AGM – March 26th

The end of our official year was, as usual, a very happy event when all the hard work, fun occasions, fund raising, even gardening was acknowledged.

The evening began with the presentation of a cheque for over £3000.00 to a member of Yorkshire Air ambulance, President Julie’s favoured charity for her tenure.

This was followed by reports from representatives of all the teams within the club, in respect of everything achieved during the last year; all the fund raising done, and all the events enjoyed.

We welcomed and wished every success to our new joint Presidents, Pat and Linda, and thanked our retiring President Julie, wishing her a happy six month sabbatical.

After all the official business, came the more serious business of food, ably and very efficiently organised by member Margaret; this was followed by a very liberal portion of ‘Soroptimist cake’ baked and beautifully iced by member Kathleen.

Another very successful year for S.I.D & D.

Past Presidents’ Dinner – March 29th

This event was started 30 years ago by Barbara Sykes. 19 past presidents enjoyed a lovely evening at Heald’s Hall. The meal was delicious and the company excellent. Many thanks to IPP Hazel for organizing a wonderful evening. Next year’s evening is already booked.

Dementia Awareness – March 23rd

Christine Iredale, Mayor of Kirklees invited us to have a stand at the Dementia Awareness event at Cleckheaton Town Hall, she kindly modelled one of the Admiral Nurses twiddle muffs.

Speaker Meeting – March 22nd

The guest speaker was Pat Osbourne. Pat is a very experienced speaker on historical characters and events & tonight she was to talk to us about & show us photographs of, the very famous artist L.S. Lowry.

He had a very unhappy childhood; he was the only child of Elizabeth, a very puritanical mother, who never encouraged or even acknowledged that her son was talented. In later years she reluctantly thought he might have some talent.

She was obsessed with delusions of grandeur and always wanted him to have what we now call a ‘proper job’, so much so she referred to her husband as an estate agent, when in fact he was a rent collector.

However L.S managed to paint in his spare time and joined evening classes where to his mother’s horror he actually painted a naked woman.

His work was becoming to be well known when a young lady Carol Ann Lowry came to his home, trying to establish if she was in fact related to him. Although this was never proved they did start a friendship which lasted the rest of his life,

In spite of all this lack of interest of both parents he managed to progress to be the wonderful artist we know today.

L S Lowry never married, due probably to his domineering mother who would never have allowed it, but he loved his mother dearly and looked after her until

she died, after which he mourned her for a very long time.He is buried alongside his parents in Manchester cemetery,a city he loved. and was the inspiration for many of his works

This had been a very interesting subject and was warmly appreciated by everyone.

The evening was not yet over as the meeting room resembled a middle eastern souk due in no small measure to the myriad of beautiful scarves,shawls, pashminas and handbags, all for sale in aid of Water Aid. This is a charity heartily supported by SID&D and which, on the night, raised more than £200.00.

A successful and enjoyable evening .

Curry Club – March 21st

On the Wednesday we went to the Spice of Bengal in Mirfield, this was the first time we had been, the food and the service were excellent. We were joined once again by Dorothy, who is fast becoming a connoisseur, and Susie from Wakefield Soroptimists.

Fun and Games

A couple of events, the first was Tuesday 6th March – Employability careers event at Dewsbury College. We had a lot of interest from staff and students and made some good connections going forward.

The second was the games evening at Marilyn’s. We had a lot of fun and thanks to Linda and Marilyn for providing delicious soup and sandwiches. Along with a recent Coffee Morning at Jackie’s this event helped to boost the funds acvailable for the club’s PAC projects.

Speaker Meeting – February 22nd

February has been a very busy month for S.I.Dewsbury & District.

Fifteen or so members all enjoyed our regular ‘Curry night’; a very successful coffee morning was held at the home of one of our members, and last but not least we had our speaker meeting.

This meeting was given over to our members who shared with us events which had left great impressions on their lives.

