During the Centenary, Clubs and their members have been encouraged to promote Acts of Kindness. They are on our Club poster SI Epsom & District Acts of Kindness and listed below:
- One member has shown great kindness for the charity True Honour. She is advising True Honour in the development of a robust business plan, recruitment of new trustees and securing a bid for £16,000 which will mean a huge boost for the charity going forward in supporting survivors of honour killings.
- Several members of SI Epsom & District have shown great kindness towards each other during the pandemic . The Club were very much used to face to face meetings and, at the start of the pandemic, it was not possible to hold these meetings. It was decided to hold meetings on Zoom but very few members were familiar with this platform for video conferencing. Club members took this on board and began to work with individual members, sometimes spending a great deal of time, to enable them to use Zoom. This included some members who were initially unsure about using technology. The majority of members are now on Zoom and a similar approach is now being used to encourage members with social media and membership bubbles, a new buddy system.
- Two members have been advisors to the school and the Headteacher who herself is a Soroptimist.
- One member has a friend who suffers from macular degeneration and partial deafness. She phones her everyday and sometimes takes her to a garden centre.
- During lockdown, one member was lucky enough to receive online line food shopping deliveries. She offered to shop for 3 friends who were either elderly or unwell as they were unable to go shopping themselves or did not receive food deliveries.
- On 16 October 2020, World Food Day, several members of SI Epsom donated food and other essential items to local foodbanks and supermarkets. Some members donated money to Foodbanks and Community Fridges.
- During the run up to Christmas, one member organised a Secret Santa for the domestic abuse charity, East Surrey Domestic Abuse Services (ESDAS) and asked other members if they would like to donate and they did! Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid RBWA) sent out a request for presents for families. A wish list was created on Amazon and several members donated. Some members decided that instead of giving gifts to friends and family, they would donate to the 3 domestic abuse charities supported by the Club.
- A special Christmas Social was organised by members to entertain each other at a time when it was not possible to go out for Christmas meals or to the theatre or cinema. Members gave up their time to select, rehearse and perform the entertainment which ranged from poetry reading, singing, piano playing, a Christmas quiz and applying festive makeup!
- One member, who had worked for Advocacy in Action, had acted as an advocate for a client until 2004. The member and client kept in touch over the years and has recently supported him again with an issue, despite having retired from advocacy work in 2014.