What a fabulous turn out for the Big Doggy Day out! And even more incredibly, we managed to raise £1291 for guide dogs for Pembrokeshire in the process! A Huge thank you to all those who helped make it the day it was. The money will help transform lives for those needing vital assistance in Pembrokeshire. The following is the wonderful write up provided by The Western Telegraph and we’re very grateful to them for featuring our event “The Big Doggy Day Out, held at Scolton Manor and organised by the Haverfordwest and District Soroptimists, raised £1,291 for the Pembrokeshire branch of Guide Dogs Cymru. The sun-filled event drew large crowds and featured fun dog classes such as Prettiest Eyes, Best Rescue Dog, Best Trick and the judge’s favourite, Dog the Judge Would Most Like to Take Home. Visitors also enjoyed food, music, stalls, fun

One of President Ruth’s chosen charities this year is Guide Dogs Cymru and our fundraising efforts kick off on Sunday 8th June at Scolton Manor , Haverfordwest. See the Poster below and make sure you come along (with or without your pooch) to join in the fun!!!!

Those of you who are regular visitors to our website may remember our previous post (July 2021) about our Medical Detection Dog – Misty.  Well Misty (along with a “colleague” Storm)   made a slight career change and  did some training in a care home setting ready for their future jobs in a #UTI pilot study. This dream team will attend venues where vulnerable people are at risk of potentially life-threatening infections – Storm as a UTI detection dog who’ll passively sniff for the odour directly on people and Misty as a Community Assistance Dog on paw to offer mental health and physical wellbeing benefits to users of the service. https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/urinary-tract…/ We are delighted that our investment in Misty back in 2018 continues to pay dividends! Misty, on the right, and Storm reporting for duty

At SI Haverfordwest we are well known in Soroptimist circles for our Bra Collecting Project and this has continued at a pace over the past 12 months. For the past few years, we have asked for people to donate their old bras for the Bravissimo Bra Recycle Scheme – old / new / worn / very worn / broken – it doesn’t matter! Every single last one is recycled and used. They are then either sent to be reused in developing countries, giving girls the independence, dignity, and safety to attend school, or, those in poorer condition are broken down into their component parts and recycled; nothing is wasted. Additionally, for every kilo donated, Bravissimo make a donation to Women’s Aid. We’ve collected another 2000 bras in recent weeks and posted them off to Bravissimo for them to work their magic. The total sent to

Something new for us!  We (well a very small number of tech savvy members….) organised an online raffle via Facebook after we were gifted a brand new Radley handbag.  It seemed a shame not to maximise its value so that’s exactly what we did! When the winner was drawn it was someone from Filey in North Yorkshire just confirming the wisdom in spreading our wings to sell as many tickets as possible. Well done Deena and team for another job well done! and many thanks to our handbag donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

FEBRUARY Yet again our events committee pulled out all the stops and delivered a brilliantly organised Bingo Evening, raising vital funds for Patch Charity and Hive Garth Youth.  This time the event had a Valentine’s theme. £600.50 Was raised by playing the traditional game of bingo, 2 special flyers and holding a raffle, with a table bulging with prizes made and donated by members. We had a star prize of a tassimo coffee machine donated to us by Vaughans, thank you SO much for this, it certainly added to the excitement on the final flyer game! Huge thank you to Linda at the Haverfordwest Cricket Club for always being the best host, nothing is too much trouble for her and to our always willing caller Dave Golding, you love it really! #vaughans #vaughanselectrical #patchcharity #https://www.facebook.com/share/18QtFTGJXe/ #hivegarthyouth #SIGBI #haverfordwestcricketclub                   

It was daffodils all the way when we celebrated International Women’s Day by picking and distributing hundreds of daffodils to local women on Saturday 8th March. Once again Puffin kindly allowed us to pick daffodils from their fields and we were able to spread a little happiness while drawing attention to Soroptimist work for women and girls #internationalwomensday #soroptimistinternational #puffin #BlasyTir                     

Our final fundraiser of the year was a quiz and what a successful evening it was!  It was held at Haverhub, Haverfordwest.  We had a massive 73 entries and raised £600 for PATCH from the quiz and raffle. Big thank you to our quiz master Simon H, fondly known as Gabe’s dad.  He had put tremendous thought and planning into the evening which consisted of questions on General Knowledge, Current Affairs, Music, Observation (with a film clip downloaded on our mobile phones) and a very entertaining creative round involving Play Dough, pipe cleaners, lollipop sticks and more – there were some wierd and wonderful creations. As always, big thanks for the generous prizes for the raffle from M&S, County Sports, Ffos Las Racing, Andrew Rees Butchers, Coronation Chippy, Cotts Equine, Clarbeston Rd Players and all members.  Also for the support from locals who attended which

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.