Members of SI of Cannock were greatly saddened when member of 32 years Doreen Smith died suddenly following a stroke. Doreen was born and brought up in Great Wyrley; the Methodist church was central to the life of her family and that is where she met her husband Gordon and also where she made some of her lifelong friends.  Gordon and Doreen moved to Cannock where their two daughters were born.   Doreen then trained as a mature student to be a teacher, she taught for many years at Glenthorne Primary School where she was much loved – many past pupils continued to keep in touch with her. In January 1984 Doreen joined Soroptimist International, Cannock & District and made many more lasting friendships there; in 2014 she was presented with a certificate to mark 30 years of membership and service.  She was always a quiet lady,

 Cannock Soroptimists will be running a market stall in Cannock Town Centre on Friday 9th September to raise awareness of and funds for their Federation three year project, the Meru Women’s Garden Project. The aim of the project is to educate, enable and empower women in Meru County, Kenya by providing sustainable gardening techniques and tools, enabling women to become pioneers of agricultural sustainability within the community. Girls will also be educated about their rights, empowering them to stand up to damaging cultural practices like female genital mutilation [FGM].  By providing economic opportunities to women and girls, the project will achieve long term change by strengthening entire communities, so improving the lives and opportunities for generations to come. Cannock Soroptimists will be selling produce from their gardens as well as many craft items they have made.  Members had a very enjoyable morning making lavender bags,

It will soon be International Literacy Day and to mark that occasion Cannock Soroptimists invited Beverley Ricketts to their meeting to explain Books4Home, an initiative Beverley has set up with Rotarians in the area.  President Carole Holdcroft introduced Beverley as an amazing and inspirational person, known to her personally and to many other club members for many years. Beverley began by asking members if they had a favourite book from childhood – everyone had!  Most went on to say that they had read and re-read the book, for themselves, to their own children and to their grandchildren, showing that a love of books and reading lasts forever; part of that love comes from actually handling the book, turning its pages and owning it. Beverley gave the astonishing fact that in England only one in 3 girls and only one in every 4 boys actually have

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