Skip links

International Women’s Day 2023

International Women’s Day 2023

in

  SI Bristol again and many other organisations joined Bristol Women’s Voice organised an event in Bristol City Hall on Saturday 11th March to celebrate International Women’s.   There was considerable interest in our Soroptimist display – especially regarding what the name actually meant!  An event which allowed us to network with the other organisations.  

A Celebration of Lovely Lynn’s Life

A Celebration of Lovely Lynn’s Life

in

  President Helen, Lizzie, Liz, Lucy, Marion and Sue P were privileged to be able to enjoy an amazing afternoon celebrating lovely (as she has become to be known) Lynn’s life.  Yuko our friendship link from Japan was in our minds too. I am sure Lynn will be looking down on us and smiling and we expect she had a bite of the cream tea too.  What lovely memories and the theme running though all our memories was love and generosity.  Lynn died on 31st March 2020 during Covid three years ago and we were unable to celebrate then due to Covid restrictions.  There were lots of memories of Lynn and we shared some memories too. Helen started by sharing some personal memories and then said on behalf of the club: ‘I am, I can, I ought, I will’ Lynn joined SI Bristol on the 2nd

A Visit to: Wessex Water’s Sewage Treatment Works Weston-super-Mare.

A Visit to: Wessex Water’s Sewage Treatment Works Weston-super-Mare.

in

    A visit to Wessex Water’s sewage treatment works site at Weston-super-Mare. The 22nd of March was World Water Day and it is therefore an appropriate time to talk about the visit our club made to Weston-super-Mare yesterday. Water pollution is one of our club’s Programme Action projects, focusing on sustainable goals SG6 (clean water & sanitation), SG3 (good health and well-being), SG4 (education) and SG5 (gender equality). So on Tuesday 21st March 2023 seven members of Soroptimist Bristol were expertly guided by Sue Goodland around Wessex Water’s sewage treatment works site at Weston-super-Mare. This visit was part one of two, with Avonmouth’s treatment visit planned for June this year, We learned what happens on the journey of our waste through several natural processes, resulting in clear and clean enough water to be returned to the environment, and the recycling of the by-products of

Speaker Meeting Monday 13th February 2023: Gary Best, Historian – Slavery in Bristol

Speaker Meeting Monday 13th February 2023: Gary Best, Historian – Slavery in Bristol

in

  Gary started by telling us that his talk would be a brief outline of slavery in Bristol and Bristol’s involvement.      He said that all ancient civilizations had slaves and quoted the Bible on a number of occasions saying that it was pro-slavery and that slaves should be treated better.  Eventually slavery started to die out because it was said that if you were a Christian you could not have a slave. In the 15th Century John Cabot, encouraged by Henry 8th, was Bristol’s the first link to the slave trade.  John’s son Sebastian Cabot was a slave trader, at first only one or two people wanted to get involved then many more as they realised that amount of money it would attract.  Bristol’s involvement started with the sugar trade where they relied on the use of African slaves.  Due to the civil

Annual visit to Number 63 Bayswater Road London – 9th February 2023

Annual visit to Number 63 Bayswater Road London – 9th February 2023

in

  This year 17 of us including Soroptimisters came to our annual to visit London and stayed at our very own Soroptimist boutique hotel.    On the first night we all gathered at our usual lovely Italian restaurant Taormina near the hotel and on the Friday night we all went to the Phoenix Theatre and enjoyed the hilarious comedy “Noises Off”.  During the day we made our own arrangements and as usual visited museums, art galleries, many other historic places and organised London walks.  Hyde Park is just a step away and we took advantage of the lovely weather and walked in the park too Many  thanks to Ruth and Pauline for making it happen.