First off was Joan who had spent much of her life helping with the poor and sick in Calcutta. Joan had a burning ambition to work in India after having had a rather expensive holiday there, but found on her return that things were very different when working for a charity Calcutta Rescue. Working in conditions, in places where there was no electricity, no running water, no sanitation was quite an eye opener, not to mention the vermin and cock roaches she had to deal with in her ‘hotel’.

Her work included physiotherapy, care of pregnant women , dealing with severe burns caused by falls due to candle lighting only, and walking through waist deep water to get to work after the monsoons.

On going to church one morning she was proud to have met Mother Theresa..now ‘St Theresa of Calcutta.’

Joan got so much satisfaction from helping these people that she went back time and time again and would still go if it was possible.

Next came Margaret who wanted to share with us her experience of getting a mortgage as a widowed lady in the nineteen fifties, which is relevant today as we are recognising 100 years of women’s suffrage. This obviously resonated with many members who had similar experiences as single ladies.

Then came Jane who took us through her journey to Arnhem where her uncle had been killed in World War Two. She found his gravestone, beautifully kept, and with his photograph about which she knew nothing.

This journey ended with a trip to the Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam, with their beautiful displays of tulips and other flowers and plants.

A wonderful night very much enjoyed by every one.

Curry Club – February 7th

And yet another noisy and spicy Dewsbury Soroptimists Curry Club. The venue was Al Nawab in Mirfield and we were once again joined by members of Wakefield Soroptimists.

Speaker Meeting – January 25th 2018

At the speaker meeting ‘Digital Eagles – Banking’, Lynne Turton spoke about staying safe online.

Her top tip was to never reveal your password to anyone and to remember that free public wifi is what it says – public, and is not secure.

Party time! Christmas festivities

Dewsbury Soroptimists enjoying their Christmas party at Healds Hall on December 4th.

On the 6th members enjoyed a very festive curry club at the Kashmiri Aroma in Wakefield. They were joined by five members of SI Wakefield and Dorothy, who loves curry, they made quite an entrance, everyone obeyed the directive and dressed in something Christmassy.

The Tentercroft Christmas party annual event was enjoyed by all – even Father Christmas!!

The last event before Christmas was the Carol Service at Holy Trinity in Ossett, invited visitors were SI Yorkshire President Chris Clark, the President of the Rotary Club of Ossett and the Mayors of Wakefield and Kirklees with their consorts.

November News

President Julie enrolled two new members in recent meetings, Debbie and Julie. Each was introduced by their sponsor – Eileen H for Debbie and Jackie for Julie. Both new members gave a brief introductory speech about themselves.

Pictured L-R: Debbie, President Julie, Julie M and Jackie

President Julie, Michael, Maureen, Glenn & Carol & Susan (Glenn’s sister), Sue W and Pat T attended the annual Remembrance Sunday in Mirfield on Sunday 12th November at 2.00. Hundreds of people marched from Station Road to a wreath-laying ceremony at the war memorial in Ings Grove Park.

On Thursday 16th a group of members and friends went to The Grand Theare, Leeds to see Fat Friends and then onto Gino’s for a fabulous meal (pictured below). As usual, the good company made all the difference, thank you to Eileen H for arranging it.

At the speaker meeting groups gave a presentation about the decades when they became members. A very enjoyable evening concluded with drinks and nibbles.

Open Evening – November 1st

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Dewsbury golf club was the venue on Wednesday evening for an event organised by S.I.D & D. to raise awareness of who we are and what we do. President Julie welcomed the Mayor of Kirklees, Christine Iredale; our speaker for the evening Barbara Dixon, Programme director of S.I Great Britain and Ireland, and other guests, before giving a brief insight into the kind of work which we do.

Barbara Dixon chose, as her theme for the evening, the oppression of women and various practices to which women are still subjected, such as slavery, FGM, trafficking etc. and, which still exist in our modern world. The statistics which she provided were quite horrendous.This presentation certainly gave us food for thought, and begged the question as to what can and should be done to stop these barbaric practices.

The evening was well attended, and there was a fair representation of people from various groups around and beyond the district.

On a lighter note the ‘Curry Club’ met and enjoyed a good evening at Ruby’s Indian restaurant, Mirfield on Thursday.

