Cannock Soroptimists were delighted to welcome Jan Burns as their July speaker.  She gave the club fascinating insights into her long and varied career culminating in her ground breaking work at Drake Hall prison. Drake Hall is a closed prison near Eccleshall where 345 women are held. The prison holds both adult women and young offenders. Jan designed and initiated a pilot scheme designed to give the women involved confidence and to help them to move on to possibly gain employment in social care when they finish their sentence. She explained that many women in the prison had problems with low self-esteem, a number had little formal education while others had mental health issues, often stemming from their troubled backgrounds.  The women chosen to take part in the pilot all completed the course and all of them gained a formal qualification at the end. They

Cannock Soroptimists were greatly saddened recently when member Georgina Ward died after being ill for a little while. Georgina was 93 and a stalwart member of the Club, attending all meetings and events until very recently, always with a smile on her face and a joyful greeting to everyone. Georgina was always immaculate – described as looking as if she had just stepped out of a band box! She was one of the group known fondly as “The Gals” – and sadly, she was the last one with us, Dora Leighton and June Hardman having passed away within the last 18 months. Georgina was born in Cannock in October 1922, the second of six children born to Mr & Mrs Johnson. She began work at 16, at the haberdashers near to Taylors, and was married at 18. Her husband Stan was then conscripted, trained and

Cannock Soroptimists would like to thank all of those people who were so very generous with their donations of pre-loved bras, toiletries and teddy bears at St Luke’s Church Fayre. Soroptimists work in many ways to give service, raise funds and raise awareness about issues to enable, educate and empower women who find themselves in difficult situations. An on-going project for the club is to support Pathway, providing help and refuge to women victims of domestic violence. At their stall at the Church Fayre Soroptimists welcomed donations of toiletries, and other items essential to women, to be given to them at a time when they have nothing. President Carole Holdcroft was thrilled to be able to take a car boot full of goods to Pathway! These will be put to immediate use within the refuge. Soroptimists also continue to do work within the issue of

Cannock Soroptimists held a very successful Quiz night at the Barns recently, following on from their first quiz a year ago. The quiz was one of the events planned to raise funds for Pathway, the local project providing support and refuge to women victims of domestic violence. Club President, Carole Holdcroft, chose Pathway as her charity for the year having been involved with supporting them herself for over 20 years – the club has also supported for many years by providing toiletries, gifts for birthdays and Christmas and household goods for when the women are in a position to be re-housed. The quiz, organised by Soroptimist June Bould, this year attracted 18 teams – from Soroptimists, Rotarians, Hednesford Lions, 41 Club, and many other friends. Chris Wardle was quiz master – and in case of dispute – his answer was final!! All of the teams

Cannock Soroptimists held a very successful Feel Good Look Good event last Friday evening. Around 50 women went along and enjoyed talking to the many stall holders representing various organisations connected with women’s health, all concerned with helping women to feel better about themselves and with ways to look after themselves. President Carole Holdcroft welcomed everyone, including SI Midland Chase Region President Alison Green and Amanda Milling, MP for Cannock Chase. She also thanked Cannock Lions for sponsoring the event.  The first speaker was one of SI Cannock’s newer and younger members – Kate Young – who told the audience a little about herself, about Soroptimists and about her reasons, as a busy woman working full time, for joining the international organisation. She explained that it is the balance between working on projects which support those women less fortunate than us : whether involved in

At the first meeting of her year in office, President of Soroptimist International Cannock & District, Carole Holdcroft, had the pleasure of inducting new member Cheryl Turner. Cheryl is a local business woman, Director of her own company which manages social media for businesses as well as offering training for businesses on how to use social media as part of their marketing strategy.  She is very involved with WiRE [Women in Rural Enterprise] and is passionate about helping people and businesses to succeed. After being formally presented to the club by member Kate Young and receiving her Soroptimist International badge from President Carole, Cheryl said “I’m really looking forward to getting more involved with the projects, on a local, national and international scale, that Cannock Soroptimists are supporting, as well as getting to know a fabulous group of like-minded women”. Cheryl is already involving herself

Pre-owned Bras are needed! SI Cannock is continuing to work with the Purple Teardrop campaign to support women victims of trafficking.  When trafficked women have been rescued it is vital to enable them to start to earn a living and secure their place within the community and also minimise the risk of their being trafficked again. Soroptimists, through Purple Teardrop, are working to help women and girls in Mozambique, Uganda and El Salvador to start businesses selling used bras – bras are seen as a status symbol and sell for a good price in these countries. On Saturday July 2nd members of SI Cannock will be present at St Luke’s Church Fayre and will be accepting any donations of bras – which need to be in a reasonable and clean condition – to send on to help the women victims of trafficking start a new

The new President of Soroptimist International Cannock & District is Carole Holdcroft.   She was given the chain of office by out-going President Lynne Tuckley at the AGM held in April. In her final words to the Club Lynne reminded members of the highs and lows of the year: two of their much loved and well respected members had died, bringing sadness to the Club, but one member had married and others had become grand-parents, bringing much happiness.  She thanked everyone who had worked to make the year such a success and enable the club to send donations amounting to £1,200 to Cannock Friends of St Giles and to Pathway, the local project helping women victims of domestic violence, as well as the lobbying about trafficking and FGM and the service given to aid local groups.  She ended with her motto for the year: “Carpe Diem”

S I Cannock & District invite you to join them for A Tudor Day with Afternoon Tea at Tutbury Castle In aid of Pathway Project supporting women victims of domestic violence Sunday June 12th Castle gates open at 11.00am See & speak to Lesley Smith [curator]                                                                   and others  dressed in Tudor costume Listen to Tudor musicians Enjoy many more activities in the castle and the grounds Full afternoon tea with a glass of Pimms                                                          served in the marquee at 3.00pm Cost: £18.50 Tickets available from:        Trish Mellor – 07971 597406     trishmellor@yahoo.co.uk A raffle will be held in the afternoon

  Lilian Hyde has been a member of SI Cannock & District for 25 years and to mark the occasion she was presented with a long service certificate.  At the AGM, out-going   President Lynne Tuckley was pleased to acknowledge the years of service to Soroptimist International – and the Cannock & District club – that Lilian has given. Lilian has always been involved in many aspects of the Club’s work supporting women locally and throughout the world, joining others in raising awareness of many issues, in fund raising and providing support.  One of the things Lilian is particularly well known for in the Cannock club is the wonderful comfort bags she makes and helps to fill for the women victims of domestic violence who use the refuge provided locally by Pathway.  Many of the women enter the refuge with only the clothes they are wearing