successful and popular event and this year, as ever, everything went very smoothly and an excellent time was had by all.

Leigh and District WI were very pleased indeed to meet and entertain all their guests and friends from the other local WI Institutes and do hope that everyone enjoyed the occasion as much as they themselves did.