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.

Bangor Soroptimists had a very interesting time visiting Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue at their base in Capel Curig on 20th September. OVMRO continues to be one of the busiest Mountain Rescue Teams in the country assisting the Police and Ambulance authorities with rough terrain search and rescue in Northern Snowdonia. Its members are on stand-by 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year; giving their time for free to assist fellow users of the great outdoors who have come to grief. President Olga was pleased to present them with a cheque for £2,500 to help them continue their valuable work.

We have had two very successful stalls selling clothing and gifts at Ysbyty Gwynedd recently raising £385 for our local charities.  Many thanks to all members who helped with the events  in July and September. We also presented a cheque to Ty Gobaith for £2,500 after some successful fund raising and on Friday October 7th we were in Marks and Spencers with a bucket collection for the North Wales Society for the Blind which raised £337.

Vanessa Field from Bangor was our guest speaker recently and her talk on Medical Alert Assistance Dogs was extremely fascinating.  Dogs are trained to help people with life-threatening health conditions, giving them greater independence and above all saving their lives on a daily basis. The dogs are taught to identify the odour changes that are associated with life-threatening medical events. Currently the majority of Medical Alert Assistance dogs work with people with diabetes. Medical Detection Dogs uses the amazing power of the dogs’ nose to detect human diseases.  Research is based on the dogs’ ability to detect minute odour traces created by diseases.  For further information on SI Bangor please contact our Secretary Vikki Williams – vikkijwilliams@gmail.com

A ‘Summer Supper’ was held at the home of Jenny Watkin Jones on 7th September in aid of Ogwen Mountain Rescue.  Members and friends enjoyed a delicious buffet and desserts prepared by Jenny, Vicki and Pam.  An evening of fun, friendship and a lot of laughter was enjoyed by everyone.  Many thanks Jenny, Vicki and Pam – we had a wonderful evening.