Wednesday evening saw us at a party night that was a real surprise for Lichfield Soroptimist Mary. She had been asked to speak about 30 years as a Soroptimist but unbeknownst to her, President Pat had arranged a great surprise! Region President Alyson of Walsall Club came to the meeting accompanied by Gwen, Jane, Erica and Judith – all members of Mary’s previous club. The certificate, beautifully framed was presented along with flowers and the cake that Chris had made. A lovely evening and we are so proud that Mary has joined Lichfield Club.
Mary spoke about how she was ‘invited’ to join Soroptimism and how after very few months she found herself in charge of Programme Action for the club. She spoke about her role as Region President of Midland Arden at the time when the Aids crisis was at its height. Her speaker that came with a selection of condoms caused some dismay among some members of the region!
Mary was Chief Steward of the Federation Conference in Hong Kong and the following year, found herself ‘demoted’ (said with much laughter) to transport manager at the Birmingham Conference!! Hagley Road will never seem the same again!
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John May MBE also attended to collect a cheque for £400 that was raised at a recent Quiz Night. For the benefit of our 5 new and prospective members that attended the evening, he explained the current position with the charity. With the use of new technology that now provides 16 hours of listening material, the initial visit to new referrals has led to a great partnership with the Fire and Police services. It became apparent to John that many elderly blind are very isolated and he cited the case of a 94 year old lady who was looking after herself after the death of her husband recently. Through the partnership, they were able to provide smoke and carbon monoxide monitors as well as an assistive communication device that allows for foodstuffs to be labelled with voice activation. Now when she wants beans on toast, the device will read out the tin labels so she no longer has to use peaches instead because they are opened by mistake. There are any number of devices now and Lichfield Soroptimists look forward to continuing to work with Talking Newspapers as this intervention enhances the ‘Educate, Enhance and Empower’ agenda.
