On Tuesday 10th May I had the privilege of attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace. I had been invited to represent SI Bristol with Jo Davies from Special Friends Club (our charity last year when I was President) and our husbands. We queued outside the front entrance and, when the front gates opened, we walked through the entrance hall of the Palace along the red carpet and entered the gardens. Tea was served from a marquee, cucumber and mint sandwiches, of course!, and dainty cakes and scones and cream. Shortly before 4 pm the Yeoman of the guard organised the crowd so that there were clear lines for the Queen and Prince Philip to walk along. The Queen stopped about ten feet away from us to talk to someone and we had a good view in spite of the umbrellas. We were delighted to

Andrea Ryan is presented with her award for 35 years as a Soroptomist at one of the clubs regular lunches for retired and current members.  Many thanks to Susan Greenwood for organising these lovely occasions.

Bristol Soroptimists celebrated its 96th charter (10th May) last evening by welcoming its youngest member to the club. Megan Grace with her mother Laura and husband Rowan attended her first meeting and enjoyed all the attention she received. President Pauline said she was delighted to welcome such a young member to the club especially on this occasion when it was celebrating its 96th year.  

On the afternoon of December 8th Gish Hobbs and Denise Matthews visited Eden House to oversee a Christmas themed craft session. We had prepared a variety of activities including card making, a table decoration using fresh foliage, and a handmade tree decoration which involved a lot of glueing. We provided all the necessary materials and some simple advice on methods. Eight ladies attended ( as well as a member of Eden House staff) and all showed enthusiasm and interest in the ideas we presented.Most of the ladies completed two activities, seemed pleased with their efforts and in some cases showed remarkable ingenuity in problem solving ways of making the tree decorations stick together! There was constant conversation amongst everyone during the couple of hours we were there and it was generally an enjoyable afternoon.

July saw the return of Sylva Von Bomsdorff for a short holiday from her home in Peru and we were delighted to hear news of the latest happenings at her small School in Lima. Due to the fact that Lima has been experiencing an unusual level of heavy, fine rain which the original flat roof was not designed to manage, it has been necessary to improve the slope and drainage for the roof, something outside their planned budget. However, a small increase to the salary has enabled the School to continue to employ the dedicated teaching team and pupil levels are almost at the maximum for the classrooms available, although only around 30% are able to pay their full fees. Income continues to be juggled by Sylva and her team to ensure education is available wherever possible for those with little income. An additional expense