We discussed plans for the year: in particular our forthcoming fundraiser in February.

  We donated toiletries, food and warm scarves to the annual Festive Feed at Babul’s, Darlington.

Club members provided the food and enjoyed Christmas quizzes at our December meeting.

We have given these double-sided beer mats to 16 local pubs to spread the word during the 16 Days of Activism.  Huge thanks to Soroptimist International of Glamorgan whose original idea they were and who created our design for us.

We welcomed two Regional Presidents (Northern England and Yorkshire) to this year’s Literary Lunch.  Also 80 other Soroptimists, members of other organisations, friends and family. R.J. (Ross) Frazer and his wife Steph shared the history of Frazer’s Fables: books which inspire young children to develop a love of books and reading. About £600 was raised for Family Help, which runs Darlington’s Women’s Refuge.

Nine members of our German Friendship Link, SI Soest, spent a weekend in Darlington to celebrate 15 years of friendship. They gave us this lovely candleholder designed to depict the skyline of Soest. At our November meeting it was much admired.

Darlington member Sue Williams carried the Soroptimist International flag at the Opening Ceremony.  Barbara Brown explained our Buddy Bookmarks project to Soroptimists from other clubs.

Our speaker was Victoria Matthewson from the Rape & Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre for Darlington and County Durham.  This was our annual Pink Meeting and we raised £55 for Breast Cancer Care.

At the Regional Council Meeting on September 13th, we were delighted to receive an award for Best Practice for last year’s Shoe Trail.  It was presented by SIGBI President Ruth.

Lindsay Green (4th from left) and some of our members. We welcomed Lindsay, SIGBI Programme Director, who was so interesting and informative. To mark International Literacy Day each member brought a book wrapped in brown paper and then bought a book for £1.