Speaker Meeting Monday 9th January 2023: Andy Fraser of Bristol Community Magazines Ltd on “Being a Publisher”

Speaker Meeting Monday 9th January 2023: Andy Fraser of Bristol Community Magazines Ltd on “Being a Publisher”

in

Andy started by covering the last 40 years of his life.  At the age of 16 he had career guidance, and it was suggested that he may like to become a journalist.  26 years later he is now doing media work as a publisher, publishing 2500 magazines per month.     There then followed a resume of his career and life. In 2006 he was made redundant and reached for a magazine “Prima” and he bought the rights.  He then bought BS9 and 17 years on it is still going strong.  He showed us copies of the original BS9 and the current version. After running BS9 for a few years he bought BS6 and BS8 which he then merged. BS9 is a monthly magazine on a four-week cycle and a Welsh company does the print run as there are only a few companies with the

Railing Against Abuse 25th November 2022

Railing Against Abuse 25th November 2022

in

On Friday 25th November SI Weston-super-Mare yet again organised the “Railing Against Abuse” event to raise awareness and support the United Nations (UN) Day for “the Elimination of Violence Against Women”.   Seven members from SI Bristol and Soroptimists from throughout the southwest (Bath, Bristol, Plymouth, St Austell and Tiverton) travelled by train (“railing”) to join this annual event. Most wore distinctive orange clothing because that is the colour designated by the UN for that day. The group walked in an orderly fashion from the train station to Grove Park. Many carried banners highlighting abuse against women. As they walked, they handed out “Loves me /Loves me not” bookmarks to members of the public. This publicity material pointed out in clear and simple terms the difference between a good relationship and a bad one. The group included other interested people and there were over seventy

Friendship Link: A Warm Welcome to Yuko who visits us from Japan

Friendship Link: A Warm Welcome to Yuko who visits us from Japan

in

On Saturday 19th November President Helen, Sue P, Marion, Maureen, Liz N. Ruth and Lizzie were delighted to meet up with Yuko who is a member of our Friendship Link from SI Aquamarine Kure near Hiroshima, Japan. This is the fourth time she has visited our club and, on this occasion, we met at Browns for lunch.  We exchanged gifts and presented her with our Centenary Book signed by all the club members.  She told us about her new job “Dyslexia School Search” where she assists in placing children in schools in the UK (for more information visit www.worldlinkyou.net) We had a really lovely time catching up and Yuko who said “It is great to be back in Bristol meeting up with friends.  The pandemic kept us apart and it is with sadness that I remember our dear friend Lynn who is no longer with

Speaker Meeting Monday 14th November 2022:  Bruce Simmonds – the Lord Mayor of Bristol’s Children Appeal

Speaker Meeting Monday 14th November 2022:  Bruce Simmonds – the Lord Mayor of Bristol’s Children Appeal

in

  We were pleased to welcome Bruce Simmonds at our club’s Speaker Meeting on Monday 14th November.  Bruce was representing the Lord Mayor of Bristol’s Children Appeal. He appraised us of the incredible work the charity has done for the last 100 years (since 1921) raising funds to help disadvantaged children in Bristol with vouchers – one £20 voucher for food and one £20 voucher for clothing or a toy per child. The Lord Mayor’s Fund was started initially with the aim of providing a Christmas dinner and boots for the deprived children of the city. Today the appeal helps 1,650 children (under 16 or under 18 if they have a disability) every year, so their target is to raise £66,000 which is no mean feat! The children are nominated by health visitors, doctors and teachers, and approved by The Bristol City Council People Directorate,

Regional Meeting on 12th November 2022

Regional Meeting on 12th November 2022

in

  As a fairly new member of the Bristol Soroptimists, I attended a Regional meeting on Saturday for the first time.      It was being held in a new venue and my co-travellers and I had an interesting car journey on our way and must confess we did get a little lost. The new venue is really light and airy and the whole experience was truly lovely, especially meeting other groups within the region from as far away as St. Austell. The reports from the speakers were a real eye-opener regarding modern day slavery in the UK. The morning speakers were from the Medaille Trust telling us about the “Moving on Project” which provides women and their children with help and support if they have been affected by human trafficking and modern slavery.    The “icing on the cake” was the Club Star Project Presentations