SI Ballymoney & District celebrated its 44th Charter dinner in Royal Portrush Golf Club on Thursday 1st May 2008. It was a lovely evening with a glorious sunset providing the backdrop to the gathering. Fifty three attended in total including the Mayoress of Ballymoney, Mrs Linda Finlay, SI Northern Ireland Regional President, Jennifer Loughridge and visitors from Coleraine, Londonderry, Bangor, Portadown and Newtownards Clubs. We also had a number of non-Soroptimist guests including the guest speaker, the Reverend Sheila Spence and Bear all the way from Kirk o’ Shotts, north Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The drinks reception was followed by an excellent meal. From the buzz of friendly chatter to be heard around the room it was amazing that anyone actually had time to eat! The meal was rounded off with tea, coffee and teddy bear shaped shortbread provided by Rev. Spence.
The choice of speaker was inspired by the collection of teddies gathered at the Soroptimist International Congress in Glasgow. Those teddies were subsequently delivered to Malawi for children there, a gesture recognising the work of Soroptimism for international peace. Guests at the dinner heard how Bear played a vital role in making contact with young people at Kirk o’ Shotts. They also heard about Bear’s friends, Scruffy Bear and Prayer Bear who represented the work both at home, the Open Door Trust, and abroad, Release International, of Rev. Spence’s congregation at Kirk o’ Shotts.
Rev. Spence is a self confessed ‘arctophile’ that is a lover of bears and a collector of same. It is truly amazing how versatile the humble teddy can be, the amount of comfort, love and fun that can come from something so simple. While of the price paid for bears can vary greatly it was obvious from the interest of the audience that the power of the teddy can be priceless.