The Club is both shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Andrea Trimmer on the 10th November 2019. Andrea was an active and passionate member of the Club and Soroptimist International. She joined the Club on 2009 and served as our Events Co-ordinator from 2010-14 when she became our Club President in 2014. During her Presidential year the Club raised over £3000 for her chosen charity – the ‘Young Carers’. She was until recently both Regional and Club Development Officer
Andrea was a magnificent organiser of events. If Andrea took on a responsibility you could rest assured that it would be done. We held a great fund raising event a during the Tour de France in her Presidential year and the photo of Andrea on the yellow bike surrounded by Club members and friends made it into the local papers as well as our Facebook and website pages
Though our aims and our commitment as an organisation are serious in their intent, we also on occasion ‘let our hair down’ and have lots of fun. One of the earliest memories of Andrea getting actively ‘stuck in’ was the annual pantomime. One year it was Snow White and the Seven Soroptimists. Andrea played the Wicked Stepmother. She looked fantastic in a beautiful evening dress which was perfect for the part and she played it magnificently. She got lots of applause for her lines and was one of the stars of the show.
Andrea had flair and style. Those two things that are hard to define but which you recognise when you see them. As President of the Club she was an exceptional representative for our causes. She looked beautiful at our annual Charter Dinner and her dress, makeup and hair were lovely.
Each year the Club President chooses a charity which the club supports during their year of office. When Andrea was President she chose Young Carers. She was really moved by the difficulties that young carers encountered as they looked after family members and was determined that they should also have fun in their own childhood. Under Andrea’s leadership we raised over £3,000 for the charity that year.
It was also a fantastic opportunity to hear about the Programme Action work of our Clubs throughout our Federation. We were particularly inspired by the work of SI Newcastle led by Dame Vera observing the work of the Special Domestic Abuse Magistrates Courts – its left us wanting to find out who we can get involved.
As ever it was a great to meet up with our Friendship links across the Federation. We were delighted to meet up with Laurel Becker from Pretroria Tw