A Reet Grand Neet Art – October 14th

S.I.D and D got together on Saturday 14th October at the Ossett Trinity Church centre to have a ‘reet Yorkshire night aart’.

The event was to raise funds for Yorkshire Air Ambulance and was a real Yorkshire meal, followed by a quiz on all things Yorkshire…shame on some of us Tykes for not having all the answers.

The kitchen team worked like troopers and pulled out all the stops to deliver a three course Yorkshire themed meal, black pudding, mucky fat, yorkshire puddings and curd tart et al were all devoured by grateful diners. None of them wish to see a corned beef hash again this year!

However it was a huge success and raised over £400.00 for the charity

Speaker Meeting – September 28th

Nick Yates talked to members about ‘The 1864 Garden Centre’ – Kershaw’s Brighouse’ and the work involved by the plant hunters of many years ago.

He said how the firm had passed into the Yates family, and earlier years of propogating plants for sale including monkey puzzle trees as a speciality.

Nick brought some mixed packs of bulbs for any interested members to purchase.

Macmillan Coffee Morning – September 29th

Another succesful morning of the annual collaberation between the residents of Tentercroft Court and SI Dewsbury. The usual stalls of cakes, bric a brac, raffle, name the dog and extensive tombola raised a magnificent total of 617.50 for Macmillan. President Julie is joined by perennial visitor Roger Ram, Paula Sheriff MP and Stacey Rhodes from Macmillan with friends.

75th Anniversary Walk – September 23rd

A day of mixed weather saw over 20 members, friends and dog complete 100 laps of Dewsbury District Hospital. Each lap was 0.75 mile so a target total of 75 miles for 75 was achieved. President Julie’s chosen charity the Yorkshire Air Ambulance supplied a gazebo and a range of souvenir items. A collection bucket revealed 177.39 at the end of the day for the charity.

Business meeting – September 14th

The first meeting after the summer recess included Long Service Awards presented to four members and concluded with drinks and cake to celebrate Freda’s recent 90th birthday. Julie presented Freda with a bouquet of flowers in SI colours of blue and yellow.

Freda thanked everyone for their good wishes and had received over 90 birthday cards.

Long Service awards were presented by President Julie to Hilda and Eileen H for 40 years, Sue G for 35 years and Audrey for 30 years service.

York Races on Ladies Day – August 24th

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An excellent day at the races for many members and friends. Fortunes were neither made nor lost but a great day was ejoyed by all.

Speaker Meeting – July 27th

Members heard a presentation given by Nurse Julie Pagan of Rosewood Palliative care team, at Dewsbury hospital. To those of us not fully aware of the work entailed in Palliative care this was a wonderful insight into the whole meaning of the word. It involves the treatment of people with, a usually, terminal ill patient but not always cancer, there are other illnesses treated there.

The amount of care available is amazing as the requirements are judged on many aspects of the patient’s needs be it medical, psychological or physical.

A very informative evening to end our programme until we all meet again in September.

SID’s 75th Celebrations

Last weekend we celebrated our 75^th in style, together with Soroptimists from Kiel in Germany and friends from America and the UK. The first episode was a wonderful meal at Heath Cottage on Friday, followed by afternoon tea at the Mining Museum on Saturday afternoon.

Hilda Wood (1st left), president from the club’s 40th Anniversary and President Julie (3rd from right) with guests from frienship club SI Kiel, Germany and (former) SI Staunton, Virginia in America with memorabilia, gifts and the Club charter from 1942.

The highlight of the weekend was our Charter Lunch on board the North Yorkshire Moors Railway from Grosmont to Pickering. Members and officials from a number of UK Soroptimist clubs also joined us including SIGBI President Ann Hodgson and SI Yorkshire President Jennie Levick. The finale of the celebration weekend was a talk by Margaret Watson at Dewsbury Minster on Monday morning, about the Dewsbury Tapestry.

After all the excitement we will settle back down to doing what we do best, having fun, enjoying friendship, eating and drinking, and, along the way raising the issues of women in our community, nationwide and worldwide.

