Club News

January 2012 : Working with the W.I

Esther the Watercarrier

Awareness raising for Women reaching water ,Water reaching women campaign
Walking through Norwich on 26th January with WI Members
Esther and Gertraud went the River Wensum at Pulls Ferry to the centre of Norwich .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Club Lunch

 

 

                                                                                       October 2011

 

 

                                     Speakers Helen Hoyte and Jean Smith flanking LAR President Jean Thorpe..

                                                                                     with the Norwich Shawls

 

 

 

Welcome to new Member Maggy

Macmillan Coffee morning at Judith’s

 

Litter Pickers of Lakenham 22nd August 2011

Lakenham Way

14th August : Tea at Christine’s by the River Wensum

and

SI Convention : Montreal July 2011

Jill and Annette with SI International President Hanne Jensbo

Jill, Valerie,June and Margaret from Ilkley in Montreal

Members of SI Glasgow City in Montreal

 

 

SI Norwich hosts London Anglia Regional AGM 11th June 2011


Felicity at work on the Programme action report.

 

 

SI Cuxhaven’s visit to Norwich in May.

 

FUNDRAISING

Ruth presents a cheque for £2,900 to Joan Welsby of the Hamlet Centre Trust

2011 Club AGM in April : Ruth hands over to Sue and…….two new members Christine and Julia.

DECEMBER 2010. – a ” new “Club

Our Friendship Link , SI Glasgow West merges and forms Glasgow City

Soroptimists doing what they do best !

Leading up to Christmas we had a Club meal at a local hotel.We and friends had a good evening. Instead of giving each other Christmas cards we collected £65 for the President Ruth’s charity.

Ruth is currently working in the school for the deaf in West Bengal.

She reports…..
This year is the coldest winter here for a long time so after 2 warm winters I’m finding the nights very cold even with 4 blankets! The girls now have 3 and seem quite happy.
As usual things move slowly, however, Im meeting the potential ear mould trainer.
I have an agreement in place that 2 of the bright older girls will learn along with 2 others – one of whom already makes the basic body worn moulds.
The school Audiologist has a 2 month old baby and she popped in to see this week and I’m hoping she will come again as there is much to sort out. Things unfortunately slipped in her absence so I’ve been busy sorting out the hearing aids with the help of an English lad doing 3 months of his gap year here. He will help also to set up equipment I brought to test young children .-
4 members of SI S Kolkata visited the school today – they planned to stay 2 hours and actually stayed 5.
They were very interested in everything, asked many questions and were able to see through the show aspects. They gave a donation and a large box of good used clothes and a large box of sanitary towels.
Their club has been operational for 3 years only. They have 2 PAC efforts – teaching street children English one day a week and helping in a school for the disabled one day a week.
The President comes to Cambridge every 2 years so may visit next time.

Also a Member hosted a lunch for non- Soroptimist friends and they gave £100 for Project SIerra.

2011 Now we are preparing for more fundraising events and litter picking !

5th November 2010

For our Club charity we celebrated Bonfire night with supper, travellers’ tales and beautiful fireworks courtesy of Mike Vincent a very good “Soroptimister”. Despite the rain we had a delightful display.

Sad to report a week later Mike died very suddenly……….. 5th November won’t be the same.

3 “Conference Virgins” from S.I. Morpeth : postscript to Conference

Members attending for the first time get a yellow sash . Some of us had lunch with the 3 ladies above.Small world . It turned out that Susan, on the left, has a Daughter who has just come to work in Norwich. We were able to meet up and give her a little tour of Norwich. When she visits again she will try to include our meeting nights and come along.

SIGBI Conference Manchester October 2010

The venue was Manchester Central formerly a railway station
with plenty of space for meeting and eating !
11 members attended what turned out to be an interesting and well run Conference.
Our new Rgional President is Jean Thorpe , SI Gt. Yarmouth
We met up with 2 members, Sheilah and Janette
from SI Glasgow West , our Frienship link.
We toured the Salford Quays.
(after the conference of course!) – At the Lowry
At the Imperial War Museum Lynda didn’t jump .
And we did eat and drink occasionally !
There will be more photos soon…..
In September Members visited the Perenco Gas Plant at Bacton….. very much more interesting than it sounds. All the offshore work on our doorstep is less of a mystery now!
One of our members hosted hosted a very successful McMillan Big Coffee Morning on 25th Sept.
Some of us have started a litter pick locally .
Our Annual Lunch on 3rd October was a happy occasion with member, Jill Ward , giving an interesting talk on the Freemen of Norwich ( of which she is now one ! )
Preparations are in hand for a lunch in aid of Project SIerra in November and gathering items for Christmas boxes and for the local Refuge and Samaritan Purse.
SI Norwich was in theory on holiday in August……..

The Costello’s garden

Despite that we had a very successful Charity Garden Party for 100 …in a member’s garden…… hard work but a lovely event. Finally some of us walked and picnicked .. just for pleasure !
On 16th July we had a fund raising Vegetarian Supper and Quiz at president Ruth’s
On 1st July we held a Concert in aid of the President’s Charity “Suryapur” a school for deaf girls in West Bengal.
A local choir who sing for pleasure and charity helped us raise funds and sing along to the songs of Rogers and Hammerstein !

 

Friendship Weekend with Emmeloord Friendship Link : 4th to 6th June 2010

The 6 Dutch visitors toured Norwich. Sheringham Park , Norfolk and the BBC TV and Radio studios !

Final count for Keeping Abreast……..

:£3,400 was the final figure raised in Sue Sansby’s year 20009/10 for Keeping Abreast.

