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Spotlight on Amber Valley

A Soroptimist International Club year – spotlight on SI Amber Valley (Derbyshire) a review of 2023

I started off writing this piece backwards, thinking ‘what have we done recently?’ and worked my way through our Facebook page posts (I’m a joint admin) to see what we’d be up to throughout the year, it turns out …. quite a bit.

We started the year with activity by supporting the Salvation Army warm space initiative in Ripley, Derbyshire while the Salvation Army members ran the food bank, we manned the kitchen and served hot drinks and biscuits for anyone who wanted to use the facilities. This was on a two weekly rota and the responsibility was happily shared by several club members and continued running until March as the days got warmer.

Our first meeting of the year started off well with a fascinating speaker from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Link to Commonwealth War Graves Commission: www.cwgc.com

Our February regular meeting hosted an interesting speaker, Sylvia Mason talking on Women of the Pentrich Revolution. Pentrich is a small village near Swanwick, Derbyshire and the revolution took place in 1817, the ringleaders being hanged for their troubles. Read more about the Pentrich Revolution here: Pentrich Revolution Group – Home

March meeting: our speaker was Janet Carleton from DFN UK, ( Dignity Freedom Network) who gave an interesting talk about the work of the charity mainly in the Indian Subcontinent with the poorest and most disadvantaged people, providing support and schooling for children and particularly girls who are otherwise unable to lift themselves out of poverty through meaningful work. 

DFN UK are a development and empowerment charity, part of a global network supporting indigenous partners responding to the requests of community leaders.

Our AGM and review of the year in April saw a handover of Presidential role from Valerie to Carol and we are lucky enough to have a president Elect Margaret waiting in the wings for her turn in 2024.

 

For our May meeting we returned to our original meeting venue of Firs House in Alfreton where Alison Plunkett, Derbyshire County Trefoil Guild Chairperson talked to us about how Trefoil Guild members support GirlGuiding in many different ways and have many similarities to the goals and ethos of Soroptimist International.

Our annual charity fashion show and sale (SOS Fashions) took place in early May at  the Palmer Morewood Social Club in Alfreton. All seats filled, we had four lovely ladies modelling the clothes for us and our wonderful Soroptimist International Amber Valley club members took on various roles as ticket sellers, dressers and selling raffle tickets.

Raising money as usual for Chernobyl Childrens Charity, a long-standing favourite charity of ours.

 

In May our club members ran the Lucky Bag stall on Ripley Market Place raising much needed funds to support our chosen charities. Bags and contents donated by our ladies.

 

In June our speaker was Jonathan Brook from Valley CIDs talking about the work of the charity, including work with children and young people with Blend youth project, Turner Farm, The Salt Pot Quest and Zest funded through the Lighthouse Charity Shops across Derbys and Notts. Jonathan had previously spoken to SIAV about the work of the charity so this was an update for many on the work, but there was plenty of questions and lively conversation after the talk.

In July our club meeting speaker was Tim Roberts, a children’s rights officer from Derbyshire County Council giving us insights into his work.

Also in July – a small group of us travelled to Kings Lynn, our friendship link club for their 48th Charter lunch at Congham Hall, Grimston.

Great to meet Soroptimists from SI Norwich, SI King’s Lynn and SI Colchester and hear about their activities and clubs.

In August SIAV met in the form of an outing for afternoon tea at Felley Priory on the Notts/Derbyshire border where we had the option of visiting the delightful gardens prior to the tea.

September: Water Aid fundraising event hosted by club member and former Regional President Ruth Dodd and her husband Roger, who spend days baking and then open their house and garden to SIAV members and neighbours, friends and family to raise monies for Water Aid. A lovely afternoon in the perfect tranquillity of their garden, with the sun shining and birds tweeting merrily.

 

Later in September we held a wonderfully entertaining afternoon with Baroness Bolsover teaching us the etiquette of tea drinking including a fantastic afternoon tea. Ticket money raised went to Soroptimist International chosen charities and the raffle proceeds will go to Moroccan and Libyan disaster relief. For more information and bookings for Baroness Bolsover visit www.baronessbolsover.com

 

At our regular September club meeting we welcomed Janet Leigh speaking about Belper Refugee Welcome.

October: this month our speaker was Sandra Walker talking about her self funded travels to Uganda where she works closely with a village community to assist and teach various skills. Sandra collects good second-hand children’s clothes and new knitted hats for babies and  using her maximum luggage allowance takes everything out to provide practical assistance to the community.

November: a Christmas Tree festival held at St Martins  C of E church in Alfreton saw our tree decorated by Club member Joyce decked out in tiny blue and yellow t-shirts each bearing details of various Soroptimist activities.

Food bank support: throughout 2023 our members have continued to support local food banks with one member collecting all the resources brought along to the club meeting each month to deliver ready for distribution. We also raise funds by having a sales table at each meeting.

Sadly, our festive Christmas gathering was cancelled as the heating in our meeting room had broken down, but we’ll revisit festive cheer again in January 2024 and start the new year with renewed vigour!

Carol Evans, SIAV Club President