Curry club – July 12th

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We had an excellent turn out, 15 of us enjoyed (once again), the lovely food at

Parmars in Liversedge. It was Margaret’s birthday on the day and Parmars joined in to wish her a Happy Birthday.

Ossett Gala – July 8th

Saturday was a lovely day and people came out in their droves, even though 3 out 4 of the stalls were tombolas, we still managed to raise £165.50 for The Yorkshire Ambulance.

Afternoon Tea at Skipton – June 26th

A large contingent of SI Dewsbury members met up with SI Preston for Afternoon tea in Skipton. It was a lovely social occasion, meeting new friends and catching up with old ones. The venue was the usual Walker’s Bakers and Chocolatiers

Speaker meeting – June 22nd

The first speaker was Natalia who accompanied by slides gave a short history of her club S.I. Slupsk and their activities, which are far too many to list here, but, fulfil all the goals, that we, as Soroptimists, ‘women working together’ aim for.

Her club was founded in 2000 and has many members from many and varied professions and walks of life.Among the many slides was a picture of two red English telephone boxes, which were given by Carlisle who are twinned with Slupsk .

Thanks to Natalia were accompanied by a friendship gift.

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The second speaker was Dr Naomi Chapman, a Deputy Chief nurse in the NHS, whose theme was ‘Are women the best they can be?’This was, briefly, about women reaching for and achieving their full potential in work and in any other interests that they may have.Thanks were offered to Dr Chapman by member E. Hartley.

Grant of Friendship Visit

Natalia Kurhalek, from Slupsk in Poland is on a visit to our club, and this country via a ‘grant of friendship, and will also attend the SI Yorkshire Conference in July. Linda has hosted Natalia and shown her around the local area visiting the Bretton Sculpture park and The Wildflower Garden at Crow Nest park where the club maintains an area of the garden. Beth hosted a welcome evening at her home for members to meet Natalia. The following evening Natalia gave an illustrated presentation to the club – see above. Julie presented Natalia with a gift from the club. Drinks and nibbles followed so everyone could socialise.

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The Great Get Together – June 17th

Raising awareness of Soroptimists and the Meru Women’s garden Project at Hanging Heaton last Saturday.S I Dewsbury and District were asked to have a stall at Hanging Heaton’s Great Get Together organised by the Jo Cox Foundation. The Meru Women’s Garden Project was brought to life with a very colourful display of banners, flowers, fruit and animals

Julie Flies Solo – June 13th

President Julie accompanied by Michael visited the base at Nostell of the Yorkshire Air ambulance, her chosen charity for this year.

Repeat Performance – June 7th

Curry Club, members of SI Wakefield joined us for a return visit to the Cinnamon Lounge, Horbury Bridge. As always, we ate a lot, talked a lot, but, above all – we laughed a lot.

Anyone for Croquet? June 6th

‘Forever the optimists we Soroptimists – It will brighten up yet!!’. SI Huddersfield challenged SI Dewsbury & SI Wakefield at the annual croquet evening on a very wet and windy Tuesday. Well done Wendy from SI Wakefield.

Garden Party – June 4th

The annual garden party was held at the home of June and Roy. Fingers were crossed for good weather and fortunately the sun shone all the time on the 80 some people who attended.
There was the usual plant sale, raffle and a bottle tombola which kept people busy until it was time for the food where once again the members excelled themselves in the vast variety of mouthwatering dishes on offer, not to mention the desserts which were irrestible judging by the empty serving dishes!!!
Everyone agreed that, once again the event had been a huge success, and we are happy that all the proceeds will go to Yorkshire Air Ambulance, our chosen charity for this year.

Visit to Horticare – June 1st

Following a very interesting talk last year members paid a visit to Lindhill Garden centre in Kirkhamgate.
Lindhill ‘Horticare’ centre is a charitable organisation, open 6 days a week, and provides a real working environment for people with learning disabilities.

