Soroptimist International Bournemouth had a double celebration on the 15th September when they received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS) from The Lord Lieutenant of Dorset as well as observing the club’s 80th Anniversary. The club was honoured with the QAVS which is the nation’s highest award for exceptional voluntary service – the equivalent of an MBE – in recognition of their highly successful development of the STEM Challenge (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) for girls in local schools. Joint Presidents, Catherine Beal and Liz Dominey, on behalf of the club, received a signed certificate and an English Crystal with the QAVS logo insignia from the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Angus Campbell, who made the presentation on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen. The STEM challenge has been running since 2013 and encourages girls to challenge stereotypes and seek careers involving science, technology,

Soroptimist International of Bournemouth has been awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in the BirthdayHonours list announced on 2nd June 2018. HM The Queen created the awards in 2002 in celebration of her Golden Jubilee with the purpose of recognizing excellence in voluntary activities carried out by community groups. It is the equivalent of an MBE for volunteer groups. The notification of the Award stated that: “The work your group does for the community was very much admired by the independent Assessment Committee, chaired by Sir Martyn Lewis CBE and I am delighted to inform you that your group has been selected as a recipient for The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS) 2018. “The award of The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service 2018 represents a tremendous achievement for your organisation. We hope that everyone involved, and particularly your volunteers, feel immensely proud of

Congratulations to Helen Sharman on being awarded the CMG (Order of St Michael & St George) in the New Year’s Honours List “for services to science and technology educational outreach”. SI Bournemouth members greatly appreciated Helen’s support for the STEM Challenge and the encouraging message she sent to the participants. She received her OBE some years ago after she became the first Briton in space – technically not the first British astronaut, as it was a Soviet Union/British mission co-sponsored by British companies but not by the British government. We send her our good wishes for 2018.