We're a friendly club and welcome new members. You can attend a meeting or join us at an activity or social event and get to know us. Contact us by email: [email protected]
Every year from November 25th to December 10th we support the United Nations campaign against VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls). Orange is the colour of hope for the elimination of such abuse and we have adopted various ideas to spread the word. One year we put orange shoes in independent shops in town together with information about VAWG. Our beer mats raise awareness in local pubs. We are planning to plant orange tulip bulbs this autumn.
We celebrate this day (March 8th) by handing out roses to women in the town centre. They are always warmly received – once the woman has understood there are no strings attached! – and this activity is a pleasure for all concerned. This year we also had an exhibition of 44 notable Darlington women in St Cuthbert’s Church Centre. It was very well supported and received good press coverage. There will be another exhibition in 2027. Watch this space!
We have in-house events and occasions when we sell tickets to the public. In October we have a pink-themed club meeting in aid of Breast Cancer Now. Our annual Literary Lunch has been hugely popular and supported the charity chosen for the year. This year’s charity is The Motor Neurone Disease Association and we will be repeating our Pudding Party in February 2027 to raise funds for this. The 2026 party raised well over £600 and offered guests a large choice of desserts.
SI Darlington and District was founded in 1948 and has been working on local, national and international initiatives ever since. The club was involved in the founding of the local Women’s Refuge in the 1970s and supports it to this day. Currently, we provide ‘starter boxes’ for women leaving the Refuge. They contain household essentials for women setting up a new home.
Our ongoing projects which can involve every member include collecting used stamps to support Northumbria Blood Bikes, recycling blister packs, donating bras and pants to the charity Smalls for All, collecting children’s books to give to schools and the Refuge, signing petitions, lobbying our MP and writing letters to cancer patients.
We have links with other Soroptimist clubs and share ideas and news with them. An especially active link is with SI Soest, a beautiful medieval town in Germany about 50 km east of Dortmund. Soest members visited Darlington last year and a group of us returned recently from a short visit to Soest. International friendship is one of the perks of being a Soroptimist.
