President Elect Debbie Oulton and fellow Club members attended SI Liverpool’s 92nd Charter lunch on Sunday 24th February 2019. The event was held at Woolton Golf Club and presided over by Club President Dorcas Akeju OBE.  Guests included Regional President Sue Underwood and President of SI St Helens, Pamela Wright OBE.   Guest speaker Dame Lorna Muirhead delighted the audience with a highly entertaining talk about her experiences as a nurse and midwife in Liverpool.  Her hilarious stories about meetings with HRH the Queen, when she served as Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, kept the audience laughing throughout.      

The Chief Executive of a charity that supports women, young people and children who are experiencing, or have been affected by, domestic abuse has praised the efforts of SI Crosby. Neil Frackelton from Sefton Women’s and Children’s Aid (SWACA) said Soroptimists had played a vital role in ensuring the service since its inception in 1975.  The help came in many forms – from providing packs for families who have had to flee violent situations and move into emergency accommodation, (refuge), to regular fund raising and volunteering. The refuge, Dawn House, is named after a late member of the Club and many people have served as trustees including current member Shirley Smith.  The founder of the charity, Lesley Paterson, was also a winner of SI Crosby’s Margaret Yarwood Woman of the Year accolade. Neil told members that the work of SWACA was needed now more than

  The event enables Soroptimists who will soon be taking up leadership roles to meet the regional team as well as their ‘chain gang’ colleagues in other clubs. Guest speaker was Sue Williams, the President of Soroptimist International, Great Britain & Ireland (SIGBI). Sue spoke engagingly about her Soroptimist journey. It was clear that, whenever a volunteer has been needed in her club or region, Sue has been willing to have a go. Building on these experiences she took on roles within SIGBI – and thus on to President.       Further details are available via this link https://sigbi.org/south-lancashire/2019/01/28/chain-gang-challenge/                 https:///south-lancashire/2019/01/28/chain-gang-challenge/

SI Crosby took to the streets in December to accompany Santa’s Sleigh as he visited the homes in Thornton. As well as the great opportunity to spread Christmas Cheer, the generosity of the people of Thornton meant that over £600 was raised on the night.  

Schoolchildren in  countries like Malawi  and Liberia will soon be getting an extra special surprise at school, thanks to the efforts of SI Crosby members. We have been gathering items of clothing, shoes, books, crayons, pencils and rulers  to fill back packs as part of the Mary’s Meals projects.  The charity works to support school children in the developing world by providing one daily meal in their place of education.  They also give filled back packs to the children who need the most help to give basic clothing and educational items The Club has been supporting the charity for a number of years and has filled around 500 bags and donated almost £5,000 cash. This week saw a team of SI Crosby members get together for the annual big pack-night where they filled  80 bags which will soon be sent to the charity and shipped

Debbie Oulton, President Elect and Chris Short  recently attended Merchant Taylors’ Girls Prize Giving Day The event was held at the Philharmonic Hall on Friday 16th November and the ladies were treated to inspirational speeches and wonderful music, culminating in a beautiful rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.  Every year SI Crosby donate a prize for achievement in STEM and this year the prize was awarded to Victoria Smith.          

President Elect Debbie was honoured to be asked to represent SI Crosby at the local Remembrance service.   As it was the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day, it was a very special occasion.  Many local organisations took part in the wreath laying ceremony and there was a very good turn out of local people.Traffic on the main road was stopped for the two minute silence at 11.00 GMT which marked the end of World War 1 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of November 1918.    

Crosby members flew the flag for Liverpool – and beyond – when they attended the Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland conference at the end of October. They joined 1,200 delegates from across the Federation for the three-day conference at Liverpool’s waterfront convention centre.  Women and guests from all over the word descended on the City, recently named as the kindest place in the UK. The Crosby contingent all had extra duties at the event, encouraged by fellow member Val Dunning who was the Deputy Chief Steward.   All volunteered as stewards, looking after delegates who required special assistance, ensuring the all-important interval tea and coffee was served promptly, managing exhibition spaces and staffing the information desk.         Highlight of the opening evening was the flag ceremony where each of the 29 member countries of the Federation were each ceremoniously paraded through the arena

A great night was had by all at The Ello Ello Fundraiser for Sefton Young Carers…. Sables du Blundell was a stopping off point for some British tourists who didn’t know there was a war on ! Their coach broke down close to Renes cafe and, taking shelter, they were treated to a quiz with questions read by Genevieve La Rue of the Resistance – who did tell them twice in her excellent English !!.Questionable singing came from Madame Edith determined to inflict her repertoire of uplifting songs on them whilst accompanied at the piano by Mlle Leplinqueplonque. German officers arrived but as it was their day off they were not too threatening! Even the Fallen Madonna put in an appearance. There was some misunderstanding about having to raise funds for bribes to release Rene from the grip of the enemy but it was cleared

The spirit of international friendship is flourishing at SI Crosby  on Merseyside where members have forged strong bonds with  members of Scandinavian  clubs. Their most recent meeting was in  Glasgow where fifteen Crosby members joined a Scandinavian group for a weekend break to which Glasgow Soroptimists were also invited. During the weekend, the group enjoyed visits to the Royal Yacht Britannia, Loch Lomond and places connected with the famous Rennie McIntosh. But most of all they enjoyed socialising and renewing their friendship. This  began eight years ago when some members of  Crosby Club, which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary, made a visit to Norway and met Soroptimists there. Over following years, friendship links where then made with Soroptimists  in Denmark and Sweden with groups of Crosby members travelling to Scandinavia where they received warm hospitality from their hosts and learned much about their culture.