‘Bangor and District Soroptimists marked World Fair Trade Day with information on the benefits to producers when we buy Fair Trade goods. Member Andy Hawkins arranged a stall selling a range of Fair Trade drinks and food. Tea, coffee and chocolate were best sellers with over £70 worth of sales! Members also had the opportunity to order Traidcraft goods which support fighting poverty through trade. The same evening we enjoyed a fabùlous presentation from multi Chelsea Show gold award winning local vegetable grower Mr Medwyn Williams

The AGM, held on 4th April at the Cricket Pavilion, Bangor celebrated the highlights of service and fundraising which had been undertaken during the year of Olga Evison’s presidency.  These included supporting North Wales Society for the Blind, Ogwen Mountain Rescue, Ty Gobaith, Mary’s Meals, Itala project, Alzheimer’s Association, Cambodian well project, Breast Cancer as well as many others with a wide range of events and activities. Gwen Ellis Jones became the President for 2017/18 and named her President’s charities as Bangor Samaritans and Gista, whilst also continuing ongoing support for many other local, national and international causes and charitable work.

We recently enjoyed a friendship evening on a St David’s Day theme, with homemade soup and cake shared with members of other local clubs from Anglesey and South Caernarfon. We were beautifully entertained by club member Alecs Peate on her classical harp playing a medley of Welsh Folk dance tunes. Members supported a raffle which included gifts of sensory cushions to local dementia care homes.

On Wednesday March 8th Sian, Lin, Gwen and President Olga met members of SI Anglesey to walk over Menai Bridge for International Women’s Day and raise awareness of the Purple Teardrop Stop Trafficking campaign.

At our February 2017 Regional meeting Members of SI Llandudno kindly donated knitted vests for the Itala project.

President Olga and Sian delivered over 40 Christmas packs for homeless people visiting the hostel over Christmas and the New Year.  Each pack contained a hat, scarf, gloves, socks and a bar of chocolate.   Hopefully the Christmas parcels brought a little cheer to those visiting the hostel over the festive season. Christmas gifts were wrapped for all the mums at the Women’s Refuge in Bangor and also Christmas parcels were put together for the 10 families in the Women’s Outreach project. A lovely Christmas Hamper was delivered to Abbeyfield House, a Home for the Elderly in Bangor.  They were delighted and thank you to members for your generous donations.

We had a very busy and productive evening at our PA meeting at the beginning of December. Brown and silver coins saved by members over the year came to an amazing total of £297.87. Some of the money will go towards a Cambodian Well so another family will benefit from this worthwhile project improving lives and reducing illness.  Some money was for Carers Outreach and the remainder will go towards one of our other charities.   We also packed parcels for Women’s Refuge and their Outreach project; prepared Christmas packs for the homeless; collected thirty five backpacks for Mary’s Meals to be sent overseas for under privileged children and, lastly, prepared the Tombola for our stall at Ysbyty Gwynedd.  Thank you everybody for your help and commitment.

Margaret Emsley, SIGBI President is photographed giving the Best Practice Award for Education to Sian Kent SI Bangor, at the SIGBI Conference in Malta November 2016. The award is for the work carried out at the Itala Community School, Mkushi, Zambia. The school provides a free education for the poor and disadvantaged children and orphans of the community. Members of SI Bangor have supported Itala School for the past ten years which has made a huge impact on the community in Mkushi.

At the beginning of November SI Bangor helped with the setting up of a ‘pop-up’ charity shop in Bangor in aid of the North Wales Society for the Blind.  We manned the shop for nearly two weeks and a fantastic sum of £2,500 was raised for this worthwhile charity.  Thanks to all the members who donated clothing, gifts, etc and also to those who gave up their time and helped assist in the shop.