After exploring the grounds, which were a credit to all who work there, immaculately kept and with an abundance of plants and flowers, we were all ready to sit down and enjoy afternoon tea of beautiful scones, cakes and a very welcome cup of tea.
Our thanks go out to the staff there who welcomed us and treated us so very generously.

Speaker Meeting – May 25th

The first speaker meeting in the new presidential year was presented by Angela a volunteer speaker and presenter for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, the chosen charity for this year.

YAA began life in 2000 in a damp portakabin at Leeds and Bradford airport, with one small, 15 year old helicopter.It has now celebrated it’s 10th anniversary and along the way has acquired 2 of the latest model helicopters, and operates from two bases; from RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire and moved from Leeds Bradford to Nostell Priory estate in West Yorkshire. The first flight from there being in November 2013..

The charity relies almost totally on the generosity of the public via donations, legacies,, and by promoting itself at events, shows etc.It needs £12,000 per day to keep the ambulances in the air.

The dramatic rescue of tv presenter Richard Hammond helped to raise the profile of YAA and he continues to promote the charity.

From it’s humble beginnings it has developed into a sophisticated, state-of-the-art, emergency medical facility.

The charity is so popular because it is easy to see the contribution it makes to Yorkshire, serving 5 million people across 4 million acres, the M1, M62, M18, and A1 motorways.

Our next event is the annual Garden Party, when all proceeds will go to the YAA, our chosen charity

Gawthorpe May Day Float – May 6th

Saturday May 6th 2017. The first event for Soroptimist International of Dewsbury and District in our new Presidential year.

Although the weather was not exactly what we had hoped for, our ladies were full of enthusiasm and expectation that this year we would do better than last year and bag the first prize. Our theme was The Meru Women’s Garden Project in Kenya, a collaboration between Child.org, Soroptimist International Great Britain & Ireland and the Women of Meru. For the past number of weeks members have been sewing, stapling, sticking and preparing for this event. The result of all this work was a colourful, exotic, and vibrant display of everything that the ladies who tend the Meru garden do.

Come 1.00 clock on this day many members of our club set off to join the procession, each one looking every bit as exotic as the garden depicted on our float.

The hour of judgement and yes! S.I.D and D had done it.

First prize for our float and first prize for fancy dress.

Congratulations to our team, very well deserved!!

What shall we do next year?

If you think you would like to find out, why not come and join us?

AGM – April 28th

The AGM was held at Dewsbury District Golf Club, President Julie introduced representatives from the President’s charities who in turn explained about their work and how the monies would be used.

Photo: Kathryn Jolly and Jo Bissell, Nurse Specialists – Diabetic Services and Dr R Kent, Consultant Neuroglial Rehabilitation from Dewsbury & District Hospital, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust receiving cheques from President Julie (2nd left) and IPP Hazel (far right).

Following the club business and election of Officers Julie outlined her programme for the rest of her term of office. Julie brought the meeting to a close and members then socialised and enjoyed a wonderful hot supper and tucked in to the Presidential cakes.

April Curry Night

Kashmiri Aroma, Wakefield was the venue for the latest curry club last Wednesday 26th April. We were small in number, but, large in enthusiasm. The food was wonderful and the company even better.

Speaker Meeting – March 23rd

This months speaker was Jo Liversidge on ‘Using the Forest School approach to promote community and inclusion’
Nature’s Footprints Forest Play and Education CIC is an independent outdoor learning and Forest School provision in Huddersfield which caters for local children and young people. Many of these children and young people come from areas of deprivation or may need additional or more holistic support to enable them to access mainstream education. They also tend to blossom when shown a different approach to learning and when placed in a nurturing environment that encourages them to be equal partners in building a learning community. The children are introduced to a different kinds of experiences that include; those that teach them outdoor pursuits, those that develop skills for learning and life and those that foster a growing appreciation of nature.
These sessions use local green spaces to encourage the young people and their families to venture out from where they live and for some this has been their first visit to the small, local nature reserve and large Victorian park. It is, on Jo’s words an holistic approach to education, and as the title suggests takes place largely in wooded areas.
This provision is not confined to children, but also works with families, offering monthly and regular sessions whereby the whole family can attend together.
Nature’s Footprints also has a thriving holiday provision where children and young people of different ages (4-8 years, 8-12 years and 13-19 years) can attend sessions, free of charge, and this therefore makes it accessible to anyone irrespective of their financial, ethnic or social background. All sessions are supervised by professionally trained practitioners. The organisation has worked hard to develop strong links with local and community organisations, professionals and schools, and families can either self book their children onto sessions or referrals can be made including those from health, family and social care workers

