The Cardigan U3A celebrated their tenth birthday with an afternoon of cream tea at the Cliff Hotel.

Over one hundred people were treated to a great afternoon where Pete Mears, Chairman summarised the history from the early days to our current state of having over 250 members along with 23 groups covering aspects as diverse as Metal Detecting.

Five of the founder members John and Eirlys Davies, Ivor and Pat Trevitt and Susan Jones attended.

Speakers for the afternoon were Barbara Lewis (National Chairman of U3A), and Kelly Davis from the team of the Commissioner for Older People in Wales.

In an inspirational speech, Barbara Lewis said the founding fathers of U3A had a vision that U3A would endure through the active participation and contribution of its members; Cardigan U3A was a magnificent example of their foresight.

Barbara was keen to encourage members to use the online educational resources available on the national website (www.u3a.org.uk) and especially the courses that were available.

However, she pointed out that there were no examinations to pass, and that people joined U3A for a multitude of reasons.

It might be the next thing after retirement, people might hear about it from friends and neighbours and want to ‘give it a try’, or children may have grown and flown. U3A members come from all walks of life and, as a self-help organisation, everyone has something to contribute.

The groups next meeting will be held in Thursday, July 23 with guest speaker Pat Beaumont, who will be giving a presentation on ‘Dicing in the Red Sea.’

New members are very welcome to come along to our normal meetings which are held in the Catholic Church Hall, North Road, Cardigan on the fourth Thursday of the month at 2:00 pm.

Alternatively, for more information on joining Cardigan U3A and their various groups please visit our website at www.cardiganu3a.org.uk