Some of you may have noticed me in the photograph taken on February 13th outside the BHF shop in Lichfield and published in the Chronicle.  There was huge fundraising activity all week culminating in the St Trinians Volunteers collecting money around Lichfield.  Passersby were friendly and most generous despite the difficult times.  As I am there on Friday afternoons, I was there for the photographer – can’t keep a good Soroptimist down!!

The draw took place at the Guild Hall on Saturday February 14th.  The Mayor, Cllr Mark Warfield drew the winning tickets.  He is pictured here with Lesley at another of our events. 1st prize of £100 went to Mark Davies-Friend 2nd prize of £75 went to Claire Pinner 3rd prize of £50 went to David Brewin Thank you to everyone that bought tickets – and happy spending to those that won!

 As you can see from the photographs, we had a super science experience with the Mayor, Cllr. Mark Warfield.  Mark was back to the Brownies by special request from them for him to return after his last visit.  Mark asked us to use a CD, a cork with a hole through and a balloon to make the ‘hovercraft’ travel across the floor.  There was lots of opportunity to hypothesise (will a bigger balloon make a difference)  to experiment (use a different size of cork) to succeed (hovercraft travelled) and to learn about the Frenchman who invented the method (Benolli – I think!!). All the Brownies persevered, engaged, questioned, helped each other and were able to describe what they had done to the parents who came along at the end to see them receive their science badge from the Mayor of Lichfield. A fantastic evening that

A lovely evening with Lichfield members and invited guests – an audience of 40 for our guest speaker, Andrew Dunn.  Warm fruit punch and cakes started the evening off well! The evening started with an ambassador talk from me.  There was a brief background of the structure of Soroptimist International and then an overview of how our work fits the objectives of the organisation. I was surprised at this point by Sylvia, Brown Owl, who presented me with a badge which makes me an ambassador for girl guiding.  This is in recognition of the ongoing support that Lichfield Club are giving the St Chad’s Brownie Pack.  I am honoured to take on this role and you all know what happens when I get enthusiastic – although enthusiasm during camping, I might find difficult being such a townie! Andrew then gave a very informative talk about

Sunday 14th December, David Newstead sent a special invitation to attend the Carol Concert at the Symphony Hall.  This was in recognition of the £1004 SI Lichfield had raised for the Salvation Army.  Bob and I were invited to the Director’s Lounge with dignitaries including the Lord Lieutenant and the Deputy Mayor of Birmingham. I was able to present the cheque to Major Maurice Hunt who is the Commanding Officer, Birmingham Citadel.  I met the Deputy Mayoress of Birmingham who is a member of SI Central Birmingham. I also spoke to Diane Gagnan, Chair of BCOP- Broadening Horizons for Older People.  She was there to receive a cheque for £5000 from the Salvation Army – this was the proceeds from the collection at both concerts that day. Many Soroptimists from the region were there as Region President Pauline Wright had organised tickets and travel.  Unfortunately, Pauline

An amazing day when we had loads of fun and raised over £1,000 for the Salvation Army ‘Homeless at Christmas’ Appeal.  We had a variety of stalls with the Brownies and St Giles Hospice having a table each, the Soroptimists having loads more!  The face painting was brill as you can see in the photo, Jackie’s flowers were fab, the bottle tombola was very popular as was the bric-a-brac stall.  The book stall and jewellery did well and the ‘cork game’ is super.  Guess the name of the doll and guess the weight of the cake were well received and both prizes won.  Refreshments were served with style and efficiency – a heady combination!! As you can see, one or two of us were persuaded outside as our girths didn’t fit inside!!  The people of Lichfield were generous as always for this cause and put lots of

  Where’s all the glamour we 6 asked ourselves last night??  Chris, Jean, Janet, Vicki and I met at Lesley’s last night to ‘sort’ for Saturday.  After heaving the books from the garage and our cars into the conservatory (Mrs Bouquet has nothing on us) we made bundles of 5, tied with festive red wool to sell for 50p a bundle.  Bargain! The ‘lounge’ was covered in bric a brac  – a beautiful night light candelabra would have looked lovely on the refreshments table till somebody reminded me we were there in full daylight – oops, and it would be a fire hazard – oops again! Refreshments were welcome and Lesley does them so well.  As you can probably tell, we had an enjoyable evening but it was hard work.  Donna livened up the evening by bringing round the Tweedledum costume that I paraded for a while – Lichfield

  This is our second year of knitting and selling poppies for The British Legion.  Lots of support from knitters and sellers and we have raised £400 to give to the Lichfield British Legion Appeal.  Tremendous effort from Soroptimists and non-Soroptimists alike!  We are thrilled.

  A lovely evening at Elford – the formula from last year worked its magic again for us.  Alf Alfa are magic music makers and the caller makes a lovely relationship with the ‘dancers’.  Highly recommended!  Our newer members, Donna and Tracy organised the raffle from start to finish – wonderful effort from Sam and Ella too!  My tickets were numbers one AND two out of the basket and I chose some fabulous Father Christmas socks for the first one and threw the second one away.  Top prize was a family snowboarding ticket at Tamworth Snowdome – won by Jackie Winter’s guest.  Apologies for the photos not being brill but they do give you a feel for the evening – a real family evening with lots of laughter and fun.  Vicki’s little ones were the stars of the show with Gabbie dancing the night away

  Last Friday saw Carolyn, June, Michael, Bob and I at the Guild Hall for a beer and curry night.  This was a fundraiser for Talking Newspapers and Transport for the Disabled, both local charities.  The food was provided by Eastern Eye and the beer and wine by a place that I’ve forgotten the name of – sorry!  The barrel was drunk dry quite early on in the evening but bottles of beer were quickly rushed to the scene.  It was a lovely night, very relaxed with live music.  We even managed to have a bit of a dance towards the end!