The Christmas spirit came a little early this year as Cannock Soroptimists launched their ‘Give a Child a Book for Christmas’ campaign. In partnership with the fabulous Rotary Books4Home Charity they wanted to ensure that those children who would not otherwise own a book will have access to the joy of reading, especially at Christmas time. So, as they did earlier in the year, to coincide with half term, they launched an appeal for pre- loved books to be taken to four libraries in the area that kindly accepted them on their behalf. Again, the local community did not disappoint! An amazing 1,881 books were donated! These were taken to the Books4Homes charity where they will be distributed via schools to children in time for Christmas. It has also meant that these books will be loved again rather than thrown away This has taken the

UKPAC Blog re SPIKING : ORANGE THE DAY 25 October 2022 Definitions of drink and needle spiking (Home Affairs Committee Report, published April 2022: -Drink spiking is when someone puts drugs or alcohol into a person’s drink without their knowledge or consent. It can include putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink, adding extra alcohol to an alcoholic drink or slipping prescription or illegal drugs (such as tranquilisers, amphetamines or GHB – liquid ecstasy) into an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink.  It can be difficult to tell whether a drink has been spiked, as substances used for spiking usually have no taste, odour or colour. -Needle spiking is where someone surreptitiously  injects, with a hypodermic needle (or other form of administration e.g., combi-pen) a victim with a substance. There has been a prevalence of drink spiking in recent years, but needle spiking appears to be a new

This year promises to be a little different for Cannock Soroptimists – as they have not just one President but the whole club working together sharing the many roles of President to show that they really are “All in this Together!”.  They do have one person officially named as President – and that is Trish Smith, who brought the club through Covid lockdowns so successfully.  She is the point of contact but club members are taking on organising speakers and special events, leading meetings, coordinating events with other clubs, organising agendas – along with the other tasks of being President of such a busy, vibrant club. They are certainly building on last year under President Jackie, whose aim for every member of the club to be actively involved was realised meaning that everyone discovered new things they could do, so living up to her theme

Cannock Soroptimists are becoming known as the CAN DO club! Recently, their mother club SI Bilston put out a request for help in providing toys and games for Ukrainian child refugees.  They needed to fill 200 shoeboxes – no mean feat! Cannock club sprang into action! Members, their family, friends and neighbours began to deliver colouring books, notebooks, pens, pencils and crayons, all sorts of toys and games including balls, cars, lego, soft toys, skipping ropes, bubble packs and toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Cannock & Penkridge Libraries acted as collection hubs too and members of the public yet again demonstrated their kindness and generosity. Local shoe shops provided empty boxes and groups of Cannock Soroptimists met to fill them with the fabulous goodies. Members were themselves amazed when they filled 81 boxes!! These have now been collected by Bilston club and will soon be at a

April 2022 saw the AGM of an extremely successful year for Cannock Soroptimists under the leadership of President Jackie Prince.The year began with the 2021 AGM held on Zoom; gradually things changed and club members are now enjoying meeting together again at The Barns, Huntington. In her final address to the club as President, Jackie said there had been various things she had wanted to achieve in her year, the main one being to encourage everyone in the club to contribute in some way by the end of the year. Jackie had also wanted to introduce monthly wellbeing events with the help of her nominated charity Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles. As it was Soroptimist International’s Centenary Year there were a number of projects that the club focused on, the main ones were Planting 100 Trees, carrying out 100 Acts of Kindness and the Centenary Celebration. The

As her final task as President of SI Cannock & District, Jackie Prince was delighted to present a long service award to one of their club members. Trish Smith became a Soroptimist 20 years ago.  For many of those years she has lived for part of the year in South Africa but that has not stopped her from being an active supporter of the club’s work to educate, enable and empower women and girls.  Because she was in this country for just over 6 months of each year, she always felt it better that she didn’t take on an officer role though she took part in and led many projects both in Cannock and in areas near to Cape Town, providing opportunities for women and girls. Three years ago, Trish took on the role of Joint President which proved very successful and, in 2020 when

As her Presidency draws to an end, Jackie Prince held her final wellbeing event which was a coffee morning! As well as an opportunity to meet up, it was also a chance to say thank you to everyone at Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles [IHL] charity who had facilitated the monthly wellbeing events throughout the year. Many club members and their families were there, along with Lisa Shephard and Gez Hill from IHL – all thoroughly enjoying the chat, the fun, the coffee – and, of course, the wonderful cakes made by club members! There was a Bring and Buy Sale, with proceeds being donated to the charity; this will enable them to provide well-being sessions for other groups in the future. Club members also took along to the coffee morning items for Ukrainian children traumatised by the war: they are supporting their Mother Club, SI Bilston,

Cannock Soroptimists launched a campaign asking children in Rugeley, Hednesford, Burntwood, Cannock and Penkridge to donate pre-loved books for Books4Home, a Rotary project run by Beverley Ricketts to provide books to children who may not otherwise ever own a book; a project Soroptimists have supported for some time. President Jackie Prince set an ambitious target of 2,000 books, – if you aim for the moon, you’ll certainly catch a star!  Well – it seems they’ve entered a galaxy far, far away as the number of books donated by the most generous families is almost double that number!  And many who have donated along with the venues who accepted the donations have said that they would love to continue! The books have now been delivered to Beverley and she and her volunteers have begun to sort them ready for delivery to schools and groups in the

SI Cannock & District celebrated International Women’s Day by welcoming another two new members to the club. Elena Bratu and Marion Barnett were inducted by President Jackie Prince. Also present was Region President Judith Carder who had joined the club for the evening. Elena, from Romania said that she had contacted the club after moving to the area and was looking for a way of getting involved in her community whilst focusing on issues involving women and girls. She had been very impressed by the ethos of Soroptimist International and looked forward to being involved in many projects in the future. Marion had been a member of SI Cannock previously but had found that other commitments meant she couldn’t give the time needed to fully focus on being a Soroptimist. She now feels the time is right to do this and has already immersed herself