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Over 200 attend Rimbey women’s conference

Keynote speaker Brenda Robinson speaks to humour and not taking life too seriously
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The recent women’s conference in Rimbey brought in more than 200 attendees and was full of a variety of workshops like this drumming circle. Photo submitted

The extremely cold weather and near blizzard like conditions did not appear to keep the ladies away from Rimbey’s 32nd annual women’s conference.

Held Feb. 8 at the Peter Lougheed Community Centre the theme was Energize 2018.

And true to it, the ladies were an enthusiastic group who settled in to enjoy a full day of fun, inspiration and education.

Committee member Irene Steeves was pleased with the day.

“I thought it was fantastic,” she said. “We had around 207 register, more than last year.”

Keynote speaker Brenda Robinson truly did get the conference off to a lively start with her presentation, ‘Laughter in your family, your life and your community.’

True to her words, Robinson evoked a great deal of laughter in the audience with her down to earth and humorous presentation.

The guest speaker balanced her comedy with some common sense advice that every woman there could relate to.

“We let ourselves get way too serious,” she said.

Canadians, by nature, are serious people, she added. “We love to talk about our problems.”

She said women in particular, seem to take their responsibilities very seriously.

Popular sayings, “If you want it done right, do it yourself. By the time I show someone else how to do it, I could have done it myself. It’s the same people that do the work all the time,” quoted by Robinson, had the ladies in the audience nodding in agreement.

She said women might want to think about being the person who initiates the fun instead of the person who does all the work.

“We get so tied up in what we have to do, we forget to laugh at ourselves and at others.”

To emphasize her point, she recalled an incident when she stayed in a hotel in Medicine Hat and accidentally locked herself out of her room wearing only her nightgown, a rather flamboyant red silk creation.

Complete with body motions to describe her predicament, Robinson had the ladies practically roaring with laughter at her antics.

“It’s not what happens to us, it’s how we see it,” she said, adding a note of seriousness to her humorous recollections.

Following Robinson’s presentation, the ladies broke into their various sessions.

The conference concluded with a presentation by Lorraine Morris.