SI Cannock & District held its AGM at The Barns on 14th April. The meeting marked the end of the club’s Diamond Anniversary year: the first meeting of interested women was held in July 1954 at the Gas Showrooms in Cannock and the Club was chartered at a formal event held at Eaton Lodge Hotel in Rugeley in February 1955. Dr Janis Lomas was the club’s President for this very special anniversary year and she reported on the successes and achievements of the year, thanking club members for their support. The year had seen some very special events: a visit from Mary, Queen of Scots [Lesley Smith, curator of Tutbury castle], two wonderful visits to Tutbury Castle; an afternoon tea and fashion cavalcade at Ingestre Hall; International Night with a speaker from Bletchley Park followed by a visit to Bletchley; Christmas celebrations at Trentham Gardens

Janis Lomas had a very enjoyable last task as President of SI Cannock & District at the end of their Diamond Anniversary year when she recognised the service given to the club by three of its members. Jill Gooch was presented with a certificate for 30 years of service to and membership of Soroptimist International, or SI as it is known. Jill was President of the club 1993 – 94 and again in 2003 – 04 and this year has been joint secretary and events organiser of the club. Georgina Ward and Dora Leighton were each presented with certificates marking Honorary membership – Georgina was made an Honorary member of the Club in this very special year, Dora has held Honorary membership for 9 years. They have both been President of the Club, have held many other offices and continue to support the Club’s aims

Dora Leighton is known to so many people in Cannock – as a dance teacher she taught many of them to dance. On April 3rd, Dora celebrated her 99th birthday. She has been a member of Soroptimist International [SI] of Cannock & District for 46 years, has served on many Committees and has held the office of President. She is still a keen member, attends most events, has an incredibly positive outlook on life and is ready with her point of view when required! President Janis Lomas and club members were keen to mark this special occasion: they did it by a surprise visit from many of them at Dora’s hairdressers!! Christine Smith-Toon, herself a member of SI Cannock and owner of Teddy’s hair salon in Cannock, has dressed Dora’s hair for many, many years and welcomed club members when they arrived with cake and

The last speaker meeting of their SI Cannock & District’s Diamond Anniversary year was held on St Patrick’s Day and members wore something green in recognition of that. At the meeting they celebrated the work they have done during the year to support Staffordshire Women’s Aid and the Pathway Project by inviting representatives of each organisation to update members and guests on the work they are doing and to present cheques from the monies raised during the year. Dickie James, CEO of Staffordshire Women’s Aid said that they work closely with Pathway, particularly in providing services for women and children in the Cannock area who need their support and that she was very aware of the synergy between themselves and Soroptimists – they, too, work as a sisterhood to empower women, to educate them and to enable them to achieve in this world. As a

On International Women’s Day Soroptimists all over the world continue to do all that they can to improve the lives of women – whether that be to provide them with education, with clean water, with skills to provide food for their family, to look after their health needs or to help them out of or avoid forced marriage, exploitation, trafficking or the ravages of FGM. Before that work can be done however, Soroptimists need to raise their own awareness and that is what Soroptimists within Midland Chase Region did on Saturday 7th March. The morning session was entitled Modern Day Slavery and Detective Constable Michelle Lane of the Sex Offences Team spoke about the things they face each and every day, of some of the difficulties of prosecuting the perpetrators and of the successes when women are taken from the life of slavery, drug abuse

During their Diamond Anniversary year Janis Lomas, President of SI Cannock & District has been looking at famous women throughout the last six decades and the role of women throughout that time. She continued the theme at their February business meeting when she considered the 80s – the decade of big hair and shoulder pads!, 1980 Lesley Abdela formed the 300 Group to push for equal representation of women in the House of Commons. 35 years later there are still only 142 women MPs elected; in 1981 Baroness Young became the first woman leader of the House of Lords though it appears she opposed most of the women’s rights legislation that was brought before the house. In 1982, 30,000 women gathered at Greenham Common Peace Camp – the camp remained open for 19 years during which time thousands of female protesters visited or lived in

SI Cannock &Districts glittering Diamond anniversary celebration at Rodbaston Hall was attended by 120 members, past members and friends including Soroptimists from other Clubs in the Midland Chase Region. The evening marked the 60th Anniversary of the Club’s charter which was presented at a dinner at Eaton Lodge Hotel, Rugeley on February 10th 1955. The theme of diamonds ran through all of the decorations and embellishments, guests made sure they wore something that glittered! President Dr Janis Lomas and club members were delighted to welcome everyone to this special event and were particularly pleased that so many Past Presidents were able to join them. Margaret Lyons, President 1984 – 1985 gave the toast to Soroptimist International Cannock & District, remembering with fondness members and activities of the past and telling current members of her pride in all of the work they are still carrying out,

Last Saturday members and friends of SI Cannock & District spent an afternoon at Tutbury Castle where they enjoyed lunch followed by a talk from Lesley Smith, Curator of the Castle. Lesley is an historian, specializing in Tudor history as well as other areas; she is also an excellent speaker. On this occasion Lesley wore a Tudor costume made of velvet and with embroidery detail which would have been worn by a woman of the middle class – the costume itself weighs around 3 and a half stone! – and she spoke with her wonderful enthusiasm and wit about the life of a Tudor Housewife. We learned that many marriages were arranged with the average of age for marriage being 22 or 23 for women and 25 or 26 for men. They would have many children, though the average number to survive would be 4.

SI Cannock & District member Jenny Holmes held a Friendship coffee morning with a Bring and Buy stall to raise funds for the Club’s chosen charities for this, their Diamond Anniversary year. Many club members and friends went along and as well as enjoying coffee and home made cakes and pastries they raised a little over £120.00 for the Pathway Project and Staffordshire Women’s Aid. This will be added to funds raised throughout the year and cheques will be presented nearer to the AGM in April. At the end of January some members will be spending time at South Staffordshire College, Cannock Campus to raise awareness about many issues which affect women and girls. Amongst the issues being raised will be Domestic Violence –there will be information available from both organisations mentioned above. They will also be highlighting the symptoms of endometriosis and will have