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November Speaker Meeting

November Speaker Meeting

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President Stella and members welcomed Mary Mallick to the November meeting. Mary is the Chair of Trustees of the Manchester branch of Home Start, which is one of 300 such groups supported by Home Start UK. The aim of Home Start is to give ‘support and friendship for families’. The charity was started 40 years ago by Margaret Harrison, a voluntary youth worker in Leicester, who realised that it was necessary to give support to families as a whole rather than working with children in isolation. Home Start gives a free service to families with children under 5 years of age by matching them with volunteers – each volunteer maintaining continuous contact with a specific family. It is desirable for volunteers to have some parenting skills and appropriate training and support is provided by three professional staff. Currently about 60 families are helped by Home Start Manchester, with referrals coming from a variety

Friendship Night October 2014

Friendship Night October 2014

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President Stella, members and guests let their hair down at our Friendship Night event on October 18th. The entertainment was provided by ‘Loose Change’,a group of musicians who raise funds for the charity Cancer Research UK. They busk on a regular basis in Wilmslow’s  and Chorlton’s shopping centres and take bookings to play at events. They do not take any fees themselves and every penny they raise goes to the charity. They sing and play the pop songs we all grew up with to make you want to sing along, tap your feet or take to the dance floor. As usual for Friendship Night candles were lit for our Friendship Link clubs of Calcutta Downtown, Johannesburg, St Petersburg and Witchita, as well as one for SIGBI and one for Soroptimist International. A delicious cheese and wine supper was served and a raffle held to boost funds for Cancer Research. We were pleased that members

Mary’s Meals Backpack Project October 2014

Mary’s Meals Backpack Project October 2014

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In October members made up 35 children’s backpacks for the charity Mary’s Meals. Each backpack contained school materials (notebook, pencil case, pens, pencils, ruler etc.) clothing items (t-shirt, shorts or skirt and flip-flops) a tennis ball and washing items (towel, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste). Each backpack was labelled to show the intended age and gender of the recipient. Members had been collecting the backpacks and contents for many months and, with many willing helpers, they were all filled within 2 hours. There were also two boxes of extra items that the charity will take and use to ‘top up’ other donated backpacks. The charity will deliver the backpacks to school children at one of their feeding stations at a school in a developing country. Such schools are often very remote with no shops nearby, and families are often too poor to buy school materials even if there were a shop.   When Tim Olsen came

October Speaker Meeting

October Speaker Meeting

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Naomi Norton returned to speak to members at the October meeting as she had promised in April. She told us about the International Society of Music Education Conference that she attended in Brazil in July. There she met up with many colleagues in the field of health education who have inspired her throughout the time she has been working on her PhD thesis. As before, she was happy to answer our probing questions about her work.

Tree Planted to Commemorate 80 Years of SIGBI

Tree Planted to Commemorate 80 Years of SIGBI

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Several members from SI Manchester attended the tree planting ceremony to celebrate 80 years of SIGBI at the National Memorium Arborethum in Staffordshire. Soroptimists from all over the country attended the event, as did International President Ann Garvie and SIGBI President Margaret Oldroyd. The tree was “planted” by Margaret Oldroyd – it was a symbolic planting as only members of the ground staff are actually allowed to plant trees.  

Snowdrop City Planting September 2014

Snowdrop City Planting September 2014

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Members supported the National Trust initiative to plant snowdrops and turn Manchester into ‘Snowdrop City’ next spring to mark the Centenary of World War 1. President Stella, Val and Maureen were joined by the President of SI Ashton-under-Lyne, Yvonne Cartey, and Regional PAC Chair, Margaret Molyneux of SI Leigh. The National Trust aims to plant 100,000 snowdrops this September at various sites throughout the city at drop-in sessions, and the planting took place in Parsonage Gardens on the day we went. The Trust has bought in selected bulbs from Holland that are expected to flower on the first year of planting. We were given reflective jackets to wear and spent a few hours on our knees planting the bulbs in holes cut out of the turf (by the stronger volunteers) and replacing the divots.  The weather was kind to us (no Manchester rain) and many of the city workers came to take their

Visitor from Hanover, Germany

Visitor from Hanover, Germany

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President Stella and members were pleased to welcome Sabine Geis, the President of SI Hanover, to the September club meeting. Sabine was in Manchester for family reasons and was able to attend a very packed Programme Action meeting followed by a Business meeting. We hope she managed to follow all that was going on. She told us about the Hanover club which was chartered in 1956 and is the 5th oldest club in Germany. There are currently 33 members, five of whom are relatively new to Soroptimism. In Hanover it there is currently an exhibition to mark the 300th Anniversary of the Hanoverian Dynasty coming to the British throne with the accession of George the First. President Stella presented her with a pennant to take home to her club and she gave us a large tin of typical Hanoverian biscuits, which we will enjoy with the refreshments at our October Speaker meeting.

Strawberry Tea August 2014

Strawberry Tea August 2014

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Honorary Member Yvonne Mullen generously opened her home again this year for our charity Strawberry Tea on Sunday 3rd August. The event was well supported by members, friends, family and neighbours, and this year the sun came too. A delicious afternoon tea of scones, cakes and strawberries was served with rose wine and rose soft drinks – and the pink theme even extended to the pink raffle tickets. There were a large number of items to be raffled and a home produce stall selling cakes, plants, cards and sewn items. Thank you to everyone who came and to all who made items for the stall and donated items for the raffle. Monies raised will be donated to St Ann’s Hospice.

Visitor from Friendship Link Club SI Wichita (USA)

Visitor from Friendship Link Club SI Wichita (USA)

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In July Jane McHugh, a member of SI Wichita, came to Manchester and members met up with her on two occasions. SI Wichita in Kansas is a long standing Friendship Link club to SI Manchester and various members have kept up correspondence with them over the years and the clubs have regularly exchanged their newsletters. Jane was in the UK with her cousin and, while visiting the Isle of Man to research their family tree, took a two day detour to Manchester so that she could meet up with us. On her first day here President Stella and members met her for lunch in Manchester city centre, and the following day a coffee morning was held for her at the home of Immediate Past President Susan. The weather was glorious and coffee and cakes were taken in Susan’s beautiful garden.  Jane brought us some napkins