Another fun curry on – March 14th

A fun curry night was had by all at Lala’s in Batley, especially as we were joined by four members from SI Wakefield.

WaterAid – March 9th

Howard Woods one of WaterAid’s speakers came to talk to the club. The facts and figures are alarming, so many babies and children still dying. Their aim is to be out of business by 2030 hopefully this will happen. We take water for granted; flushing loos, baths, showers, cups of tea washing etc.Member Linda remarked “I lifted the 10 litres container of water that an eight year old is expected to carry and I couldn’t have walked down the street with it and I couldn’t see my grandson doing it. Let’s support this worthwhile project wholeheartedly”.

Raising awareness at Kirklees College

Linda, Margaret and Sue manned a stall at the careers convention held on March 9th at Kirklees College, Dewsbury. The aim was to promote safe relationships, Cervical Cancer and S I Dewsbury and District. We made contact with a lot of staff and the students were interested in the information on the bookmarks given out and the facts about cervical cancer. We were asked about Soroptimists and were pleasantly surprised that some had actually heard of us.

Speaker meeting – February 23rd

This was a speaker meeting with a difference as, unfortunately, our scheduled speaker was ill and unable to be with us.

At the very last minute, our very own Jackie, volunteered to step in and speak to us.

Jackie is a professional choreographer, dance teacher, author of dance related books, and expert on anything dance related,and she kept us entertained with a potted history of The Northern Ballet company, and it’s director David Nixon, and also showed us short excerpts from the ballet ‘A midsummer night’s dream’.

Jackie also showed us film of how movement and even facial expressions are paramount in the training of ballet dancing.

After a lively question and answer session, thanks were given to Jackie for a very interesting presentation which she gave at such very notice.

Fund raiser – February 14th

Members enjoyed a lovely coffee morning

at Jackie’s and raised almost £170 for

materials for the float at the Gawthorpe Maypole.

Rhubarb Rhubarb, Rhubarb!

SI Wakefield invited SI Dewsbury to join them for a visit to the rhubarb sheds at Wakefield on Saturday February 11th. The rhubarb farm is actually owned by SI Wakefield member Susie Westwood’s husband. It was really interesting, followed by lunch at Bella Roma in Wakefield. Besides Susie from SI Wakefield, there were SI members from Hallamshire & Sheffield.

Curry Club’s Winter Warmer

Our taste buds were tickled yet again when the Curry Club embarked on its latest adventure on February 1st to Masala Lounge in Ossett.

Helping Jo’s Trust

Paula Sherriff MP Dewsbury & District asked us to support Cervical Cancer Week and Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust. On Friday January 13th we set up in the foyer of Dewsbury Hosital to raise awareness of an 18 year low in cervical smear testing, unfortunately, Paula was leading a debate in the House of Commons that day, but, her assistant Karen Rowling came along. We also took the opportunity of promoting our club.

Speaker meeting – January 12th

S.I.D & D speaker meetings for 2017 got off to a good start with Mr Don Burslam and ‘Carriages at 9.00pm’.

This was a very informative presentation about life in the Edwardian and Victorian times,especially regarding life on the stage.To be an actor then was not a well paid occupation, but the possibility of marrying well was very tempting to a person who only knew the poverty and hunger which was rife. The gap between the very rich and the very poor, was, as ever, huge.

It was a subject very close to Mr Burslam’s heart as he was able to quote many of the actors of that time, and so kept his audience amused and interested for almost an hour.

December Activities

Tentercroft Christmas party 2017 web crop

Christmas and Santa Claus came early to Tentercroft Court on Saturday 3rd of December, by way of S.I.D and District.

