Regional President Pam and members of SI Hertford and District hosted a Regional Afternoon Tea Party in the beautiful garden of member Jenny Cobb in order to raise funds for the Meru Women’s Garden Project. The event was supported by clubs from across the region, raising £500 for our Federation Project.
Melanie Ewer gave a brilliant talk on the work of the Courtyard Arts in Hertford. She is the current Director and a trustee. Very informative and lively and told us that 2016 was their 20 year celebration. Art classes for both adults and children are held throughout the year and work is displayed regularly in the Hertford Theatre. More excitingly some innovative work is being done off site with schools and an outreach programme for special groups in the community such as lonely adults in sheltered accommodation or children educated at home. This arts centre has become an important part of the Hertford art scene and we look forward to working with them in partnership with the money we hope to raise at our next quiz. Well done to the Courtyard Arts as they celebrate 20 very good years in Hertford.
The first meeting of the new year challenged the Hertford and District Club to consider What is Art? We had a very lively and enjoyable evening with much member participation. In line with the 2016/17 theme of ‘Women and the arts’ members were asked to ‘Think about some things they regarded as ‘art” and bring up to 3 items. The evening began with a powerpoint presentation of women across the world working in different ‘art’ forms – from architecture to painting; decorative glass to book illustration; singing to theatre; poetry to fashion design; film to choreography. Members, working in small groups, whole-heartedly discussed the ‘items’ they had brought, which ranged across the ‘arts’ but the most interesting and fascinating part of the evening was members’ willingness to share the personal story behind their chosen item.
Soroptimist International Hertford and District were proud to mark their 60th Anniversary with a special celebratory lunch and friendship weekend. Members, former members and friends of the club gathered at Mayflower Place, Hertingfordbury on Saturday 30th April, and were joined not only by Soroptimists from across the London Chilterns Region but from Hamar in Norway and Ankara in Turkey as well. After a superb meal, Regional President Pam Robertson congratulated SI Hertford and District on their achievements, and Club President Sarah Newstead compared the lives of women between 1956 and 2016, before presenting a cheque for £2000 to Michele Stokes, CEO Carers In Hertfordshire, and a cheque for £1000 to member Karin Weston for Water Aid. President Sarah then presented member Valerie Kent with a certificate marking her 40 years of service to Soroptimism. For club members and our friends from Norway and Turkey, the
Our Wine into Water, wine and cheese evening has become an annual event raising money for WaterAid. This year we managed to take advantage of the government’s matching grant but which had to be sent to WaterAid before end February. So Soroptimists pledged money prior to the event and together with monies raised on the evening, we raised £1,000 for WaterAid, a tremendous amount.
Who would have thought that our members would learn a new word – deltiology – relating to an unusual hobby. Our speaker Vanessa Mann gave us a fascinating talk about collecting early postcards but with a purpose. Not for their pictures but to do a genealogical search of the people who had received the card and the sender. In some cases she had managed to link cards with a descendant which was her object if possible. A very interesting and unusual talk.
Regional Meeting and Celebration of Human Rights Day, Mayflower Place, Hertingfordbury SI Hertford & District had the honour of hosting this meeting and a good number of us turned out to help. Celebration of Human Rights Day 2015 Regional President Pam (SI Hertford & District) read from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed on 10 December 1948 and lit a candle to remember those in the world who are still denied their human rights. Pam then read the poignant poem We Refugees by Benjamin Zephaniah. President of SI Hertford & District Sarah Newstead read an extract from an article in the Telegraph about women in Ghana called “Queen Mothers” and lit a candle to celebrate the work of women across the world. Regional President Elect Jen Simpson of SI High Wycombe & District read an article from the December edition of Soroptimist News by
Our speaker on 1st February 2016 was Mrs Christine Bell, telling us how she started her business of selling craft ideas to a small group at first, and now 27 years later, exports to Europe and Russia – the most popular item there is an egg decorated to look like a Faberge! Christine has 3 factories in Hertford producing the craft equipment they sell, but still has to import polystyrene eggs from America and from Holland it is “peel offs”. They won an award three years running for developing a special glue used for sticking all manner of paper and wood. Christine says it glues anything!!! Christine does not sew but makes all sorts of boxes, Christmas trees which open up to hold sweets, etc. They appear on TV Sky channel “Ideal World”. They have just produced a board for disabled people called a “Buddy
Forensic Document Analysis…Change your handwriting…forge a signature! At the 1st Speaker meeting of the year members of SI Hertford & district were entertained by Dr Steve Day, lecturer in Forensic Chemistry at UEA, Norwich. Dr Day has worked for 30 years in the Forensic Science industry with the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory and then the Home Office’s Forensic Science Service. His specialism being Questioned Documents and handwriting. He has appeared in Court on many occasions as an expert witness, from Loughborough Magistrates to the Courts of Appeal in the Strand. Today his main research interests are in the development of techniques to improve interpretation of physical evidence in forensic science, in particular in document examination. Such forensic expertise may be required to interpret documents in any of the following cases – fraud; drug dealing; murder/rape; counterfeiting & printing; terrorism & counter terrorism; import &
SI HERTFORD & DISTRICT – ENGINEERING GRANT SI Hertford & District were delighted to present a cheque for £250 to local student Laura Monk to support her studies at the University of Hertfordshire. Laura is in her first year of a degree in Biomedical Engineering. The money had been raised at a lunch held for members and friends with the specific aim of raising funds to support a young woman in Engineering. The picture shows London Chilterns Regional President Pam presenting the cheque to Laura on behalf of SI Hertford.