Our three New Members: Ann McCormack, Judy Cane and Gertraud Shaw

Suryapur

Our new president is Ruth Tolland.
As Ruth is an Educational Audiologist by profession it is not surprising the charity we will work for this year is supporting a school for the deaf.
Suryapur is home to deaf and blind girls in West Bengal.
Ruth has made several visits offering help on tuition and taking equipment that is more useful than the school had had.
The photo shows a final assembly at Suryapur, deaf girls on the right giving the deaf wave which means ‘thank you and blind girl to the left clapping – standing in rows in height order!

Fundraiser : The Three Gardening Gurus – Gardeners’ Question Time – 22nd May

Guy Barker, Richard Hobbs, Ian Roofe

March 8th International Women’s Day members supported other women’s groups locally.

1) we attended the WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) seminar on “Women, Climate and Food”
The first speaker was a postgraduate of UEA brought up on a farm in Kenya .
So we heard from someone who as a child went for water before walking 3miles to school.
Her Father practised polygamy and the wives seemed to do most of the work on the farm.
She is involved in a project in Kenya relating to water resource management, the change in weather and its effects on crop planting times. She will be going back to work in Kenya at the end of her studies.
The second talk was from a research scientist working on the carbon footprint of the food we eat.
Her assertion is we do not have enough facts to inform our food choices.e.g. how nutritious, where and how it was grown or produced.
Junk food seems to be the only “known ” !
2) WI of Norfolk looked at the UN Millennium Goals with a very informative seminar in the Forum in Norwich
There was a speaker on Rwanda, an Indian Research scientist from UEA looking at women and girls’ education and one of the WI members illustrating the future problems of feeding the world.
They have also invited President Sue and President Elect Ruth to their AGM on 24th March.
3) ResNet (supporting women in research in UEA , John Innes Centre etc) Celebrated 10 years with displays and a film which reminded us that women were only awarded degrees at Cambridge in 1948 !
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Finally history was made on 19th March 2010 in Norwich when over 200 women were made Freewomen of the City.They had been barred from joining the ranks of their fathers and brothers for 800 years but after much campaigning the legislation changed in January 2010.
Jill Ward , our Regional Rep, and her niece were among that first 200 women
ebruary 2010 Fashion Show to boost SI Norwich fund raising for “Keeping Abreast”

W.ith the north of the region having born the brunt of the protracted winter weather, members of SI Norwich have battled with snow and ice. Inevitably some meetings and activities have been abandoned but Soroptimists had their final fund-raiser for President Sue Sansby’s year.
The club joined forces with Jarrold, the last independent department store in Norwich which hosted a Spring Fashions Show on 25 Februrary. It was in aid of “Keeping Abreast” and they hoped both the charity and the store would do well with visitors cheered up with a glass of wine. On the night £607 was raised for Keeping Abreast.

Sadly members have been remembering their oldest member, Margaret Murray who died on 22nd January 2010 . She joined the Club in 1955 and had given more than half a century of support to SI Norwich. She was active until recently bringing “wit and wisdom to our meetings”.

In December 2009 we collected £116 for the Salvation Army’s Norwich Soup Run. We decided to donate the money in lieu of Christmas cards to each other. The Collection was made during our Christmas Dinner so maybe the amount was connected to the wine consumed ……. The Salvation Army used the donation to buy much needed sleeping backs for the homeless

Trolley Dash Dec 2009

Trolley dash

Then everybody turned out in force at the local Morrison’s supermarket to sell raffle tickets for a Charity Trolley Dash again in aid of “Keeping Abreast”. £1,200 was raised.

It provided an unexpected bonus when the winner Carol Crouch, Norwich member, decided to donate her trolley contents (£200 worth of groceries and Christmas goods) to the St Martin’s Hostel in Norwich which provides accommodation, food and support for homeless people.

The picture shows Carol Crouch, Jennifer Costello who did the ‘dash’, Morrison’s manager Mark Ellis and President Sue Sansby.

Members collected Christmas gifts and packed 17 shoe boxes and 15 gift bags for women in Leeway, the local refuge.
14 shoe boxes of Christmas gifts for children were prepared and given to Samaritan Purse.

A charity Christmas lunch organised for non-Soroptimists raised £140 for Project SIerre

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SIGBI Cardiff Conference in October 2009

. 3 W______ of Cardiff

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SI NorwichBras in the Bay

What are these women doing!

what have they done?

What have they done?

Members collected thousands of bras locally and 17 bin bags went to Cardiff Bay to Our Conference for OXFAM to sort and send to Senegal with bras from all over UK.

Newest Member of Norwich Club

Nowrich Club's newest member

5th October 2009 Induction of Olwen Gotts seen here with President Sue

Keeping Abreast

 

Soroptimists helped “Keeping Abreast” a Breast Cancer Reconstruction Support Group at their Fashion show in October in Norwich. £10,000 was made on the night.

Soroptimists at work

For EACH : May 2009

3,000 for EACH

£3,000 for EACH

President Sue Sansby and members of Norwich Club recently presented Jessica Hiscocks, EACH Community Fundraising Co-ordinator( on the left) with a cheque for £3,000 for the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH).

This sum was the result of the work of members of theClub in the last year in which Past President Janice Tofts chose EACH as her Charity.

We started fundraising with a public talk by Ian Woodall” The Tao of Everest” in the Assembly House and managed a full house plus 800pounds. In March 2009 we organised a concert of music from the shows with “Upper Octave” which raised over 900 pounds.

Friends and members participated and enjoyed a variety of events such as a Plant sale, an Indian evening, a walk inthe grounds at Felbrigg Hall, a Penguin evening, a Nearly New clothes sale, a supper and Naff Raffle plus a quiz and various raffles.