Five Medway members, Barbara, Janet, Jane, Liz and Pam attended the Charter Ceremony and Lunch for SI Thanet in Broadstairs today. Along with Soroptimists from across the Region plus Liz Batten from SI Salisbury, President Rachael and Thanet founder members welcomed everyone to the Botany Bay Hotel to celebrate the Chartering of their club. SI Thanet was duly formed today (3 November 2019) as a club in association with Soroptimist International. Federation President Isobel presented the signed Charter and then each of the 11 founder members in attendance with their Soroptimist name badges. It was evident everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and we were all pleased to welcome Thanet as the latest newly formed Soroptimist club in the Region and also to our Federation, Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI).

Angela and Jane responded to the request from the fundraising manager at Kent Association for the Blind (KAB) for volunteers to assist with their collection at Tesco Extra, Gillingham on 1 October. Angela and Jane can be seen here with their collection buckets.

On 24 August, 10 Medway members supported SI Maidstone in a bra collection and attended their BRA-B-Q at President Carol’s home. We were lucky to have such beautiful weather and enjoy the BBQ sitting out in the Kent countryside. This was part of SI Maidstone’s ’60 for 60′ celebrations in aid of ‘Smalls for All’ which is a Scottish charity which collects and distributes underwear to help women and children in Africa. Also as a fundraiser for Dandelion Time, a local charity that supports young people and families affected by trauma and abuse. More than 360 bras were collected in total with the contribution from the efforts of SI Medway members and their friends being in excess of 200 bras. It was amazing to see them all displayed on the day – see photo. One of Medway’s Soroptimisters volunteered to take responsibility for cooking on

On 7 July Julia held one of her famous Curry lunches at her home as a fund raiser in support of Zisize. Twenty-six people came that included Soroptimists from both SI Medway and SI Maidstone and friends. Julia had prepared a selection of 6 different curries, so there was plenty of choice for all tastes and everyone tucked in. A Nearly-new table that included donated items raised £140. The lunch raised £400 for Zisize for feeding programme for children at weekends and during school holidays.

Catherine James a Dementia Friends champion from Carers First attended our June club meeting. She delivered an interactive session introducing our members to Dementia Friends. This is the UK’s biggest initiative to change the way people think, act and talk about dementia. We explored how dementia can affect someone and what those around them can do to support them to continue to ‘live well’ with dementia. Everyone present signed up to become a Dementia Friend and agreed to take at least one positive action. Catherine presented us all with our Dementia Friend badges. www.dementiafriends.org.uk

As part of our Soroptimists on Sustainability (SOS) project, three members visited Edible Culture, who are leading the way in sustainable horticulture, on 11th June. The company grows their plants in 3″ black plastic pots but no longer sell the plants on to customers in these pots. Instead they transfer the plants to recyclable cardboard pots for sale and keep the plastic pots to reuse. Win win. The plastic pots are no longer single use, the nursery does not have to buy new ones, and the customer does not have the problem of disposing of plastic pots. When the pots are too old to reuse, the nursery hands them over to the school and the students shred them. They are then recycled into fibres to provide the material fed into 3D printers. The nursery also sells its compost to customers in returnable bags. Brilliant. Hopefully

Keep Britain Tidy are promoting the Great British Spring Clean 2019 as the country’s biggest mass-action environment campaign between 22 March – 23 April to help improve the environment on our doorsteps. They are aiming to inspire 500,000 people to join forces – in partnership with community organisations, businesses and the government – to collect and safely dispose of litter from our streets, parks and beaches, recycling as much as possible. On Saturday 13 April,  six Medway Soroptimists joined in with members of the community along with local councillors at Hillyfields in Gillingham to take part in the Litter Pick organised by Medway Council.  Everyone involved were committed to stand together and declare that litter pollution, including single-use plastic – which degrades the beauty of our environment and threatens to harm wildlife – is not acceptable.’ Photo shows the Soroptimists in their Hi Vis jackets