In November President Anne, Lucille, Julie, Sian and Olga attended SIGBI Federation Conference in Glasgow. The speakers were inspirational and for those of you who were unable to attend, the Soroptimist News Magazine will give you a flavour of what you missed. HRH Princess Anne attended her first SIGBI Conference and joined members for the morning panel session led by Dr. Joan Smyth, CBE, former SIGBI President.

At our meeting on 1 December we had a very busy ‘Programme Action’ evening preparing for Christmas. Parcels were wrapped for ladies at the Women’s Refuge and Women’s Outreach; Tombola prizes wrapped ready for our event at Ysbyty Gwynedd and all our ‘pennies’ and 5ps’ counted for our charities. A very busy evening and thanks to all our members for all their hard word.

A lovely evening was held at Y Teras Restaurant, Bangor University on 17th December for our annual Christmas Dinner. Good food, good wine and good company!    

President Anne presented Laura, a Care Worker with Action for Children Young Carers a cheque in the sum of £1,116.73 following fundraising events by SI Bangor. A fantastic sum to help fund outings and provide respite for young carers in the area.

SI Bangor had a stall selling gifts at the Hospital recently and made £214.63 for our charities. Thanks to all who gave up their time to help out.

Confucious Institute Staff and students from the Confucious Institute at Bangor University entertained us with traditional Chinese dance and music and also held a workshop on the art of paper cutting. We had a wonderful evening in the company of these young people. The dancing by Yuan Liu, a student at the Beijing Dance Academy was enchanting, and this was followed by a performance by Qianyan Zhou on the ‘Erhu’, a two-stringed instrument which was truly amazing. Many thanks to Vikki and Emily, The Cricket Pavilion at Bangor Cricket Club who provided the delicious refreshments.  

A very successful charity evening in aid of Young Carers was held at the home of Jenny Watkin Jones on 23rd July in aid of Young Carers . Members and guests enjoyed a glass of wine and a lovely buffet prepared by Jenny, Vicki and Pam.  Very many thanks to Jenny for hosting this event and allowing us to enjoy the beautiful gardens and surroundings. A sum of £902.10 was raised to provide a special outing for the Young Carers in our community.

A Strawberry Tea was held at Vicki Williams’ house, Four Mile Bridge again this year in aid of Ty Gobaith and Breast Cancer Care Wales.  An amazing £3,300 was raised and many thanks to Vicki and all who helped to make it such a successful and lovely day.

Members of SI Bangor & District, together with visiting Presidents and club members enjoyed their 67th Charter Luncheon at Seiont Manor, Llanrug on Sunday 21st June.  A very warm welcome was extended to all our guests by President Anne. Our guest speaker was Mr. Ian Mackenzie, from ‘Teams for You’.

SI Bangor have been saving ‘brown money’ for a Water project for the last three years and at last had enough money to send to Cambodian Child’s Dream Organization for a well.  We recently received thanks and photos from the people who have benefited:-