Eileen Watson held a social evening at her home in aid of our Soroptimist Charities. We were treated to some lovely food with a Continental feel. We also enjoyed the customary sweets and cakes. The highlight of the evening was a demonstration by one of our members. Evelyn Bridge, on the stylish tying of scarves. She showed us a range of ways to try a scarf, some extremely complicated but most of us learned how to tie the more simple ways. As usual there were some very funny moments and it was a most enjoyable evening which raised over £200    

Members of SI Bolton decided to celebrate the Queen’s birthday by collecting 90 silver coins to donate to one of the charities of which she is Patron. At a recent coffee morning at the home of Vera Whittaker, the club got together to display the bags of coins. Members collected a total of £120 which will go to Christie’s Hospital.

Membership Evening Soroptimist International of Bolton held a Membership Event at Heaton Cricket Club on Tuesday the 10th of May.  The Event was organised by the Club to answer the question, “Ask me why I’m a Soroptimist”.  Twenty-one visitors attended the informal Event and we were delighted to welcome each one of them. Jackie Roberts, the Club Treasurer, gave a brief presentation designed to answer the question and our visitors said afterwards that they had learned so much about the Soroptimist organisation in general and the work of the Bolton Soroptimists. The buffet supper was enjoyed by all and there was plenty of talking and interest expressed in the Club. Hopefully, lots of friends made too! Thanks to Membership Officer Pat  for her support and to Angela Kelly who has helped to publicise SI Bolton’s work over the years.  

SI Bolton’s Christmas Tree – Street Angels Once again Birtenshaw Methodist Church, Bromley Cross held its annual Christmas Tree Festival.   This year SI Bolton raised awareness of the work of the “Street Angels” by decorating a tree with paper angels and words from Christmas Carols with Angels in the title. Bolton’s Street Angels have been supported by SI Bolton for at least two years now with many fund raising events including the monthly Coffee Club. The Street Angels provide a safe and welcoming “refuge” for those revellers in our town who need a kind word or a helping hand when something goes wrong on a night out. The church was aglow with 31 trees which were dressed by local schools, businesses and friends of the church. There is always a competition for the most popular tree and this year it was won by St

July 12th was the date chosen for our Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication to Soroptimism, attended by members and friends. The venue was the newly built Triangle Church and the Reverend Hilary Howarth led the service.  We were fortunate enough to have a sunny afternoon  showing off the beautiful stained glass window to maximum effect. The service included hymns, prayers, readings and a talk by The Reverend Hilary Howarth as well as the Act of Rededication followed by a wonderful selection of cakes to enjoy with our tea and coffee. Thanks must go to Jean Mort for the preparation of the service sheets,  Cynthia Schofield for playing the organ and the Reverend Hilary for her talk and, of course, to everyone who attended. The retiring collection was shared between the Triangle Church and our club charities.

                                        Sightsavers Coming from a family of optometrists, Gwyneth Millard is an enthusiastic advocate for Sightsavers. The founder, John Wilson, was blinded in a school laboratory accident, studied law at Oxford and then dedicated his life to helping other blind people. He was a Desert Island Discs castaway and the programme is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093qm9 Reading Braille entails recognising 25 dot patterns a second. During WW2 John Wilson realised that to have such sensitive fingers is a valuable skill. He obtained work for blind people in a munitions factory – and wastage on that process was reduced by 50%. The charity’s aim is that no one should be blind from preventable causes. Gwyneth gave us statistics but relied on her stories to touch our hearts; there are 34 million blind people in the world, 80% of whom are in the developing countries [27,200,000].   80% of

  This year our service of Rededication and Thanksgiving was held once again at Barrowbridge Mission Bolton.  It was a glorious day and a lovely service was enjoyed by all. The service was led by the Reverend Alan Saunders whose inspiring talk urged each one of us to be positive and to support each other in our efforts to support the local commumity and our international commitments.  All this with much humour! We were welcomed by President Frankie Hahlo and the lesson from Hebrews 10 19-35 on which the Reverend Alan Saunders’ talk was based, was read by Mrs. Jennifer Hindshaw, President Elect of SI Bolton.  We were led in prayers by Miss Jean Mort. After the service we met in the church hall for tea and scrumptious cakes made by our members.

Our Service of Rededication and Thanksgiving took place on the 30th of June at Barrow Bridge Mission, Bolton. The service was conducted by the Reverend Paul Hardingham we were joined by fellow Soroptimists from Leigh and Liverpool. After the service, Val took a group of us on an informative tour of Barrowbridge and then we retired to the mission hall for a superb tea prepared by our President , Cynthia and Val.