November Newsletter
- Peg Kirkpatrick
- Nov 5
- 9 min read
Updated: Nov 6
What an amazing event! This past month we celebrated the IWCV’s 20th Anniversary with an extremely successful fundraiser at Espai Llimera. Thanks to all of our members (that’s you!!), we raised a total of €6000 and were able to donate €2000 to each of the three charities supported by the IWCV: Casa Caridad, Casa Ronald McDonald, and Proyecto Vivir. Very, very well done everyone! For more details, please see below under “Charities & Fundraising”.
A favor please – We are trying to update our membership contact details, as many of you have moved pisos, changed phone numbers, etc. since you joined the IWCV. Would you please take a few minutes and go to the IWCV website (Women | International Women's Club-Valencia), sign in, click on the drop-down box next to your name at the top of the home page, and then click on “my account.” Once there, please take a look at the information we have on record about you, and please make any necessary corrections. This will help us ensure that you are always kept up to date about the IWCV and what’s happening with it. Thank you all!
Now, take a look below for all the events we’ve scheduled for you for November and beyond. We’ve got some amazing things planned and we hope to see you at one or more of these!
FELLOWS OF THE IWCV HAPPY HOUR – Wednesday 12 November, 6pm – 8pm at Pantalán 5, inside the Mercat Colon - Carrer de Jorge Juan s/n, Ensanche, 46004 Valencia. Open to everyone. Come see your old friends and make some new ones. No need to sign up in advance! Full details at Fellows of the IWCV Happy Hour | IWC - Valencia
NEW MEMBER MEETUP – Friday 14 November, 4:00pm – 6:00pm, C/Jesus 40, Planta 2, Puerta 4. Open to IWCV members only. Have you become a member in the last 6 months? Or would you like to meet some of our new members? We will meet to share experiences and introduce you to the opportunities within the IWCV. For complete details and to sign up, click here: New Member Meetup | IWC - Valencia
AN OLIVE OIL MILL AND STUNNING WATERFALL – Friday 14 November, 9:30am – 4:00pm. Open to IWCV members, their partners/spouses, Fellows of the IWCV, and out-of-town guests. Join us for a memorable full day in the province of Castellón – where golden olive groves meet a breathtaking waterfall. For complete details and to register, go to Visit an Olive Oil Mill and Stunning Waterfall | IWC - Valencia
IWCV’S NOVEMBER LUNCHEON – Thursday 20 November, 2:00pm – 5:00pm. For IWCV members only. Join your fellow IWCV members for a delightful culinary journey to South America at Restaurante Rinconcito Peruano con Brasas. Come gather with a group of lovely ladies and savor the colorful, aromatic, and heartwarming dishes that make Peruvian cuisine one of the most celebrated in the world. For complete details and to register, click here: IWC's November Luncheon | IWC - Valencia
A FEAST FOR THE SENSES! Thursday 4 December, 10:30am – 12:30pm at the Plaça del Mercat (Central Market). Open to IWCV members, their partners/spouses, Fellows of the IWCV, and out-of-town guests. Let’s welcome the Christmas season with an immersive walk with David of Ars Magna through the bustling Central Market, Europe’s largest fresh-produce market. Alive with colors, aromas, and flavors, it is a feast for the senses and the heart of Valencia’s culinary life. David’s final tour of 2025 ends on a delicious note, with a tasting of the freshest seasonal produce. For complete details and to sign up, click here: A Feast for the Senses! | IWC - Valencia
WHAT’S NEXT – ONE WOMAN’S STORY: WHEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS, Thursday 11 December, 11am – 12:45pm, Calle Buen Orden 8-1-1. Open to IWCV Members, their Partners/Spouses, Fellows of the IWCV, and Out-of-Town Guests. When you move to Valencia with your partner you look forward to planning for the future - learning a new language, discovering new cultures, food, traveling, and making new friends. But when the unthinkable happens and your partner suddenly dies, what do you do to survive and eventually thrive? For complete details and to register, click here: What's Next - One Woman's Story | IWC - Valencia
HANDS-ON INDIAN COOKING CLASS WITH CHEF AMANDA CUSHMAN, Friday 12 December, 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Open to IWCV members and their partners/spouses. Join professional chef Amanda Cushman to learn how to make delicious Indian food! This class includes a full lunch with wine, water, and/or beer. For complete details and to register, go to Hands-On Indian Cooking Class with Chef Amanda Cushman | IWC - Valencia
MEMBERSHIP
Janine Forbes, VP Membership
New members and re-joiners in October 2025
We have 431 full Members with 20 new members joining and a number leaving us. This month our joiners are from Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, UK, USA, Australia and Ecuador so I think that makes now 53 countries that comprise the ladies of the IWC Valencia.
