45 members and guests gathered at St. Cuthbert\u2019s Parish Centre in Marton to enjoy a delicious tea and to celebrate the 75 year Anniversary of SI Middlesbrough.<\/p>\r\n
Proceedings began with a welcome from President Geraldine, who reflected on the social issues of 1945 in the wake of the end of WW2 and how inspired those Middlesbrough women must have been to establish a club in the months following the declaration of peace.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Geraldine then invited Regional President Christine Lumsdon, for whom it was the last formal engagement in that role, to light the Peace Candle, while our longest serving member, Alwyn Kraus, cut the celebration cake.<\/p>\r\n
It also just happened that Alwyn and Past Regional President Joyce Chesney were sharing a birthday, along with another of our guests, so Margaret Clark led us in a rousing chorus of \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019!!<\/p>\r\n
Regional President Christine then presented an award to SI Darlington before tea was served.<\/p>\r\n
Margaret, in her role as SINE Federation Consultative Councillor, took us back to earlier times, reflecting on the enduring values of Soroptimists, before raising a toast. UK Programme Action Vice Chair Lindsay Green responded with a speech that summarised just what SIM has achieved over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Botanist Anne Press was, as ever, an entertaining and thought-provoking speaker. Anne had brought a variety of \u2018weeds\u2019 to illustrate her talk about the interdependency of wildlife and how microbial networks are vital to plant health and survival. Which all goes to prove that Bill and Ben the flowerpot men knew what they were doing when they befriended Little Weed!<\/p>\r\n
The afternoon concluded with a change of insignia, with Christine Lumsdon handing over to incoming Regional President Pamela Turner, who also made a valiant speech against the background kerfuffle as I realised that I had forgotten all about the raffle! Many thanks to the guests on my table who leapt into action and managed to tear up about a million raffle tickets in 3 minutes.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the fact that two of them won prizes raised no suspicions whatsoever!<\/p>\r\n
Following President Geraldine\u2019s closing remarks, some of the guests went across to St Cuthbert\u2019s Church where they were met by the Verger, Mr Lythe, who gave an enthusiastic and knowledgeable account of the history of the Church, pointing out historic artefacts and highlighting the beautiful stained glass windows. As one member commented: \u201cIt felt like both a place of prayer and a living church.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
One member has kindly produced an information sheet on the Church, which I am sure she would email to anyone who is interested to learn more.<\/p>\r\n
Many thanks to everyone who contributed in whatever way to make this such a memorable occasion.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
45 members and guests gathered at St. Cuthbert\u2019s Parish Centre in Marton to enjoy a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"yoast_head":"\n