Gals and pals: Halifax group helps women get together to have fun, make new friends

Meet one of the women behind Halifax Gals and Pals, a group that promotes fun community events for women and LGBTQ+ community members.

Many adults find it hard to meet new people and make friends, but one community non-profit is trying to change that.

Halifax Gals and Pals hosts events for women and LGBTQ2S+ community members, with the goal of having fun and making friends.

President Janine McGregor first joined in 2023 as a participant when it was originally run by two other women.

“And then soon after joining I started running their book club for them,” she says. “Back in late 2024, they posted it was just too much work for them … so we took it on and have been running it since then.”

Gals and Pals hosts four book clubs each month, along with walks and other creative events, like casual crafting drop-ins.

“This one I’ve been trying to do monthly since last summer, so (it’s) coming up again on Feb. 17 at 2 Crows and Yeah Yeahs – we had 56 people last month for this one,” McGregor says.

People bring their own crafts to work on during the events and chit chat with others.

“We’ve seen knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, journaling – all kinds of things. And then just having some pizza and hanging out,” says McGregor.

The organization tries to make each event as affordable as possible.

“Right now, a lot of our events are either free or either low cost, around $5 to $7 … if events include more materials and planning, they might be $20-25. We are a non-profit, so all of it goes back into the non-profit at this point,” McGregor says.

Attendees who are new to Halifax have told organizers they originally had few friends and now have a whole community.

“I’ve had people tell me that they met and now they’ve been at each other’s weddings, people have told me this is their favourite social thing of the month that they come to,” says McGregor.

“It’s really nice to hear, at the end of every event, people always come up and say, ‘Thank you so much for doing this, really appreciate it,’ so whenever it feels like a lot of work, those moments make it feel actually worth the time.”

McGregor admits it can be intimidating to meet new people. She says attending your first event is the hardest step.

“I find a lot of people just say, ‘I’ve been wanting to come but I’ve been too nervous’ – know that I will probably be there, I will talk to all of you. And that we want people to connect, so we try to create environments that make it easy and the people that come to our events are absolutely lovely – you will have a good time,” she says.

Local businesses are also encouraged to reach out if they are interested in hosting a Halifax Gals and Pals event.

“We are always looking for new venues, constantly on the hunt, we’ve got a few that we love, but it’s just nice to have more and more. We love supporting local businesses, we love promoting them,” McGregor says.

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