President Therese and members attended a very busy event at Lancaster Library organised by East Meets West. There were 12 stalls representing different cultures from around the world organised by women from the refugee and asylum seeker communities in the city. There were different foods to try, clothing styles to compare and arts, crafts and quizzes for the children.
Preston Afternoon Tea On 21 June President Therese attending an afternoon tea hosted by Preston SI. The venue was café at St Catherines Hospice Preston, which is set in beautiful grounds alongside the large hospice building. The afternoon event raised £387 for Lancashire Women’s Charity. Well done Preston.
At the end of May President Therese and Val M visited Growing Well at Sizergh Barn which the club will support this year as the President’s charity. It is a mental health charity located on an organic farm and market garden. Under the supervision of experienced therapeutic growers and mental health support staff, volunteers can rebuild confidence, learn new skills, benefit from peer support and be helped to achieve their goals, such as returning to employment or education. Their website is Growing Well
President Val and member Sandra travelled to Haslingdon to attend the SI Rossendale Charter Lunch. After travelling across the western Pennines on a beautiful day they joined members of SI Rosendale and their guests. After lunch one of their longest serving members talked about the group in it’s early days.
What better way to spend one of the last Sunday summer afternoons particularly when the money raised go to the Dianne Oxberry Trust for raising awareness of Ovarian Cancer. The trust gave a presentation at a Regional Meeting explaining that ovarian cancer was difficult to detect and all too often fatal. A special mention to Andra for her cake tree. Looks delicious. Many Thanks to Ruth and of course her husband, Stuart for a fantastic event. Below is a selection of photos provided by Ruth. Summer Sun and a glass of Pimm’s — Perfect!
The following is the write-up Val B kindly did for our local paper. Every year members hold an event to mark and support International Women’s Day and this year the club was fortunate to have the assistance of Steve Pendrill, the renowned local professional photographer. Steve was the speaker at the regular monthly meeting, relating fascinating anecdotes of exciting adventures, opportunities and mishaps during his 25 years as a press photographer. After his talk Steve very kindly took a group photo of members holding their flags and banners reflecting both the international women’s organisations and schools actively supported by SI Lancaster and the life and work of Ruth Ginsberg, the American feminist lawyer who was the first Jewish woman Justice ever to be appointed to the US Supreme Court and who was a lifelong promoter of worldwide gender equality. SI Lancaster regularly supports and
This was a second opportunity to catch up with friends with another face-to-face meeting. Val, the president gave an overview of club structure which was supported by guiding everyone to the different web site associated with the organisation. This was followed by Hillary who gave us an overview of the current membership and the joining process for the new members and potential members at the meeting. Deirdre followed with what is often seen as the heart of the club with information about the wide and varied activities the club had undertaken the previous year. Sandra, one of the most recent new members was asked to introduce herself. Sandra had been introduced into the club by Kath and entertained the meeting with a side show to illustrate her stories. She finished with a short film of her stepson’s lavish Indian wedding. Below is
November saw the 2021 the first face to face meeting for the Northwest region for several month. Previous meeting had been held over Zoom due to the national restriction relating to the Covid pandemic. Lancaster was well represented. One of the items was the hand over from last year’s Region President, Cath Read from Blackburn club to 2021/22 President, Val Thomas, Pendleside.
Once again Covid stopped members traveling to the 2021 annual conference which was due to be held in Belfast. During the year the conference committee had assessed the risk of a face-to-face meeting and taken the difficult decision to hold a virtual conference. To try and recreate some of the comradery of a normal gathering several members met to watch the conference together. While not recreating the complete conference experience it was still an opportunity to enjoy the company of other and discuss the presentation.
For the past 20 years members of Lancaster Soroptimist club have produced and presented 45 storybooks for local primary schools. Each school receives three consecutive storybooks. The first one was presented to Moorside School in 2002. Unfortunately, the following seventeen are not on record but the remaining are as follows: 19 – The Enormous Watermelon Ryelands School July 2009. 20 – The Frog Prince Ryelands School 8 December 2009. 21 – Whatever Next Ryelands School 30 November 2010. 22 – Peace At Last Ryelands School 30 November 2010. 23 – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Christchurch School 7 March 2011. 24 – A Christmas Journey Christchurch School 29 November 2011. 25 –
