A massive £790 was raised at this enjoyable evening! A West Midlands 1940’s & vintage vocal harmony trio plus support from the versatile Lindsey Darling  made for a fun evening in Lichfield last Friday.   It all took place at ‘The Village’ in Lichfield which is proving to be a versatile venue close to the city centre.  Tea and coffee was served in the short break before dancers really took to the floor for the second half.  President Pat led the way with both her outfit and the dancing. We were delighted to welcome Deputy Mayor Sheelagh James who drew the raffle as well as presenting the champagne to the wearer of the best outfit.  The raffle prizes were generous donations from local businesses including: Bustle Ladies Wear – bottle of champagne for best outfit and toiletries Golunski Leather Shop – Radley handbag new season priced £149 Francesco hairdressers  –

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

Goodness me – turns out I haven’t updated the site for ages and there is so much to tell!! At our January Meeting, 3 new members were welcomed by President Pat.  They are Mary, Publican, Liz, Artisan and Karen who deals with Employment Law.  These are all new categories for our Club and we are delighted that they have joined us.  We look forward to getting to know them and learn from their experiences. At the same meeting, we had a presentation about the charity ‘Chicks’.  President Pat had nominated Staffordshire Young Carers as her main charity.  It now seems that there have been some organisational changes concerning the provision for young carers.  She asked for a presentation by ‘Chicks’ as they are an organisation that offer respite care to children, including young carers.  They were also suggesting that our donation could be allocated to

Thursday evening and the last meeting of the group for this year.  I was asked to stage the story of how brownies began and the girls came up trumps on the night!!  All bar one had families attending and one set of grandparents arrived half an hour in advance!  The £1.50 entrance fee included a strip of raffle tickets, a hot drink and a mince pie.  At the end of the play, Brown Owl inducted two more brownies and they were overwhelmed as they had not been told in advance!! Also in attendance was Peter, Community Officer for the ‘GPO’ wearing the MBE that he was awarded for his work with communities.  He has arranged and funded a number of outings for the group. I was given a thank you plant and card and in turn I took along a small craft gift set for

  Our thanks to Bev who drove and navigated (with Liz) the Birmingham road works to get us to Executive Room 1 at the Symphony Hall at the appointed time for the cheque presentation.  The cheque was presented to Major Peter Forest who was accompanied by his wife Major Julie Forest.  They both spoke warmly of the annual donation that Soroptimists of Lichfield and District have been making to them.  They spoke of the Domestic Violence provision that provides accommodation and dignity to women and children fleeing from violence.  Our donation goes directly to this provision in line with the aims and objectives of Soroptimism. At the close of the concert, President Pat, Bev, Chris, Dishi, Liz, Margaret and Judith, a friend of Mary’s from Birmingham  club were presented to the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the County, David Bradnock.  He knew our wider organisation very well and

Saturday was a wild wet day in Lichfield!  Although there were many events in the city, people were taking the quickest routes between them!  As always, Santa and his two helpers, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, braved the elements with the bucket collection outside.  More importantly, it was encouraging people inside to enjoy refreshments and  browse the stalls. The fair went well although takings were a little down – the Cannock SA Band was playing in the Three Spires Centre and many people had already contributed to the street collection.  Lichfield people have always been very generous. Santa, on his debut performance, was heard to mutter that if he was on stage there would be an interval and the show would be a couple of hours. We were there from 10.30 till 2.30!  However, he kept up the good cheer and the looks on the faces of youngsters

Tuesday evening saw us gathered at a local hostelry to have our Christmas get together.  President Pat had arranged the evening for us and we enjoyed good food and good company.  Pat’s guest Lindsey was able to sing for us at the end.  The photos have been chosen to specifically show that Soroptimister Graham had a very good time!!  As last year, we had a collection for charity instead of sending each other Christmas cards.  We would like to share festive greeting with you all! As a postscript, Soroptimist Beryl has made some super toys and Sam from Dorothy Perkins achieved £12 for the Reindeer!  Thank you Dorothy Perkins Lichfield!  

A FABULOUS DAY travelling to Maidenhead and working with Gill and Peggy to box the books and take to their storage unit.  Gill fortified us with coffee on arrival to get on with the job of unpacking the carrier bags full of books and packing them into boxes that she had saved.  The weather was very kind to us and we worked in lovely sunshine on Gill’s drive.  We needed more boxes than were immediately obvious in Gill’s packed garage but I managed to ferret them out!!!  Having sealed the boxes to Gill’s strict specification, we repacked the car and drove to the lock up to unload them there.  They will go as soon as the library that is being built in Sierra Leone through the Kori Project is ready to house them. Back to Gill’s for a very welcome, lovely lunch and then we were

On Monday 7th December, Chris and I are driving a car very full of books, dresses and knitted teddies to the home of Gill Curry of SI Thames Valley.  The club has established ‘The Kori Project’ in Sierra Leone and we linked up with them at conference in Harrogate last year.  We heard from club member Rose then about the plight of families because of the Ebola virus.  We heard that where Ebola was discovered in a house, the whole house and contents had to be burned.  This left families with nothing.  At that time we sent some dresses and knitted teddies for the children. In recent conversations, we understand that the club have funded a library building that is ready for use.  However, it is a library without books at the moment!  Thames Valley club collect items until they can get them sent over

I was sent some ‘photos of photos’ displayed at conference this year.  SI Lichfield had 3 of its programme action photos displayed during the course of outgoing President Jenny’s address and Federation President Margaret’s inaugural address.  We are busy with programme action that relates clearly to the aims and objectives of Soroptimism, as are many other clubs and we are getting so much better at recognising photo opportunities.  It is moments like those at conference that make us have that ‘warm glow’ that I was able to talk about during my workshop at the SIGBI Development Day in Nottingham.  This came from the book, ‘Happiness by Design’ by Paul Dolan.  He offers a pleasure-purpose concept of happiness: a life that is rich in activities that are both pleasurable and meaningful.  Volunteer work is associated with a sense of purposefulness that channel surfing lacks.  Has he been