THE WOW STORY . . .
The Wilston State School community has always been a warm and connected one. Our mothers in particular enjoy the opportunity to form lifelong friendships as they share their experiences and support each other at coffee mornings, ladies lunches and parent social dinners. They volunteer together for tuck shop, fetes, dances and art shows. They car pool for sport and birthday parties. We are the WOW's - the Women of Wilston. Establishing that foundation in your local neighbourhood means that as our children move on from primary school and scatter across Brisbane, we keep the faith and stay in touch.
WOW is about connecting our women: past, present and future. We are inclusive. Everyone is invited - the decade of mothers before us are the SOW's - the Sisters of Wilston, the local kindy mothers so they can start a fresh new Prep year knowing some faces, the women without children at the school but anchored in our local businesses - all are welcome.
In the early years our invitation was extended by word of mouth and stayed within the cohorts of our own children. Our goal was always to extend beyond this and reach every mother in every grade. WOW started small but has gathered momentum beyond the school gates, spreading our spirit each year further into the local community. Now with our website, Facebook, Instagram and online registration we can easily achieve this.
2012
In the beginning Janine and Nic made an impromptu decision to stage a mothers lunch for the Wilston State School community to celebrate the end of another year navigating the joys of young families. Not long after the decision to have a party was made, the father of a local family tragically committed suicide. We realised we could use our strength in numbers and friendship to support others close to us in need. It was humbling to see unexpected donations come forward and we decided to stage a small raffle. There were 50 mothers in the room and the lunch was immortalised by some athletic mums offering a cartwheel or the splits for extra donations! We raised $1300 to help out just before Christmas.
Our first event saw the birth of a new focus on how to be WOW! We realised how much the community valued the chance to celebrate another year together. We decided to take this bond and use its strength to support and raise funds for a local womens or family charity each year.