Many of our members turned out, costumes and all, to entertain the residents of Tentercroft at their annual Christmas party.

The tables were decked and ready for when our guests arrived to start the ball rolling with crackers, and a glass of something cheering; the tables were also heaving with the wonderful selection of food- pies, sausage rolls quiches, cakes, trifles, and sweets all provided by SID & D.

Santa Claus arrived and distributed gold and silver coins to everyone’s delight.Entertainment followed with our ‘choir’ and their rendition of ‘My favourite things’ and then ‘Superfragetcetcetc’ from Mary Poppins, and which earned an encore. There were monologues, raffles with prizes galore and then the carols when everyone joined in heartily.

It was a wonderful occasion as usual, enjoyed by everyone, and I think, none more so than SID & D themselves.

The Carol Service at Hanging Heaton Church was well supported and it was a lovely service with our own Kate Currie officiating. It was wonderful to see the Mayor of Kirklees, Jenny Levick, our Yorkshire President and Paula Sherrif the MP for Dewsbury who attended. The collection raised £252.26 which will go to SI Presidents 10^th December Appeal for Nepal, Hanging Heaton Church and Hanging Heaton Church Hall. Our thanks to Gawthorpe Brass Band and to the Mothers Union Choir and the members who sang with them. Also thanks to Hazel for the setting out and printing of the service sheets and to our members who served the tea and coffee. There were plenty of mince pies left which hopefully will be eaten at the Christmas meeting.

The Merry Mansion event at Crow Nest Park on Saturday December 10th was a fantastic community event to raise the profile of the efforts that are being made to organise an asset transfer. Our bottle tombola was in a really good position as everyone had to pass us.

Winter Wonderland Christmas Tree Festival at TrinityChurch, Ossett – 17/18 December 2016. We decorated a tree highlighting the work we do in the area and abroad. Julie is pictured here with Mary Creagh MP for Wakefield, who opened the tree festival.

On December 15th members assembled at Dewsbury & District Golf Club for their annual Christmas Lunch, a good Christmas dinner was enjoyed by around 22 members.That evening was the last meeting of the year, the Business and Christmas meeting where a friend of Jane , Brenda gave a wonderful flower arranging demeonstration. the resulting arrangements were raffled to cover the cost of the flowers then everyone enjoyed mince pies and a Christmas drink and chat.

Meru Garden Fund Raisers

Speaker meeting – November 24th

The last speaker for 2016 was in fact two speakers, two Steves from Batley Audio Visual Club who gave us a wonderful travelogue of places visited by their members, accompanied by appropriate background music.

The first trip was to Pakistan where the building of the Karakoram Highway began in Rawalpindi and finished in Kashga in China, taking us through the most spectacular scenery of mountains and plains. In vast contrast to that we then went to Scarborough, accompanied by the song Scarborough Fair, also beautiful in it’s own way.

The whole presentation took in the summer of 2014 when everywhere was painted yellow for the ‘Grand tour’, the Mormon trek to Utah, the Priory at Hodsock, well renowned for it’s beautiful snowdrops.

A touch of humour came next with famous one-liners from people like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Groucho Marx and so on.

Finally we were taken, visually to ‘Boot hill’ where old cowboys never die!!

The whole presentation was just so professional, everyone just got carried away, and all agreed we could have enjoyed much more. A very enjoyable evening; please come back again.

Curry Club – November 3rd

For the latest curry club as you can see from the building background we travelled to Agra for our latest curry, oh shame, no we didn’t we travelled to Liversedge to Parmars Indian Restaurant.

Change of Presidents – October 27th

The business meeting was held at Dewsbury Golf Club as the chain of insignia was handed over from outgoing President Hazel to incoming President Julie.

Julie outlined her programme for her term of office and performed her first duty in presenting Mo Malik with her Long Service award for thirty years membership.

Julie brought the meeting to a close and members then socialised and enjoyed a wonderful hot supper and tucked in to the Presidential cake.

Archive of Club Activities 2016-2017/18