Our first meeting after the summer break was a Dinner Meeting and we were delighted to be joined and entertained by four very resilient local ladies, Sophie, Polly, Janine and Miyah. The fearless foursome are preparing to row the Atlantic – 3,200 miles of it from Lanzarote to Antigua.  Their unsupported row will also be breaking a few records – one of the team is 70 and will be the oldest woman to attempt an ocean row and another lives with Cystic Fibrosis and will be the first person with CF to row an ocean. President Susie and members are delighted to be supporting the Cruising Free team this year and we wish them every success in their endeavour.  We look forward to following their progress both in training and for the actual event.  Make sure you keep up with their news too.  You can

  Our Caller for the evening Dave Golding, ably assisted by our very own Deena Irving   What fun we had!  We had a full house, lots of fun and lots of money raised for two local charities – The Hive and Get The Boys a Lift. President Julia may be coming toward the end of her term in office but she’s certainly not coming to the end of her commitment to raise funds and offer support to local charities.  One again she led the Club to a fantastic result of raising over £900 at our recent Easter Bingo night. Well done Julia and members! Not only was the evening well supported by members but also by many non-members who were delighted to be supporting local charities whilst winning a few Easter Eggs and learning lots about what we do in Soroptimists.

Yet again this year we have been doing our bit to turn the town orange.  Don’t worry – we haven’t been over-enthusiastic with the fake tan! We’ve just been taking the opportunity to highlight the UN’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. This year we have not stopped at lighting up the County Council Offices in orange (Thank you PCC for doing this for us).  We have also asked local businesses to display in their window (or elsewhere) an orange shoe and a poster highlighting the campaign and inviting anyone interested to contact us for more information – about the campaign and about Soroptimists in general.  At least 25 local businesses have participated and we are very grateful to them all.  It goes without saying that any initiative is improved with a cuppa so we arranged an informal coffee morning too – it’s amazing

We continue to hold regular Coffee and Chat events and they really do serve a very important purpose. They provide an opportunity for members and others to meet informally for a catch up and to promote the valuable and varied work we undertake in Soroptimists.  Lots of ladies may not be tempted to come along to a meeting but are quite happy to stop for a chat when they see some friendly faces enjoying a cup of coffee.  We have definitely raised awareness and interest locally – some ladies may join as members, others may support our fundraising activities, others may just want to know when is the next Coffee and Chat – whatever the outcome, it’s a positive one for all involved. We are also using the get togethers to raise awareness of our ongoing support for the campaign against gender based violence and

Living as we do in the beautiful county of Pembrokeshire we are extremely proud of our amazing coastline.  As well as enjoying the stunning beaches we like to play our part in helping the keep the beaches clean and as welcoming as possible.  We take part in one or more beach cleans every year and this year we returned to the small but delightful beach at Pwllgwaelod in the north of the County. Following a lovely lunch at the beachside public house, our members donned their Hi-viz waistcoats and headed to the beach armed with rubbish bags and grabbers.  The sunshine helped the task along nicely and a total of 2.2 kg of rubbish was collected and categorised* with the results submitted to the Marine Conservation Society.  (*Not quite sure how the men’s pants one member found were categorised??). Sadly on this occasion we were