A huge welcome to all our new members!
Agna Maseviciute
Angelina Elawat
Done Garcia
Emily Judd
Jan Clark
Kerstin Michaelsen Burgess
Lina Simutiene
Lynne Brown
Madeline Savit
Maija Liberte
Marcela Woolcott
Marina Lee Ryan
Mayte Manrique Sancho
Priscilla Sanguna
Shirin Seyyar
Sue Munro
Susan Julie Maffin
Tanya Booth
Troyce Thome
Victoria Stith
Happy Birthday to all our ladies celebrating in November!
Aileen Raskin
Amparo Pastor
Anelia Somerville
Ann Linton
Belinda James
Carolina Amram
Cathy Cleaver
Collin Roberts
Donna Morgan
Doris Hogan
Erica Worthington
Francoise Labour
Gila Dikel
Grain Lines
Heather Barnard
Heather Wallace
Helena Arvanites
Ida auritizen
Ivette Flores
Jerrica Spizarsky Brown
Joan Conroy
Karen Yan
Kate Rodriguez
Lilia Espinosa Tyson
Lisa Blumhagen
Lisa Harrison
Madeline Savit
Marcella Woolcott
Maria Belton
Mary Olsson
Meg Keogh
Mina Haghighat
Nancy Kloak
Ronit Saxon
Sibyl Davies
Silvia Matos Escalada
Sophia Campbell
Trish Trodd
Vickli Horowitz
Input from Membership VP - Janine Forbes
Welcome to ALL our new members!
Wow! We are all reeling from the amazing 20th Anniversary Celebration of the IWC Valencia. A superb event organised by Ann Linton and her team who did brilliantly and helped us support our charities in attendance.
Coffee Morning November - We had a number of suggestions from members on how better to welcome new members to the monthly coffee. People sometimes feel daunted approaching a group of strangers and we want to make everyone as welcome as possible. We trialed a few of the suggestions last time and if you attended and want to feedback your experience, particularly if it was your first coffee, please get in touch!. Our next coffee morning meet up is Tuesday 2nd December at the Muvimas terrace cafe at 10:30. As always we welcome members old and new but would especially ask our more “established” members to look out for new faces and help our new members attending for the first time to feel welcome. It is very much appreciated.
Veronica Lopez has now fully taken the reins of the Ambassador Programme. If you are new and would like to be put in touch with an Ambassador close to you, please contact Veronica at iwcvwelcome@gmail.com. New members really appreciate the support of an IWC Ambassador when they are relatively new to the city.
Remember, all the really useful information about What’s On within the Club and its many, many events is on the IWC website. If you would like to join one of the many Whatsapp groups, just contact the relevant lead member or any Board Member including myself, janine_forbes@hotmail.com. Of course, If you know any women in your personal network who you think would enjoy being a member of our club, please pass on our www.iwc-valencia.com website and bring them along to an event. This is how the majority of women find us and referral is the best recommendation of all.
CHARITIES & FUNDRAISING
Pauline Fitzgerald, VP – Charities
THE BIG COUNTDOWN is over and what an event, we can embrace the memories of a fun afternoon. The afternoon was a great success with members old and new, our charity representatives, music by the Lovely Elina and Sigve Mauritzen who kindly gave his time to capturing the happy moments. I'm sure many of you were lucky and went home with lovely raffle prizes.
First of all a big shout out to our wonderful committee led by Ann Linton, you guys were incredible and gave so much time to ensure the event was a success, you smashed it. To the IWC-V Board for your support and donating so many fantastic prizes. To all those people outside IWC-V who kindly donated prizes, thank you sincerely.
And finally as they say "The Results": we raised €4295 through sales of event tickets and raffle tickets on line, a further €460 was raised at the event through the sale of raffle tickets and we had an amazing anonymous donation of €1245 bringing the total to €6000. This means our three charities, Casa Ronald, Casa Caridad and Proyecto Vivir have each received €2000 and I know this amount of money will be so greatly appreciated. (We have heard back from Casa Caridad expressing their gratitude – please do read the letter from them at the end end of this Newsletter!
