We entered our local church’s Christmas Tree Festival and, of course, our theme was orange.
Orange is the colour which symbolises the international campaign of the ‘16 Days of Activism‘ to end gender based violence. The campaign runs from 25th November till 10th December. Soroptimists throughout the world are joining in activities to raise awareness of violence against women and girls in order to end it.
The first decoration to be made was our tree topper – an angel with our Soroptimist International logo.
Then a whole host of orange angels followed!
And gradually, our Christmas Tree took shape.
President Amanda made sure her outfit was colour-coordinated for our photo of the finished tree!
And did we win? Not this time, but we were thrilled when our Town Mayor and honorary Soroptimist chose our tree for her photographic record of the event. Here she is with the organiser of the Christmas Tree Festival.
We were delighted to be part of one of our community’s early celebrations of Christmas and it was lovely to share the happiness and excitement of families visiting the church to see the trees and enthuse over every contributors’ efforts.
Sadly, there will be women and children who cannot look forward to a happy Christmas. There will inevitably be a rise in incidents of domestic abuse over Christmas and the New Year.
If you would like to help a woman and her children fleeing from domestic abuse this Christmas, please consider this request from Refuge.
https://donate.refuge.org.uk/page/91963/donate/1?locale=en-GB
And if you, or someone you know needs help and support, do please get in touch with:
National Domestic Abuse Helpline 24/7 – 0808 2000 247
http://nationaldahelpline.org.uk