Some photos of our Very Special Celebrations………………………. [new_royalslider id=”2″]
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,
Members of SI Bournemouth were delighted to join the Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Derek Borthwick and the Mayoress, who hosted a buffet reception for recipients of the recent HM The Queen’s Honours. SI Bournemouth received the QAVS for their STEM Challenge project with Y8 & Y9 girls. It was a pleasure for members to meet other recipients and learn about their varied backgrounds – Lifesaving, Micronav- producing simulators for training air traffic controllers – and AFC Bournemouth team member, Jermain Defoe, who set up the Jermain Defoe Foundation initially to support homeless, vulnerable and abused children in his family’s home country of St Lucia and has now expanded support to surrounding Caribbean islands.
President Catherine Beal welcomed new member, Denise Wootten into the SI Bournemouth club family at their June meeting. It was a beautiful sunny evening and the tennis players were very active at West Hants Sports Club not to mention very supportive of England scoring and winning their first World Cup game! Denise was born in Antigua and Barbuda and has two children. She is Chairperson of the local charity ‘It’s All About Culture’ whose objectives are to bring diverse communities together. Denise said, “I am so pleased and really honoured that I am now a member of Soroptimist International”.
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
At the 2018 AGM outgoing President Shirley congratulated new Joint Presidents for 2018/19 Catherine Beal and Liz Dominey on taking up their new roles. One of the first jobs for Catherine and Liz was to present member Gloria Proops with a Certificate celebrating 40 years of Soroptimist International membership.
The STEM Challenge is now in its sixth year attracting more interest from the engineering world than previously. The challenge is for girls only in order to promote participation and raise aspirations in industries that young women often see as masculine and not for them. This year the prizes were presented to the winners by HM Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Mr.Angus Campbell and Mr Andy Duff, from Morgan Sindall Construction and Infrastructure. Year 8 LEW winners from St Peters School produced a face visor, hand sanitiser and water purifier to fight the Ebola virus in Guinea with production elements sourced locally. Year 8 Runners Up also from St Peters School produced a water tank for Tuvalu made of recycled water bottle bricks with filtration by using activated carbon charcoal made from coconut shell. Year 9 ACW winners from Ringwood School produced a flat
New Year! New member! President Shirley welcomed new member Alison Davis into the Bournemouth club family at their January meeting. Alison brings her experience of being a Justice of the Peace and a Counsellor and is keen to get involved in Programme Action, knowing it is at the heart of all we do.
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.
Members and guests enjoying our Christmas party at the end of a successful year of fundraising for our projects, volunteering in the local community, lobbying on the issues we are passionate about and welcoming brand new members. Here’s to an even better 2018 ! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
