Members wrote in support of the Write for Rights campaign run by Amnesty international, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/write-rights-2019 writing letters of solidarity to victims of Human Rights abuses and letters to officials appealing for action. About 100 letters / E mails/ Tweets were sent off / posted on social media.
84 women both Soroptimists and guests gathered at Ulverston Sports and Social Club to enjoy an evening with Joan Bentley who entertained and educated us while producing gorgeous flower arrangements which were then raffled for charity. The evening raised at least £500 for charities supported by SI Grange over Sands and a good evening was had by all, including a super finger buffet.
4 Club members visited Barrow women’s Centre to see the centre and deliver Sanitary products purchased with some of the proceeds from the afternoon tea in August. Period poverty is a major problem for women and girls on low incomes and those who attend Barrow Women’s Centre http://www.womenscommunitymatters.org/ can access sanitary items on site and to take home if necessary.
Ten club members went to the SIGBI Conference in Bournemouth and were doubly proud as club member Rosemary Hoyle was installed as Regional President and Singing for Memory won the Federation Best Practice award in the Food Security and Healthcare category. Janice gave an excellent presentation on Singing for Memory to the Conference and really highlighted our project and demonstrated why we were chosen from at least 800 other projects! Three members acted as stewards over the 3 days. A good time was had by all with excellent speakers, projects and fun including a visit to the Rocky Horror show and walks along the beach.
Following the very successful Beach Clean 2 weeks ago and blessed with sunny but windy weather Grange Soroptimists were out on the Promenade talking with the public of all ages about plastic and with ideas of how to tackle the problem. There was a treaure hunt, educational stalls about plastics, packaging, recycling and of course creating an art work from plastic found at the beach clean.What are Grange Soroptimists doing to help the Environment? The Soroptimists are most grateful to the following people who joined them for the afternoon: Hannah Barnes from Love my Beach ( Morecambe Bay Partnership) who demonstrated issues with plastic in the Marine environment https://lovemybeach.org/groups/morecambe-bay/ Cat Moffat from Cut the Wrap shop in Ulverston who showed ways to cut plastic usage in day to day life https://www.cutthewrap.co.uk/ Jeni McConnell, Global Ecobricks trainer showing how to make Ecobricks https://www.ecobricks.org/ and Andrew
A delicious afternoon tea was enjoyed on August 9th and raised £201 for Barrow Women’s Centre http://www.womenscommunitymatters.org/ to tackle “Period Poverty” Some facts about Period Poverty https://www.freeperiods.org/mission 1 in 10 girls can’t afford to buy menstrual products according to Plan International UK. Over 137,000 children the UK have missed school because of period poverty. Menstrual products cost more than £18,000 in a women’s life (£13 every month).
