Saturday evening – Barn Dance and ‘peeling the banana’!
To add to the general fun and merriment of the weekend, we decided organise a Barn Dance with live band and caller as a quintessential British activity to teach our Dutch and German sisters how to dance! Only a few toes were trod on and there was much hilarity all round. We all learnt a new step called ‘peel your banana’, which mainly involved running around the line of participants in your group as fast as possible to get back to the start! Chaos and mayhem which provided much amusement for those watching. Which way now?!!! And of course, some cake!
June Dinner Meeting – A truly inspiring and Soroptimist affirming talk
We welcomed Midland Arden Region President Jan Hemlin to our June dinner meeting. She gave us a very interesting and informative talk about her journey as a Soroptimist so far. Amongst the highlights were her descriptions of the many Soroptimist International conferences and conventions that she has attended, and the opportunities they offer for networking, development and collaboration. Jan also gave us a clear explanation of Soroptimists involvement in the UN that demonstrated the extensive work done to address the may issues and inequalities that affect women and girls throughout the world. Although Jan delivered some very powerful statements in a gentle but dramatic manner, this just enhanced their message.
We didn’t let the bad weather stop us!
Despite the Lions unfortunately having to cancel the Grand Show this year (first time in its 46 year history) we still managed to raise £500 by selling the plants to friends and neighbours thanks to Trish hosting plant sales from her back garden.
Thank you Kenilworth Lions
A massive thanks to Kenilworth Lions who are also celebrating 50 years of charter. Due to the generosity of their Dream Scheme, we received £1000 towards our Wellbeing Fund to help the women and children at our local refuge.
Soroptimists in Action!
Our very own Soroptimist in Action Fran ran the 10k Two Castles Race this morning raising over £300 via her JustGiving page for our Wellbeing Fund, supporting the women and children at our local Refuge. Eight more of us had the rather more sedentary task of raising money by marshalling the event!espite the early start, the weather was kind to us and we were able to cheer everyone on with a smile. 🙂
Groundforce in action!
Alan Titchmarsh eat your heart out! A team of us set to and gave Joan a hand to get her garden ready for the summer. Unfortunately we forgot to take a before picture! We’ll be back again soon with more plants for her borders and some annuals from our stall at the Lions Grand Show.
BBC article on the Warwick Rape Chat Scandal
Inside the Warwick University rape chat scandal This makes such distressing and depressing reading. One that supposedly educated and intelligent young men took part in this, the second the lack of meaningful response from such a prestigious university local to our Club
UN Sustainable Development Goals
We were delighted to welcome Ian Holland, Senior Consultant to the United Nations, and his wife Samira to our dinner meeting this month. Ian has lived and worked all over the world, often in dangerous countries and indeed had only arrived just back from Jakarta, Indonesia, where he’d had to leave slightly earlier than planned due to the uprisings there due to the elections. Any jet lag didn’t show and he gave us a very informative talk about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Like all good speakers, this wasn’t a dry presentation on the 17 Goals, but made lively and interactive by Club members joining in playing SDG bingo! (Possibly a first for Club, bring prizes added to the competitive spirit and fun!!). Ian gave us an update on the original 8 Goals 2000-2015 and what has been achieved. And