Cannock Soroptimists celebrated their 59 years as a Club at their Annual Dinner which was held at The Barns on February 7th. Team President Sue Gay took the chair and gave a warm welcome to 76 Soroptimists and guests.  Mistress of Ceremonies was Team President Pam McGauley, who entertained everyone throughout with her lovely wit and humour.      Alan Holdcroft, President of the Rotary Club of Cannock, was unable to be present at the event due to illness but he still sent his message on behalf of himself and the Rotary Club. It was read on his behalf by Rotarian Peter Gay, Past District Governor   and husband of SI Cannock Team President Sue. In the toast to Soroptimist International, Alan, via Peter, commended the organisation for their work giving help and hope to women and children all over the world.  Edna Schafer-Hughes, President of Midland Chase

Cannock Soroptimists held a successful, fun, quiz night at The Barns, Huntington to start off the new year. 64 people tested their knowledge answering questions set by quiz master Chris Wardle, enjoying a hot supper during the interval.  A raffle was held with prizes donated by club members, and the proceeds of the evening – just over £200 – will go towards the Soroptimist BIG project.  The BIG project –Birthing in the Gambia – is in its final year of fundraising and Soroptimists all over the UK will be giving the project a final push over the next few months. The quiz was won by a team of 4 lady magistrates from Stafford and they each won a bottle of wine. The Cannock club is making final preparations for its 60th year, when Diamond Celebrations will be held throughout the year which begins in April.

Team President Ronnie Reynolds welcomed Members of SI Cannock & District and their guests to the Christmas Celebration held at the Barns, Cannock. Everyone enjoyed an excellent meal which was followed by entertainment from Brian T Williams: comedy, guitar and one man band! In between his songs he brought laughter – and some groans – with his humour and a skiffle band made up of willing volunteers proved great fun. During the evening a fabulous Christmas Hamper was raffled.  The Hamper was donated by Barry Picken, Governor of Rotary District 1210.  Earlier this year Barry attended presentations given by SI Cannock on trafficking and child sexual exploitation. He was so impressed by the work of the Soroptimist club that he decided to focus on the issue at his District Conference held in October of this year, raising awareness with Rotarians at over 50 clubs.  As

SI Cannock and District’s latest speaker was Kara Bird who works as an embalmer within the Co-operative Funeral profession.  She was introduced by team President Lakhwinder Thompson and, despite this being a possibly difficult subject, gave an interesting and at times amusing talk.  Kara has worked in the profession for 20 years and explained that the most rewarding part of the job for her is the reconstructive work she undertakes, thus giving comfort to the bereaved when they see their loved ones at peace.  She told club members that she has done reconstruction work with soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan and that a team of embalmers are set to fly out to the Philippines to work in the disaster areas.  Kara feels it is important that work such as hers is ‘de-mystified’ so that it is not seen as something to be frightened of

SI Cannock and District held their annual International Evening to coincide with United Nations day recently.  Team President Lakhwinder Thompson welcomed almost 80 Soroptimists and guests, some from other clubs, who enjoyed a meal with a French twist at The Barns, Huntington.  They were entertained by a Black Country wordsmith, David Bartley, who regaled them with many humorous tales.  Members old and new lit the candles for the four Federations and Midland Chase Region President Dishi Attwood, a member of SI Lichfield, lit the candle for Soroptimist International. This was Dishi’s last act as Region President, she hands over the chain of office at the SIGBI conference in November. A raffle was held to raise funds for the BIG project – Birthing in The Gambia.  The BIG Project is a partnership between Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) and the international medical charity Maternal

Members of SI Cannock and friends enjoyed a Fish and Chip Supper at Littywood Manor, Bradley recently: the food was wonderful and the friendship even better, laughter filled both of the rooms; it was a truly wonderful venue and evening. It was organised by the group within the Club who consider the Economic Empowerment of women and was part of their fundraising towards Midland Chase Region President Dishi Attwood’s Oxfam “Bucketathon” Appeal for the purchase of Clean Water Buckets. The 14 litre Oxfam Bucket was designed to provide a safe storage option to organisations working on water safety in the home or refugee camps. The money raised on this evening was added to that raised at a coffee bring and buy in August at the home of Jacquie Gray and meant that a cheque for the amount of £293 was presented to Regional President Dishi

“Soldiering On – Letters from War Widows” was the title of a talk given to Cannock Soroptimists recently by club member Dr Janis Lomas. Janis is an historian, specialising in the history of war widows in the UK. She gave a talk which was both insightful and emotional, using extracts from the letters of war widows to demonstrate not only the hardship faced by the majority of them from both World Wars but also the way in which they were treated. Pensions were dependant on rank and respectability and could be forfeited if any rules were broken. Amazingly, war widows from WW2 were actually worse off than those from WW1 for most of the war years and all war widows were impoverished after WW2. The women found themselves widowed at very young ages, often with small children – and could be left with no pension

Cannock Soroptimists were delighted to welcome a new member to their Club at their  September business meeting.  She is Elizabeth Frondigoun, whom many people know from her ministry in Cannock at St Luke’s Church.  Team President Lakhwinder Thompson inducted Elizabeth as a Soroptimist and Elizabeth thanked the Club for their warm welcome and told members that she was looking forward to working with them on their projects which support women and children. Members heard reports of many of the initiatives they support: a recent coffee morning raised £260 for the Oxfam bucket appeal: the 14-litre Oxfam Bucket was designed to provide a safe storage option to organisations working on water safety in the home or refugee camps; members were asked to bring cakes along to the next meeting – these will be taken to St Giles Hospice; and they watched a DVD produced by the

3 members of SI Cannock & District were recently presented with long service certificates.  At the AGM, out-going Team Presidents Carole Holdcroft and Eileen Cryer were pleased to acknowledge the 115 years of service to Soroptimist International – and the Cannock & District club – by three of their members. Maggie Shore received a certificate marking 30 years as a Soroptimist. Georgina Ward received a certificate for her 40 years as a member of the organisation and Dora Leighton’s 45 years as a Soroptimist was honoured. Georgina and Dora joined when times were very different to the way they are today, they have both served on many committees and have taken the role of club President. They both continue to take an active part in club life with Dora now 97 and Georgina now 90 years of age attending all of the club’s functions and

Many people enjoyed a very successful event on Saturday 2nd March, when Cannock Soroptimists held a free coffee and information morning at St Luke’s Church Centre, Cannock. The event was linked with International Women’s Day and was funded by a grant from Staffordshire Local Community Fund. Representatives from local organisations Women’s Aid; Pathway; Chase Voluntary Services; Oxfam; the Local Foodbank; Women’s Air cadets and Cannock Friends of St Giles Hospice attended and they all reported great interest in their organisations and services.  Soroptimists provided information on many issues they are currently involved with, such as health matters and child sexual exploitation and trafficking. Members of the public were very generous in their donations of goods for the foodbank and for Pathway, some have offered to volunteer with the foodbank.   Local business women – in particular caterer Janette Arrowsmith of Food with Finesse, Pam Smith