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,

    Laura and Kat introduced us to the amazing work Bottle Yard Studios have been doing to encourage filming and economic growth in Bristol.   Their recent expansions along with the current economic climate have boosted the industry exponentially. They were particularly proud of supporting the South Bristol Skills Training Programme lead by UNESCO which will allow young people to develop soft skills and more targeted skills giving them more opportunities in the future. As the only filming complex in the South West we are sure we will see them accomplish even more over the coming years.  Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and talk to us.

On Monday 11th July, our speaker unfortunately couldn’t make it, so we used this time to speak about the recent SIGBI AGM.  It was lovely to hear about the work that is continuing after previous SIGBI Presidents finish their term. We also enjoyed a quiz put together by one of our members, where we were given pictures of famous faces and we needed to guess their names. We all quickly realised we were able to recall why they were famous and what they did, we just struggled on some of their names! But it was all good fun!  Thank you, Susan W, for organising this and Linda for taking it forward.

At our Speaker meeting on 13th June we were treated to a very good talk by Matthew Bennett, Headmaster of Clifton High School. Matthew spoke with enthusiasm about the school, its pupils and staff and laid out the challenges facing all schools after the pandemic. His talk was most interesting, as he took several pieces from Eleanor Addison Phillips’ book written in 1920 when she was Headmistress of Clifton High and compared them to issues happening today. It was extraordinary to hear how many considerations and challenges then are the same in the present day. It was at the time when Eleanor Addison Phillips was Headmistress there in 1920 that she became the founder and first President of Soroptimist International of Bristol, initially named Bristol Venture Club, at the suggestion of Bristol Rotary Club. Soroptimist Bristol, Clifton High School and Rotary joined together to install

On Monday 11th April, Clemi from Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) introduced us to all of the amazing work done by the whole team. CHSW came from the dream of a couple to ensure that no family has to travel more than 90 minutes by car to reach their nearest children’s hospice. Their facilities include music therapy, hydrotherapy and much more for children with life-limiting conditions. They also provide activities and one-to-one therapy for the siblings as well as opportunities for the parents to gain some well-needed respite. Soroptimist International of Bristol looks forward to supporting the hospice in the future.

Kay started attention and said that happy, cheerful people live 7 years longer which made us all smile! She then went on to tell us about the services they  provide and about the services they are about to start. Information & Advice service:  providing information and advice on a wide range of finance, housing and social care matters.  We are also currently supporting older prisoners in Horfield prison. Community Services:  these are our charged for services and include the New Beginnings day centre in Withywood, our Home Support service and Memory Connections which is a cognitive stimulation therapy service for people with mild-moderate dementia and is aimed at delaying memory loss. LinkAge:  this is a service aimed at improving people’s access to activities and events.  It is LinkAge that organise tai chi, art on Zoom, FAB cafes and discos, befriending and peer support and the

  The talk reviewed a number of festivals, revealing that prehistorically they were based on survival, farming and nature. Later they were based on religion and Christianity and more recently focused on community, human life and family, of which Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day were given as examples.     While the origin of ‘Valentine’ is not known, Chaucer recorded that 14th February was the day birds chose their mate. Initially, recipients were loved ones but also could be by pulling a name or even the first person they met on that morning! By the 18th century the favoured token was a letter or card.  In the 1840s, commercial cards became available. By 1914, after cards had become increasingly rude, the practice nearly faded out. In the 1950s, the sending of cards to a loved one on Valentine’s Day was reintroduced by the USA.  Interestingly 15th

On 10th January 2022, we commenced the year with a talk by John Hurst, the current President of the Rotary Club of Bristol. He gave an overview of his work in Bristol and goals for Rotary. John arrived in Bristol in 1997 with the remit “not to let Broadmead die due to Cribbs Shopping Mall opening in 1998”. He was instrumental in securing £65 million to develop Cabot Circus and was involved in ‘Destination Bristol’, which developed into ‘Visit West’. Along with other public figures, John’s house and cars were vandalised. The Rotary Club of Bristol currently has 51 members with an average age of 71 years. Like many other organisations, Rotary is finding it hard to recruit new members and to motivate existing members to take office and work enthusiastically. They are considering a Club for younger people with a different format – maybe

Sir Peter first described the definition of funny “Funny Medical and Nursing staff and what people get up to”.  He asked “does medicine need to be funny”?  He showed photographs of St Bartholomew’s Hospital London where he trained and photographs of the Professors who taught him.  He told us how they used rhymes to remember things such as parts of the anatomy and described how different from now it was then on the wards at Christmas and the fun they had carving the turkey.  He also described the fun they had with eminent people. He said it was important to have something to keep up the morale of staff when disasters happened such as the bombings of Old Bailey and Tower of London.  There were lots of anecdotes about how things were done and the fun they had too.  He also showed letters sent to

  Lori started by telling us that the Bristol Blue Plaque scheme was originally run by Bristol City Council but is now organised by the Bristol Civic Society.          The request for a plaque is put forward and the Society then researches the person to ensure that they are connected to the building and that their achievements warrant a plaque.  Sometimes they are people who have a low profile but have done amazing things.  The plaque is funded by the nominee and has to be approved through planning applications. There are plaques to individual women and sometimes more than one on the same plaque, Lori spoke of some women that we are familiar with and many more.  She showed us the plaque dedicated in July 2021, as part of our Centenary celebrations, to our very own Addison-Phillips.  She said “a plaque to