Penny Bartlett, President of SI Southern Region shares a joke with Sylvia and Tina At the Regional Party at Conference.
Two of our members attended the Conference in the Sage at Gateshead. We met many friends, heard interesting speakers and also went to parties. Here are some of the things we did. The middle photo was taken at a Friendship Lunch hosted by Penrith. We were honoured to be gate crashed in the best possible way by Ann Garvie, President of Soroptimist International and Ulla Madsen, President of SI Europe who comes from Denmark. In the same photo is Jahane Gulshan from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bournemouth’s first marathon needed water points to refresh the weary runners. Here are some of our Club members and friends on a sunny Sunday morning in October at Water point No 1. The effort raised some funds for our charity Cementing Futures and helped advertise the cause to the runners.
Our 75th Anniversary Celebrations continued in September with a 1930s Dinner attended by members, guests and former Soroptimists., The period theme was enhanced by some special wardrobe effects. Our President, Kirsteen Harding is seen here with Jacquie Bachman who was inducted as a new member at this special event. Note the stylish fashion with both wearing elegant headgear. The speaker for the evening was Eileen Barker who told us of her 1930’s childhood in Bournemouth, giving a moving but humorous account of the poverty and hardships that many families experienced. As ever there were pleas for help- from Bobbie at “Waterpoint No 1” at the Bournemouth Marathon, and from Yvonne for us to buy tickets for the Fashion show in aid of Bournemouth Womens’ Refuge at The Hpuse of Fraser on September 26th. Liz Dominey gave us an update about the successful Dhaka Literary Projects
Our splendid 75th Celebratory lunch on 18th May, with presentations by the winning teams in our School Challenge reported on elsewhere has been a highlight of the project. We have received the good wishes and warm thanks from many who attended. The guest speaker Roma Agrawal, a Structural Engineer who worked on London’s Shard building has written ” It was a delight to see such driven women really making a difference in society and it was an honour to be part of that” Thank you Roma for the kind words.
Celebrations for our 75th year as a Club got underway at the Bournemouth International Centre on Saturday 18th May. A Reception attended by The Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Phil Stanley-Watts started an interesting event which included a talk by Roma Agrawal, Young Structural Engineers of 2011. Roma also presented Prizes to teams from Arnewood School and Bournemouth School For Girls.These were for our “Celebrating Science Competition” designed to encourage girls to take science subjects in their exams. Over 100 friends and supporters enjoyed the day which ended with a lunch
Kirsteen Harding is our new President for 2013/14 .Here she is with her chain of office receiving congratulations from Bobbie White.We celebrated after out AGM with a meal at the Belvedere, enjoying a sociable evening. Looking forwards to a wonderful year.
Eve Bonham, well known author, traveller and woman of many hobbies will be our speaker in May. She is also the organiser of Bournemouth’s Festival of Words, has lived in many different countries and sailed the world’s oceans. We are delighted to be able to welcome her on 20th May.
