Following our ceremony to remember our Friendship links with other Clubs, we welcomed Cheryll Rawbone, Chairman of a local charity called the Friendship Project. The charity works to link disadvantaged children to adult volunteers as friends to enjoy regular 1-2-1 support and enable these young people to have a positive outcome. The charity has deservedly one several awards, the most recent being the ‘Achieves for Charity’ in October 2018 and the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service When thanking Cheryll for her very interesting talk, Club member Barbara so eloquently said ‘Out there, in our own community, there are so many people vulnerable young people and many of them have broken wings If a regular friend can show them respect and give them a regular special time when they feel safe and secure and valued, with time those broken wings may begin to slowly heal and

As part of our 16 Days of Action we’ve decorated our Christmas Tree at the annual display in St Nicholas Church with White Ribbons and information about this campaign aimed at men. Their motto is Men Working to End Men’s Violence against Women It would be great if we could get Kenilworth declared a ‘White Ribbon’ town. In the mean time, we’re aiming to get as many men as possible to sign the pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women. For more info, check out https://www.whiteribbon.org.uk

We went litter picking with the Green Party group in Kenilworth. Although Soroptimists are a non-political organisation we took the opportunity to contribute to SDG 15. Life on land can only be healthy when waste is properly managed. All together we collected over 15 bags of waste, mostly plastic and drinks cans. Amongst the more unusual items were a workman’s fluorescent jacket, a ‘for sale’ sign and a bike pump. There was also a whole bag of waste dog poo bags – shame on you dog walkers 🙁 We also took the opportunity to spread the word about what we as Soroptimists do to help women and children. Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

The Gardening Gang decided it was that time of year to tidy up Joan’s garden and take the opportunity to replant some of the borders, ready for Joan to enjoy next year. Much digging and weeding was followed a week later by a mass planting session of bulbs, perennials and shrubs kindly donated by one of our neighbours.