On Sunday 21st July, twelve club members and Soroptimisters supported Regional President Sue Edgar, one of the East Grinstead Soroptimists, at her Regional Lunch at the London Beach Country Hotel Spa & Golf Club, Tenterden. With many other members from across the Region, we enjoyed a delicious lunch, impressive raffle and a delightful afternoon catching up with friends. The day started a little damp, but the sun came out during the afternoon and provided a beautiful setting for the event.
Helen Teare, a trustee of Breast Cancer Kent, spoke to us about her experience of breast cancer and how it led to her becoming a trustee of the charity. The Charity raises funds to enable leading edge equipment to be purchased for the Kent cancer centres at Maidstone/TW and Canterbury Hospitals, providing care for Kent and East Sussex residents. The event raised almost £2,000 to be shared between Breast Cancer Kent and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity in their fight against cancer.
Regional President Sue reflected on her year ‘It’s Never Too Late’, so far. She is looking forward to attending the remaining clubs in the Region and the AGM, culminating in the Federation Conference in Birmingham (31 Oct – 2 Nov). She thanked everybody for coming and her amazing team, for their hard work in organising this super day.
Alison Skinner
EAST GRINSTEAD STUDENTS PREPARING FOR THE WORLD OF WORK
Once again, this year, East Grinstead Club members were invited to participate in Sackville School’s Mock Interview Programme. The aim of this annual event is to develop interview and employability skills in Year 10 students and to make a positive contribution to their preparation for the world of work.
Students are required to choose a job that interests them, write a letter of application and submit the letter along with an up-to-date CV. Each student is interviewed by someone they do not know with questions designed to assess their communication, collaboration, creative problem solving and self-management skills. At the end of the interview of around 15 minutes, the student is asked to take a seat away from the interviewer whilst a feedback sheet is filled in. The interviewer then invites the student to return to the desk to receive verbal feedback as well as the written sheet. The feedback covers the letter of application, the CV and the actual interview.
As for many students this is their first experience of a formal, work-related interview, the emphasis of the feedback is upon positivity with the aim of boosting their confidence and helping them prepare for real-life employment situations. One or two suggestions as to how they can improve are both helpful and beneficial but need to be delivered in a positive way!
It was very encouraging to meet these young people and to realise how conscientious, well-informed and hard-working they are. The youth of today do not often receive good press which is very sad when many of them have so much to offer.
Rosemary Stone