GAINING IMPETUS

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 153, 18 December 1942, Page 4

GAINING IMPETUS

Capital’s Club, Hostel

And Home Hospitality

Wellington service clubs, both in the city itself and in the suburbs, were’as busy and crowded as usual this weekend. Servicemen and women alike gathered at the various centres to enjoy the hospitality provided. Energetic . entertainment committees and helpers who serve in an entirely voluntary capacity, sometimes devoting time to cafeteria duty or the dispensing of hundreds of meals every week, gave ' estimable assistance, and made their guests genuinely welcome. Now that the weather has become more promising, several enterprising clubs have arranged weekend swimming and picnic parties, in addition to visits to local parks and reserves for sports and organized outdoor games. Men of all the services, including the Merchant Navy, were taken for outings yesterday, returning, in most cases, to. the clubrooms for teas and concerts. Menus have also been affected,- and salads, cold meat and sweets have been been substituted for some of the hot dishes popular throughout, the -winter. Donations of food or flowers for the tablesare always acceptable at the service clubs. . Hospitality for servicemen and women spending leave in Wellington is also extending to the home. Last week citizens helped appreciably in response to an appeal made by a hostel seveely taxed for ’overnight accommodation, and took the surplus number of men into their homes for the weekend. • The New Zealand-America Friendship Group, which operates the Home Hospitality Bureau, as well as arranging

x.- xx~x~y .. -- , vvk - O hospitality in .Wellington homes for-an evening, places convalescent men from a United States services hospital in homes for the weekend, and as many as 100 in a weekend have been so placed during the past months, though during the last fortnight, because of movement in the hospital, few have been available. This work is under the direction of Mrs. J. W. Innes, whose enthusiasm has largely fostered its success. Besides locating the homes, the bureau, under the direction of Miss Yvonne Vickery, secretary, and Mrs. Beale, and a rota of willing helpers, continues its task of introducing servicemen to Weilingtonians, and hundreds of home friendships have been formed through this agency. Immediately on the arrival of any of our allies,? they are met by the chairman of the group, Major J. IL Kirk. M.8.E.,. and given full information as to the hospitality awaiting them from the various clubs,'so that when. they enter the city they already feel welcome. Over the Christmas season, there may be many servicemen who would benefit by home contacts, and the bureau (telephone 44-711) would value invitations from further householders willing to assist. ‘