Along with most organisations that meet regularly, we are now having our Club meetings via Zoom. Our next meeting is this Wednesday 13th January 2021 when we will catch up socially, address some business and look to the future as to projects that will broaden our horizons and make the lives of women and girls in our location, across the UK and the Globe safer and enable them to fulfill their potential. For our December meeting we had a Zoom Gin Tasting session, just amazing how many different varieties/brands we had between us and individually – what does that say about us (we like to enjoy ourselves!).  There were some good stories behind why certain gins were in our drinks cupboards at home.   A great way to start Christmas celebrations – as it turned out, probably better than Christmas!  Members clubbed together to pay for

Both Ipswich Soroptimists and Ipswich Inner Wheel normally meet for their separate meetings at the Ipswich & Suffolk Club in the evening of the 2nd Wednesday of each month.  In February 2020 (the last time our Club met face to face) we decided to hold a joint meeting, including supper and both organisations had booked interesting speakers. The Gender Equality Quilt was our contribution, with a presentation by Women’s Voices representatives.  This quilt started at the Festival back in October 2018 with many of the attendees producing a tile.  All the embroidered tiles have been lovingly compiled into a major piece that is very expressive about the status of women.  It will be going into The Hold later this year but hopefully will be regularly shown at key events for women. The Inner Wheel speaker was the new CEO of Ipswich Ipswich Housing Action Group

Ipswich Soroptimists joined in the excellent event organised by Women’s Voices and Volunteering Matters on International Women’s Day, 8th March 2020.  With an eclectic mix of poetry, a Footsteps play, singing and dancing, plus Open Mike sessions from ourselves, Extreme Revolution and other amazing organisations we held a raffle of a beautiful quilt made by friends to raise funds for Lighthouse Women’s Aid.  The money will go towards furnishings for their new Therapeutic Room. The winning ticket number was ‘Yellow ticket 551’ which was drawn by a speaker at our Club meeting on 11th March. We hope the winner enjoys using it.

Our Quiz  in April 2020 had to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  We still plan to hold a quiz at Seckford Golf Club with quizmaster Simon Jay but it will have to wait until later this year or 2022 once it is safe to do so.  We’re raising funds for 2 different but connected causes – Lighthouse Women’s Aid, who give such wonderful support to women who have experienced domestic abuse and our own Education Bursary Fund which assists vulnerable women who need to acquire qualifications to enable them to join the world of work and become independent. There will be a meal before the quiz, a raffle with great prizes, an auction of a 3 night stay near Southwold for up to 4 people and Simon Jay, who is renowned for his sense of humour.. WE WILL PUBLICISE THE NEW DATE AS

Members already make syringe driver bags for Ipswich Hospital and we are very grateful for the donation of materials to make them from people who support us. Tracy Hitching, the Palliative and End of Life Coordinator, asked whether we could possibly also make purple bags in a similar design; not for patients this time but for the Butterfly Volunteers. How could we say no! These volunteers provide company and companionship to hospital patients in the last days of their lives. They also reassure and support patient’s loved ones (if they have any). They also work closely with the Palliative Care and Chaplaincy teams. The purple bags will hold notebooks, pens, tissues and whatever else the volunteer thinks would be useful. By wearing the bags the volunteers will stand out easily for both patients, visitors and staff to recognise easily. We have made 15, with varying

One of our speakers last year was Sarah Lungley, Mental Health and Wellbeing Coordinator for Suffolk Libraries who spoke about her role.  We had invited Sarah as 1. it was Mental Health Awareness Week (and we wore something green in recognition of this) and 2. Suffolk Libraries are a collection point for sanitary wear to try to counter period poverty. Their over arching objective is to enhance quality of life by connecting individuals and groups to information, ideas and experiences.  In order to do this they reach out into the community and are improving their resources in terms of use of space and type of information and services available.  New ideas are tested in perhaps one library initially, refined and feedback obtained before rolling the initiative out to other Suffolk Libraries.  There is something for everyone and all are welcome. This was quite an eye-opener