Who Hoo Wants to Know About Our Monthly Events?
March, April, May 2025
AWOL Monthly Events
Contact Kathleen Holland @ 519-471-2177
AWOL events are women-only events.
*We welcome all those who've experienced womanhood at some point, on their life journey.
AWOL Events
Saturday March 23 @ noon – AWOL Women’s Hockey Outing – Join us to support the PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) as Toronto plays Montreal on the big screen at Boston Pizza (1275 Fanshawe Park Road West)….going all-Canadian in this lineup including this restaurant chain!! You don’t have to be a big-time hockey fan…just join us for the fun of it! We’ll be sitting on the bar side. Please RSVP to [email protected] by Friday March 21st.
Saturday May 3rd @ 5:30 PM – AWOL Dinner Outing during the London Lesbian Film Festival weekend! Join us after the Saturday films and before the dance at the dance venue (Lamplighter Inn). Get a great parking spot and stay there for the dance that starts at 8 PM. To join this reservation, please RSVP to me by Thursday May 1st at [email protected]
Saturday August 23rd @ 3 – 9 PM – AWOL 35th Anniversary Party! Join us for a bonfire and cookout. Bring your favourite meat/veggie to cook (on the BBQ), and whatever else you would like to eat…please come self-contained with cutlery, plate, napkins, beverages, coolers with ice, etc. We’ll provide condiments. This is wasp season so please keep that in mind to keep your food contained in a cooler to minimize the food attractants. Please RSVP by Friday August 22nd at [email protected].
Important Announcement
And finally, we are planning a very important gathering for AWOL. Did you know that AWOL was established in 1990? It was the brainchild of a handful of women who returned to London that summer from what was fondly referred to as Mich Fest (Michigan Women’s Music Festival). They wanted to come up with an idea to create a social group back home in London. So, our first AWOL event was actually held in September 1990, hosted in a small apartment that overflowed with about 34 women who learned about this first event through word-of-mouth and/or a typed-up notice posted at the formerly beloved women’s bookstore called Womansline Books (closed for years now). We first attendees, were given blank slips of paper on which to write down our ideas for events. These were used to create the first few bimonthly newsletters. Newsletters at that time, were left on the Womansline bookstore
bulletin board, free for women to take home. Eventually a few more committee members were recruited and membership fees were charged for printing and mailing these newsletters directly to members. A year or so after AWOL was started, I was asked to join the committee. We rotated the contact person so that different women could take on that role and field phone calls from interested new members (no email back then!). And about a year later, the original committee members handed over the reins and I took over.
Especially in the early years, we had a robust but ever-changing group of women who offered to host events. This continued for many years with different women coming into the fold, hosting events and activities that interested them like playing games, dinner outings, cooking events, camping, hiking, etc. There was a time when we had several subgroups (Inspirational Discussion Group, Motorcycle Enthusiasts Club, Hiking, Creative Cooking, etc) that met specific interests and they were a ton of fun! It also meant I didn’t need to attend every AWOL event since things rolled along very smoothly with other seasoned members hosting them.
But as it sometimes turns out, when women got into relationships, they would “nest” and stop coming out to AWOL events or would stop hosting events. And that was okay. Sometimes, they would return to the fold and join in the events down the road, when timing for doing so, was better in their life.
So, this summer we want to celebrate you, our AWOL members, and the 35 years’ worth of fun and great memories that many of us have cherished. My wife Shannon and I met through AWOL when a mutual friend (our dear friend Mary Hagan) brought Shannon to her first AWOL event in 2011. Although we didn’t start dating for a few months, it is true and fun to tell people who ask how we met, to say that in this case, we met in my living room!
So, this summer party is one where we will want to celebrate AWOL’s 35-year legacy where hundreds of women have come and gone over the years and many special ones have left their mark on our hearts through fun memories, conversations that mattered and/or maintaining great friendships. Shannon and I both feel that AWOL has enriched our lives.
Having both been retired for a few years now, Shannon and I continue to embrace our travelling/camping lifestyle with more and more time spent away from home. So, we also feel that this is the right time for us to wrap up this wonderful group that has fed our souls for years. As such, our final AWOL event will take place on Saturday August 23rd…please refer to those event details below and join us if you can. We are so looking forward to seeing you over the next several months at the upcoming events and we sure hope to see you at the big send-off in August!