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Winter Night Shelter MK Giving tea to a guest
Donating to Winter Night Shelter via Smile Amazon

Donating to Winter Night Shelter via Smile Amazon

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Great news, our linked charity Winter Night Shelter has received a £10,000 donation from Amazon.  And you can now make a donation to the Winter Night Shelter when you order on Amazon.  Just go to AmazonSmile. What is AmazonSmile? AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on amazon.co.uk. The difference is that when customers shop through the URL smile.amazon.co.uk, AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to the charitable organisations selected by customers. How does AmazonSmile work? When first visiting smile.amazon.co.uk, you will be prompted to select a charitable organisation. Amazon will give 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT and other shipping fees) of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organisations selected. Only purchases made through

Sponsor a child Oasis project Gambia
Oasis Project Gambia

Oasis Project Gambia

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Christine Hayter, Charity Founder of the Oasis Project, came to our April 2021 meeting to tell us all about how her life changed in 2006.  Christine told us she went on holiday to a Gambia and visited a village on the coast, called Bakau, and it changed her life, literally.  She went back 7 times in that year and as a result set up “The Oasis Project” to work with the community of Bakau. The bigger picture of this project is to reduce cases of malaria and other life threatening diseases in this community by education, community participation to affect behaviour change and mindset.   She has put a substantial amount of her own time and finance into supporting this project and you could hear her passion for it as she told us about the shop they had set up and now the charity runs a

Valerie Williamson, Paraplegic archery medalist and British Empire Medal 2020l
Celebrating Invisible Women of MK – April

Celebrating Invisible Women of MK – April

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Valerie Williamson, Paraplegic archery medalist and awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 Amanda Carter Philpott, our Chair, said ‘What can I say about Val? She is a wonderful advocate, friend and disability activist. She is a former paraplegic archery champion(twice). She is a trail blazer, go getter and a woman with an abundance of gumption. Listen to her story as she chooses to tell it, be moved, even inspired…enjoy!’ Click here to view a short video called “There’s No such word as Can’t” about the life of this remarkable woman who was written off as a baby.

MK Snap learners working in MK Snap Cafe
MK Snap Wimbledon Afternoon Tea

MK Snap Wimbledon Afternoon Tea

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MK SNAP Wimbledon Afternoon Tea Thursday 8th July 2021 on the outdoor terrace in the SNAP garden Come and enjoy the Wimbledon ladies semi-final games from 1pm live from Centre Court, Wimbledon on a large outdoor screen. Tables of two, four & six available – Tickets are £25pp and include a welcome glass of Pimms & afternoon tea with strawberries; served by SNAP learners & volunteers We know you have missed opportunities to get dressed up and enjoy live events during 2020! Would you like to watch the tennis in the garden with your colleagues and friends this summer and enjoy an indulgent afternoon treat? Please come and join our fun ‘afternoon out’ at local disability charity MK SNAP; having fun and helping us raise funds and awareness for the vital work of the charity. A luxury gift raffle will be available on the day.  Dressing

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2021

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2021

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Celebrating International Women’s Day 2021 There are a number of events going on locally.  To find out more Click here for MK Womens Partnership mini IWD event on Sunday 7 March Click here WOW Festival on from 1 to 21 March Click here International Women’s Day To listen to our Chair, Amanda Carter Philpott’s podcast for International Women’s day, click here  

Winter Night Shelter MK
Winter Night Shelter MK – our new linked charity

Winter Night Shelter MK – our new linked charity

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During this pandemic, we as a club have not stood still.  We have tried to help out our linked charities and have also tried to reach out and help others.  As a result, we started to help the winter night shelter, with one of our members delivering shepherds pies or curries every week since the first lockdown and this has led us to adopt them as one of our linked charities.  Below Sara Millington, Communications Manager from WNSMK, has provided us with a little back ground of what they have been doing during this pandemic. “We are delighted that Soroptimists MK are willing to help shine a spotlight on our work with the homeless and vulnerable at this time. Homelessness can affect anyone if they don’t have the support of family or friends when they reach a point of crisis, and we see many women

Chief Inspector Kelly Gardner – Deputy Commander for Milton Keynes Local Policing Area
Celebrating Invisible Women of MK – March

Celebrating Invisible Women of MK – March

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Chief Inspector Kelly Gardner – Deputy Commander for Milton Keynes Local Policing Area Kelly grew up in Milton Keynes and after leaving school trained to become a Registered Paediatric Nurse.  She practiced for 11 years and went on to become a Specialised Paediatric Community Nurse for a Children’s Hospice. Kelly joined Thames Valley Police as a response officer at Milton Keynes in 2004, since then she has performed a variety of roles across the force.   She returned to Milton Keynes in September 2019 as the Deputy LPA Commander. She is also mum to Luke (23), who has just become a primary school teacher and her husband is an Inspector with Bedfordshire Police.  Over the past 16 years, Kelly has gained valuable experience working in:  Response, Partnership and Performance, CID, Protecting Vulnerable People – ViSOR and worked on a number of Headquarter change projects.  Along the way, Kelly has become a Family Liaison Officer

Angie Novel 2021 IWD event
#ChoosetoChallenge on IWD 2021

#ChoosetoChallenge on IWD 2021

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March celebrates International Women’s Day and this year our first Chair of Soroptimist International Milton Keynes Branch, Angie Novell and CEO of MK Snap (Milton Keynes Special Needs Achievement Project) wants us to #ChoosetoChallenge where disabled women are absent from discussions or recognition or side-lined by the language we hear. On #IWD2021 I ask you to remember the contributions & challenges faced by all women; but in particular those women that live with a disability. The unique lived experiences of disabled women are often lost in the discussions we hear, disregarded in the language we use & missing from platforms for recognition. As one disabled friend said to me ‘You try ‘standing up for women’ when you are sitting in a wheelchair!’  We must challenge perceptions. As a disabled woman; I was told at a checkout that I didn’t ‘look deaf’ leading me to explain that some

Sewing NHS Hearts for Hope for our ICU at MKU Hospital

Sewing NHS Hearts for Hope for our ICU at MKU Hospital

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      Milton Keynes Soroptimist Club is acting as the coordinator for the NHS Hearts for Hope activity which is a national group set up to enable stitchers to come together in a supportive way in order to make textile hearts to give to NHS staff who work in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) wards.    It includes all staff from the cleaners and porters to the doctors, consultants, nurses and everybody in between. These Hearts are intended to say thank you, share that we are thinking of them and value their efforts. You can check out the purpose and lots of lovely pictures of hearts on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/750652902555175/?ref=share   “NHS Hearts for Hope.” We have established a link and contact person with Milton Keynes University Hospital who will take delivery of the hearts – there are over 100 staff working ICU, so we are looking for