Lichfield Cathedral holds a Christmas tree festival each year where local businesses and organisations buy and decorate a tree. There is also a competition for the best tree voted on by local people.
In 2019 we decided to take part and decorate a tree to promote the United Nation’s Orange the World campaign and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence.
In tune with the theme of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence campaign, we chose to decorate the trees in orange using the Soroptimist logo etc as appropriate. A number of members sourced the orange material and a few Christmassy sparkly notions and made a variety of decorations.
A relevant message was sewn onto each decoration to ensure that the theme of the tree was clear and educational. The ‘fairy’ at the top was recycled and made out of various sewing box items. At the base of the trees, we were able to provide more information on both the Orange the World campaign and also promote Soroptimism and our Club.
In the villages of two of our members, local libraries were also holding a similar festival so we were able to have similar trees in the surrounding Club district too.
This event enabled us to have a presence in the Cathedral and two local libraries and be seen by a significant number of local people and also visitors. Approximately 10,000 people visited the Christmas Tree display in the cathedral – both before and during Advent – and saw our tree publicising the United Nations campaign and Soroptimism.
This event provided us with an excellent opportunity to highlight the issues of Violence Against Women to a wide audience. As the trees were decorated in orange, they attracted attention and, as each decoration had a message, many people were informed and educated about the United Nation’s Orange the World campaign.