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Events Archive 2012

12 December 2012

 A COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

The Station Singers, a community choir established last year and based in Richmond’s restored railway station, has gone from strength to strength. It includes several SI-Richmond & Dales members among its hundred-strong singers.

On 12 December, St Mary’s Parish Church was the venue for the Station Singers’ Christmas Concert in aid of the local Alzheimer’s Society. It was enjoyed equally by the singers and the 250 people in the audience. The programme included traditional and less well known Christmas carols and songs by the choir, ending with carols with lusty audience participation. Seasonal refreshments were provided by the Alzheimer’s committee, some of whom were also local Soroptimists.

29 November 2012

ON TOP OF THE WORLD:  An inspiring talk by Chris Brown MBE

Chris Brown, a North Yorkshire farmer, reached the summit of Mt Everest in 1999 aged 52 completing his 40th Birthday challenge to himself. He had become the 10th Briton to climb all seven highest summits in the world, while also raising money for charity.

His matter-of-fact talk and excellent photographs held the audience spellbound as he described how he achieved his dream of climbing Mt Everest at his third attempt, having climbed almost to the summit on two previous occasions before having to turn back because of poor weather conditions.

Chris’s mountaineering has raised funds to set up Claro enterprises, a sheltered workshop that provides employment for vulnerable adults, for which he was awarded the MBE.

The evening was in aid of the president’s charity, The Teenage Cancer Trust. The picture shows Sandra Frier with Chris Brown holding his book Seven Summits.

 

3 November 2012

CHARITY DINNER DANCE AT HEADLAM HALL :  BACK TO THE 1950s

The main fundraising event for the year was a 1950s themed night held at Headlam Hall  Hotel in Gainford which raised £1,320 in aid of the Target Ovarian Cancer charity.

The 1950s event was a great success with many of the guests dressing in 1950s style.  It included a demonstration of dance from the era with a 30 minute fun dance workshop for members and guests as well as an excellent dinner, auction and raffle.

Target Ovarian Cancer is one of the President Sandra Friar’s charities for the year. The photo shows Sandra and Roger Friar in 1950s disguise.

 

27 September 2012

LONG-SERVICE AWARD PRESENTATION

Club members were delighted to see President, Sandra Frier present a long-service award to Betty Freeman MBE after 30 years of devoted service to the SI-Richmond & Dales Club.

Betty is well known to hundreds of people in Richmondshire where, before her retirement, she taught English in several local schools. Since then, she has continued to make a significant contribution to the community through a wide range of activities. Her many friends continue to enjoy her engaging personality and great sense of humour. We wish her many more years of lively companionship.

8 September 2012

ANTIQUES EXTRAVAGANZA EVENING with ADAM SCHOON

A highly successful evening for 120 guests was held at the Kings Head Hotel, Richmond in aid of the Target Ovarian Cancer charity. The evening was both enlightening and entertaining because Adam Schoon, a ‘miscellaneous’ valuer from the Antiques Roadshow was our guest speaker. It was a delight to listen to his appraisal of a wide variety of unusual items that guests had been invited to bring along with them, ranging from ornate silverware to Mabel Lucy Attwell pottery.

Guests came from far and wide. As well as the evening spent with an antiques expert, wine and canapés were served, a quiz about antiques taxed everyone’s brain and more than £1,000 was raised.

 

19 August 2012

MAD HATTERS TEA PARTY

The lively afternoon of fun and nonsense for members and invited guests at the President’s   house was well named!  Although the lashing rain meant that the flamingos went on strike and croquet was cancelled the dormouse slept through it all.

The Yorkshire President came in heavy disguise but was identified by her chain of office, our President was a most effective Mad Hatter, no one was late, liquid refreshment was anti-shrink and the afternoon tea was a triumph.

It’ll be a very hard act to follow!

 

2 June 2012

JUBILEE TEA PARTY FOR OLDER RICHMOND RESIDENTS IN RICHMOND TOWN HALL

SI Richmond & Dales, supported by the Rotary Club of Richmond, held a Jubilee Tea Party in Richmond Town Hall on Saturday 2 June to celebrate the special occasion of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Over 100 local residents, mostly living alone, were invited.

