At the Business Meeting on Wednesday 12 June, members enjoyed an interesting talk by Amanda Antcliffe, a Soroptimist from Burton-upon-Trent.  Amanda has been employed within the criminal justice system for 25 years, including the Police Service, Witness Care and Foston Hall, a Closed Female prison in Derby.  She is currently employed as a Cluster Manager by Milton Keynes College, who provide education in adult men’s and women’s prisons and young offender institutes.  After an introduction by Amanda, club members filled in a quiz sheet which revealed some startling facts.  From research carried out in 2010/11,  17,240 children were separated from their mothers due to their mother’s imprisonment.  Of this number only 9% were cared for by their fathers in their mothers absence.  Even more disturbing was that 81% of the women sentenced to prison had committed non-violent crimes and a high percentage of the violent

President Donna and club member Ellie attended the Cosford Air Show on Sunday 9th June, 2013 in their capacity as STEM Ambassadors. An example of the ‘hands on’ service we undertake, Donna & Ellie manned the STEMNET stand at the show greeting visitors and promoting STEMNET.  They built torches with the children whilst discussing with parents the career opportunities available if Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects are taken at GCSE and ‘A’ level. Donna & Ellie had a great day and met Carol Vorderman, no stranger to the subject of Maths, who is currently training for her round-the-world solo flight later this year.  Their hard work was rewarded by lunch in the MESS with all those uniformed men!

    Lichfield Club held a Quiz Night at Curborough Community Centre on Saturday 8th June 2013.  Teams of up to 6 people competed in a quiz compiled by Founder Club President Angela Reynolds.   96 Question, covering 12 subjects together with two table top quiz sheets, certainly “stirred the grey matter” of the 82 participants.  Scores were updated after each round by President Donna, so contestants could keep abreast of their progress.  Quizzers were given a chance to re-fuel at the halfway point with a buffet of cold meat, cheese, pickle and French sticks.   The winning team each received a bottle of wine and the team with the lowest score received the booby prize – a wooden spoon.   It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, which raised a total profit of £521.21p.  This will be shared equally between Talking Newspapers (see club news

Regional President Dishi, President Elect Lesley together with husband Mark, Pauline, Ellie and Bev were up with the ‘dawn chorus’ on Sunday 2nd June, 2013 at the Wood Farm Car Boot Sale.  Bric-a-Brac donated by Club members and friends was recycled into cash by equally early punters searching for a bargain. Books, jigsaw puzzles, kitchen equipment, pictures, costume jewllery and various other items, yielded a total of £146.25 which will help swell the club’s charity funds. Unfortunately, (or some may say fortunately given the time of day!!), no-one brought a camera to record the successful event but the weather smiled on us and it was good fun having a banter to get the best sales.

Members of Lichfield Club were out in force on Bower Day to help count the proceeds from the Bower Procession collection.  President Donna and husband Alan, Carol Wedgbury and husband Les, Mark Warfield, husband of President Elect Lesley,  together with, Lorna Benham, Bev Billings, Margaret Galuszka, Ellie Gormley, Liz Leaver, Mary McCurry and Pat Nixon all had their heads down counting the proceeds which totalled over £3,900.00. The Bower is well known to Lichfield and is a festival held each spring on a bank holiday.  It is about 800 years old and the origins of the bower go back to the time of Henry II.  Most of the ancient features of the Bower still survive – the Court of arraye is held in the Guildhall, when the Mayor inspects the “men-at-arms” and the procession through the streets is led by Morris dancers and military bands.  The

  SI Lichfield Soroptimist Ellie Gormley has received an award in recognition of her invaluable contribution to the STEM Ambassadors Scheme within Staffordshire, Stoke onTrent,Shropshireand Telford & Wrekin.  Ellies award was presented by Major Jones from the Signal Corp who has recently joined STEMNET as partners. STEMNET creates opportunities to inspire young people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).  STEM Ambassadors help voluntarily in a range of activities designed to increase young people’s choice and chances in these key areas. Ellie, who has been a STEM Ambassador for 4 years, helped at our Skirting Science Event last year and became a member of SI Lichfield in March 2013.  9 members of SI Lichfield are STEM Ambassadors and a further 3 will train and register this year in time for our next Skirting Science Event scheduled for 16th October. President Donna and all the club

    Our club celebrated its 15th Charter with a 1940’s themed evening at the Terrace Restaurant,Watling Street, Brownhills.  Civic dignitaries included Lady Mayor Janet Eagland and Sherriff Cllr. Brian Bacon.  SI Regional President Dishi Attwood, a member of Lichfield club and 10 Presidents from the Midland Chase Region also attended the event. They were each presented with a coffee mug with the slogan ‘soroptimists keep calm and carry on’. Many of the guests arrived in 40’s attire, including Club President Donna Cope.   Angela Reynolds, founder Club President, arrived as a land girl, complete with gas mask. Her husband Michael, armed with an array of watches and silk stockings to tempt the punters, came as a Spiv Muriel from SI Burton-upon-Trent, our mother club, lit the friendship candle and guests then enjoyed a delicious three course meal.   Entertainment followed from Sincerely Yours, a mother

John May, from The Talking Newspapers Lichfield & District gave members an interesting talk about the work carried out by his Company.  Founded in 1981 the aim was to provide the best possible news & entertainment service to the blind and visually impaired.  This was achieved in the form of 90 minutes of extracts from the Lichfield Mercury every week.  Now, with the digital technology available, they can send out 10 hours of news, entertainment and information and hope to extend this to 20 hours in the near future. Digital Technology has also allowed them to focus on blind and visually impaired children, as well as other children with reading difficulties such as Dyslexia.  School curriculums can be read onto memory sticks for these children to access.  However sadly, for some of these children, blindness is not their only disability, as many of them have other

Lichfield Members attended the 30th Charter for SI Staffordshire Moorlands, held on Saturday 4th May at Rudyard Lake Hotel.  Their first charter was on the 6th May 1983 and four of the founder members, who still play an active part in the club, joined in the celebrations.  Guests enjoyed a delicious three course meal after which Dr Eileen London, a Soroptimist for over 40 years proposed a toast to the organisation.  Dr London introduced Staffordshire Moorlands current President, Wendy Lord, to Soroptiimism some years ago.  Regional President Dishi Attwood gave a short address to the guests after which  the founder members, together with President Wendy, cut a celebration cake baked by President Wendy.   Guests were then invited to enjoy a walk by the lake before returning for afternoon tea and a slice of  cake.   In addition to Dishi others members from SI Lichfield & District were, Top Row left to right. Beverley Billings,

Following the handing over from Chris to Donna, Donna then presented Chris with flowers and gift vouchers for Start and Tremayne as a thank you from Lichfield Club for all that Chris had acheived during a very successful year.  As an extra surprise Donna then went on to present Chris AND Dishi with a Past President’s Badge in the style of the new dynamic ‘S’ Logo.  Dishi, a member of the Lichfield Club and former President is currently Regional President, Midland Chase.