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Club welcomes new President Pat Shore MBE and celebrates long service
It was a full house at the Club’s Annual General meeting in April at the Crown Hotel. We were delighted to welcome Soroptimist International of Yorkshire President Jane Glendenning. The AGM captured all the Club activity over the last year and celebrated a very successful year. Outgoing President Val Hills then passed the chain of office to Pat Shore MBE. President Pat will lead the Club through our special anniversary as we celebrate our 90th year. We also celebrated the long service of two of our Club members, Rachel Richardson and Hilary Waddington. Both have given great service to the Club and Soroptimism over the last 35 years. President Jane, presented their certificates. This year has seen us also form two new friendship links with SI Wellington in New Zealand and SI Conegliano Vittorio Veneto in Italy. We are looking forward to a fabulous year
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Forgotten Women – Alderman Mary Fisher MBE JP 1884-1972
On this year’s International Women’s Day the Club celebrated the lives of local Women who were trail blazers. This included our First Club President Dr Kathleen Rutherford and Dr Laura Veale the First Woman from Yorkshire to qualify as a Doctor. We also celebrated the life of Alderman Mary Fisher, the First woman to become Mayor of Harrogate in 1949. Dr Kathleen and Dr Laura are both celebrated with Harrogate Civic Society plaques. Mary Fisher has a local Care Home named after her. Though the death of this ‘much beloved’ woman made front page news in the local papers in 1972 she is now all but forgotten. MARY FISHER MBE JP Who was Mary Fisher MBE JP? It was pure chance, whilst waiting for a funeral of a Club member that Club President Val noticed a grave at Stonefall Cemetery in Harrogate. She had never heard
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President’s Blog February/March
It’s great that our regular meetings have started again. The first meeting in February focused on Programme Action. It was an excellent meeting organised by Club Programme Action Officers’ Christine A and Paula. The PowerPoint presentation really encapsulated all that we do. It is available on YouTube https://youtu.be/YQhqoqdNr_M It’s already had 54 views and is also on our Face Book page @Soroptimist80. I recommend you watch it if you haven’t seen it. It’s also an excellent way of sharing ‘What do we do?’ Our current projects, Dementia Forward and Toilet Twinning will be finishing in September so this was followed by an opportunity to think about what our future projects may be. There was a great buzz to the evening. Lots of interaction and discussion. Turkey/Syrian Earthquake I am sure, like me, many of you were shocked of the scale and loss of life and
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The Great Big Green Week
How do we address Climate Change and contribute to #CarbonZero? What is our Parliament doing? These are the questions we posed to Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough Club members welcomed Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones to their February meeting. It is #GreatBigGreenWeek and Andrew was asked to speak about how Parliament is tackling #climatechange and #zerocarbon. We celebrated the Great Big Green Week by wearing green and giving Andrew a Green knitted heart. The Government aim is to reach zero carbon by 2050. Government departments have to demonstrate how this will be achieved. All parties are signed up to tackling Climate change and there is much cross party working. The country now produces 40% of our energy from renewable resources. But change will take time and money. For instance there are 40 million homes with gas boilers! Members raised concerns
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President Blog – November
Presidents Report – November/December Where has this year gone? And yet is seems ages ago since we made our first tentative steps back to normality. Last year we met on the 1st of December and awarded the Charity Shop Christmas Window winners at the Crown Hotel. A week later, I had to make the presentation to the Wetherby Winner’s in the street as restrictions were reintroduced due to the spread of covid. Covid is still a factor but is now part of our everyday lives. I hope all of you who have recently had covid have made a good recovery. Remembrance Sunday 13 November November has been another very busy month. There is so much going on in the Club. On the 13th of November I represented the Club at the Harrogate Cenotaph to lay a wreath at the Remembrance Service. It is always a
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President’s Blog – December/January 2023
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Charity Shop Window Competition – The Results
Harrogate and District Soroptimist were delighted to welcome the award winners of the annual Charity Shop Christmas Window Competition to their meeting at the Crown Hotel on the 7th December. The Deputy Mayor of Harrogate Borough, Cllr. Robert Windass and Club President Val Hills, presented the Award Certificates and the Soroptimist Cup to the overall winner. The judging took place in three zones. Harrogate Town; Ripon with Boroughbridge and Knaresborough with Starbeck and Bilton. This year the judges were joined by Cllr Mark Flood, the deputy Mayor of Knaresborough and Linda Birkinshaw a local artist from Ripon. This year’s winner of the Soroptimist Cup is Shelter, Harrogate. Zone Winners – Harrogate Town Gold Award: Shelter, Commercial Street Silver Award: Martin House Hospice Shop, Commercial Street Highly Commended. Saint Michael’s Hospice Shop, Cold Bath Road, Cancer Research UK, Oxford Street and Yorkshire Cancer Research, Oxford Street
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President’s Blog – September
Welcome to my September/ October Blog, Cost of Living Crisis Thank you to Club Members who’ve donate blankets/throws/ hot water bottles, flasks and hats for the Harrogate District Food Bank. I know this will help make a difference. People are already struggling to get by and though the energy cap will help, some of them will still have to make a choice between heat and eat. 5 Ladies and a bus call Bertha I know that many of us where shocked at the death of HM The Queen on the 8th September. The news had just been released as I travelled with Jennifer to the Knaresborough Library to listen to Sue Williams reading from her newly published book. There was a good Soroptimist turn out and it was an enjoyable evening. We are looking forward to the next instalment. A few of us raised our
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5 Ladies and a bus called Bertha
The Club is delighted to announce the Book Launch of 5 Ladies and a Bus called Bertha, written by our very own Sue Williams. The book is available to buy from Amazon. Sue will donate all profits to Be shared between Dementia Forward Toilet Twinning The Trussell Trust and Soroptimist SIGBI. It promises is an excellent and fun read.