The afternoon was an enjoyable success. Starting off with a celebratory glass of sherry or fruit juice, everyone joined in singing many well-known old and patriotic songs led by pianist, Joy Hornsby and several Soroptimists who also sing with the Richmond’s Station Singers.  After a hearty afternoon tea, prepared and served by Club members, a Jubilee Quiz tested the knowledge of the group and a short film of Richmond taken 30-40 years ago was shown. The Mayor, Councillor Stuart Parsons attended the event and joined in the celebrations, spending time talking to everyone individually.  Photographs were taken by Mark Whyman and can be seen on the Town Hall’s picture-notice board.

Soroptimist President, Sandra Frier, thanked all those involved in making the afternoon a success, which was greatly appreciated by all of the guests.

17 May 2012 MARKET-DAY PUBLICITYRAISING AWARNESS OF THE TARGET OVARIAN CANCER CAMPAIGN

The successful experience of setting up a stall on a market day in Richmond to raise awareness for specific programme action projects (see archived events for 2011) led to another highly successful aware-raising event, this time to raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer and its common symptoms.

The weather, as the photo shows, was very chilly but despite that many people of all ages came for information as well as curiosity including some who chose to talk about their own or their families’ relevant experiences.  Several hundred leaflets were distributed.

We are fortunate that the pitch for our market stall is highly visible to purposeful market shoppers and to interested visitors and sight seers.

 

31 March 2012 SHARING GOOD PRACTICE ON THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Richmond and Dales Club hosted a meeting at The Station, Richmond at which 16 Soroptimists representing five Clubs shared progress on their work concerned with the elimination of violence against women.  All five Clubs [Darlington; Durham; Harrogate & District; Richmond & Dales and York Ebor] are regularly involved in marking the Elimination of Violence Against Women day each November and the Anti-Slavery day each October.

A variety of on-going initiatives were explained and discussed including those concerned with working with Domestic Abuse Services; Supporting local refuges; Distribution of leaflets and ‘loves me, loves me not’ bookmarks; Raising awareness of the sexualisation of young girls, etc

Richmond & Dales’ highly successful, awareness-raising initiative led by Past President, Chris Bowran,  which entailed running a stall on one Saturday market-day in July and October last year was the vehicle for distributing many dozens of cotton bags containing leaflets and ‘freebies’.  No fewer than 400 ‘loves me, loves me not’ bookmarks were handed out in just one morning alone. As a direct result of the latter, the Hambleton & Richmondshire Domestic Abuse Forum arranged for 25,000 such bookmarks to be distributed to schools throughout North Yorkshire and it was agreed that our Club members will carry out a poster/leaflet campaign in the area every few months.

THREE CALL MY BLUFF EVENTS

Since June 2011 SI Richmond and Dales members have hosted three light-hearted Call My Bluff fund-raising events. The most recent one took place on 11 February in a local village hall when 50 people attended and joined in the revival of the well known panel game in which two teams vied to confuse and mislead each other in finding the correct definition of various amazingly obscure words.Two of our members, Angela Edwards and Carole leDuc showed their verbal skills in the winning team while the catering skills of several other members was demonstrated in a delightful light supper of home-made soup and bread, and tasty desserts.

The three evenings raised more than £1,000 to improve the lives and educational opportunities for  women and children in Zimbabwe; the money will be taken to Zimbabwe by the delegation of SI Yorkshire members when they travel there in August.

The photograph shows the two teams in action with question master, Roger Frier.

 

 

 A  VISIT TO WAKEFIELD’S CHANTRY CHAPEL & THE HEPWORTH GALLERY :  January  27th 2012

 Seven members of our Club joined more than 60 other Soroptimists from 10 other Yorkshire Clubs for a fascinating day in Wakefield.

The visit began with a tour of the 14th century Chantry Chapel on Wakefield Bridge. Massively restored in the last 160 years, it is one of only three such chapels remaining in England. Its ownership and use have moved from sacred to secular and back again; the chapel is currently used for monthly services organised by Wakefield Cathedral. The remainder of the visit was spent at the spacious Hepworth Gallery (pictured above) which was opened in July 2011.  Built beside the river Calder the Gallery displays sculptures, paintings and drawings by Barbara Hepworth and some of her contemporaries.

 

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