We can applaud ourselves ladies, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary with the needs of others at the heart of it. From the charities team just simply ' Thank you'.
Our Charities team with the help of you ladies strive to support our Charities as best we can, they are so appreciative of everything we do and were thrilled with the money raised at the Anniversary Event.
For those of you who wish to make a private donation please note the Bank details of our three charities:
Proyecto Vivir
ES75 3159 0066 9828 5328 2123
Casa Caridad
ES75 0081 7352 4300 0105 7311
Casa Ronald
ES27 0081 1518 9300 0150 8057
It is still possible to become a family member at Casa Ronald. Every year the ⁷Casa Ronald house next to La Fe Hospital hosts more than 200 families with seriously ill children who need to be close to them during their recovery. In order to be able to assume the high costs of maintaining this, they are asking us to join their great family in a very simple way that generates a lot of stability:
Becoming a family member
You decide how much and how often you can contribute, every amount no matter how large or small helps in such a big way.
Ronald greatly appreciates the support of IWCV
Casa Caridad continue their mission to support victims of The Dana which is now one year ago and still so vivid, so many people suffered and are still struggling. They are still appealing to companies and individuals for donations, two bank accounts have been enabled for this purpose:
CaixaBank: ES2321008681530200122656
and
RENTA 4 BANCO: ES 7600830001110097130755
or you can use the Bizum number 11001.
THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS ALMOST HERE
AMIGOS DE LA CALLE
We will once again support Amigos de la Calle with their holiday campaigns:
1. Sponsor a Child
2. Gift bags for the Homeless
Please watch for details in the next few weeks for those of you who would like to participate. Thank you again ladies, your support always goes way beyond our expectations
ACTIVITIES
Susan Burke March, VP—Activities
Our RECS Docx Dropbox folder contains lists of recommendations by and for our members, and is continually updated with new recommendations and general helpful information for all our members. You can access the RECS documents from our Social Chat WhatsApp group. It’s very easy and very worthwhile! Learn more on the Social Chat WhatsApp group and to join, send a message to either Membership VP Janine Forbes (Janine_forbes@hotmail.com) or Activities VP Susan Burke March (activities@iwc-valencia.com).
IWCV Ongoing Activities & Special Events
Do you have an idea for an activity or event? Our IWCV ongoing activities and many of IWCV's special events thrive because members like you step up to lead them. Hosting or organizing is an excellent way to share your interests and help our community flourish. Please reach out to Susan Burke March to brainstorm your ideas – you'll receive support every step of the way.
FELLOWS OF THE IWCV
Carey Hepler, Coordinator
Details of the Fellows’ November Happy Hour are above. This event is open to Fellows and everyone else too! We hope to see you there. If you are new to Valencia (or even if you’ve been here for a while!) and your husband/partner wants to meet people and keep busy, bring him along and introduce him to the Fellows. It’s a great way for the men in your life to make friends!
The Fellows of the IWCV is open to all men of Valencia. For questions or to join, please contact me (Carey Hepler) at carey.hepler@gmail.com.
NOVEMBER HOLIDAYS IN VALENCIA
Saturday 1 November All Saints Day
Keep reading below for a lovely letter the IWCV received from Casa Caridad in response to our donation of €2000. Thank you everyone for your help, your enthusiasm, and your generosity!
Jane Buck,
President
Thank you for the International Women’s Club Donation
Comunitaria Pechina <comunitariapechina@casacaridad.com
Monday, November 3, 2025
On behalf of Casa Caridad, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the International Women’s Club for its generous donation of €2,000.
Your support means much more than a financial contribution: it is a true sign of solidarity and commitment to people in vulnerable situations whom we assist every day. Thanks to collaborations like yours, we can continue providing essential services and opportunities for social reintegration to those who need them most.
Please convey our sincere thanks to all IWC members for their dedication and social awareness. It would be a pleasure to welcome you to our facilities so that you can see first-hand the impact that gestures like yours have on our daily work.
With our warmest thanks,
Natxo Torres
Técnico en inclusión comunitaria
Asociación Valenciana de Caridad
Paseo de la Pechina, 9 46008, Valencia
Tel. 96 391 17 26 Fax 96 391 43 60
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