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

Members of SI Cannock and District showcased their vocal skills at their latest wellbeing event held a Chase Leisure Centre that was arranged in collaboration with Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles (IHL), a charity which, on behalf of Cannock Chase Council offers a wide range of activities to the community to improve their health and wellbeing. It has been proven that singing reduces stress, stimulates the immune response and generally makes us feel better and it certainly did that! Two fabulous members of the locally based Backstreet Theatre Company took the ladies through their vocal warm ups and great fun was had by  all. Photo attached:  Members enjoying a singalong with James from Backstreet Theatre Company    

Lynn Bedford, a former teacher at Kingsmead School in Hednesford has been attending meetings for a few months and has quickly become involved in many of the projects the club has been running. She helped to distribute posies to members of the public on Word Mental Health Day, packed the gift bags given to the ladies who spent Christmas with Pathway and Staffordshire Women’s Aid and is heavily involved in their most recent campaign of collecting pre-loved children’s books for Rotary Books4Homes. It’s fair to say that she has hit the ground running!   At the induction, Lynn paid tribute to the good work the club does for the local community as well as for women and girls worldwide, giving this as the main reason she has joined SI Cannock. She also thanked the members for the friendship and welcome she has received since she

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

Cannock & District Soroptimist celebrated their 67 years as a club with a dinner held at Brocton Hall Golf Club last week where President Jackie Prince was pleased to welcome a capacity 90 guests.  Her theme for the year is ‘It’s what you do that counts’, the theme used by the first Soroptimist club 100 years ago and as relevant today as it was then. The room was decorated in a woodland theme to celebrate the local area of outstanding natural beauty- Cannock Chase.   Club members attended with family and friends along with fellow Soroptimists from most of the other clubs in the Region and including Midland Chase Region President Judith Carder.   The room buzzed – everyone just delighted to be able to get dressed up and spend time together again – and all safe in the knowledge that all had done a

The Cema, Chapel Street Park in Norton Canes was officially opened last week and many groups have supported the project, amongst them Chase Arts for Public Spaces [CHAPS] and Cannock Soroptimists.   CHAPS member Sheila Harding has been working on this project for 12 years – the art work at the three entry points and the path now in place around the perimeter of the park were two of her initiatives.  The park also has a children’s playground and an outdoor gym. Soroptimist involvement began more recently as a link with their Centenary project to plant 100 trees.  Members went along to the Cema on a VERY cold day to dig VERY hard ground and help with the tree planting; it was great to see those trees thriving now!   Jackie Prince has been involved wearing two hats – one as member and current President

Cannock Soroptimists support Pathway and Staffordshire Women’s Aid throughout the year – helping and supporting women in need is at the core of their work. They are always pleased to provide Christmas gifts for the women victims of domestic abuse – and their families – using the refuges. These women will often have suffered years of abuse or violence and have left their homes with nothing, to be remembered at Christmas is really important. This year Soroptimists asked each of the organisations what the women would like for Christmas; the answers were rather sobering as they asked for items which most people would regard as basic. Pathway women asked for socks, gloves and scarves whilst the women at SWA asked for food items, particularly Christmas foods. (All of the children will receive gifts this year from a charity KidsOut in conjunction with Rotary). When Cannock