To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England
GOOD MORNING to you all – and a very happy Easter Sunday. I hope that the sun is shining where you are and that the bright yellow of the nodding daffodils are reminding you that Spring is here and that a new and changing year is awakening.
Several clubs have let me know of their seasonal acts of kindness to those who are in need of food and festive treats at this time.
S.I. Middlesbrough have delivered 100 Easter Eggs to the Bungalow Partnership which is a local charity which provides therapeutic services to traumatised children and families.
S.I.Newcastle upon Tyne have formed a working relationship with the supermarket Morrisons and the store has processed their funding donation to produce and deliver direct 100 packets of Hot Cross Buns together with 100 Cadbury’s Cream Eggs and 100 bars of chocolate – all items requested by the West End Food Bank in Newcastle which is one of the busiest in the country.
S.I. Darlington report that on 24 March they celebrated the 73rd anniversary of their Charter and made this occasion to have the first joint club meeting with their German Friendship Link club of S.I.Soest. They have met S.I.Soest members several times since the link was first made – in Darlington, Soest, Berlin, Waterloo and Edinburgh, but this was their first virtual meeting. Introductions were made, news exchanged about club work during the COVID restrictions and they discussed a possible joint project later this year. The Soest club was chartered in 2005 and the link was forged because their Sigrid and our Eva had studied together. It was a lively meeting ! They were all disappointed last year when their visit to Darlington in May 2020 had to be cancelled, so they plan to repeat this way of exchanging news until they can get together again, may be in 2022.
S.I.Cockermouth must be be of the first clubs to have held its A.G.M. this year on 1st April by Zoom. Newly installed Cub President Claire Rawlinson reports that they had 17 members participating and had decided that as this was the nearest meeting to Brain Tumour Research’s ‘Wear a Hat Day’ that they would all wear hats. You can see the variety of headgear – including a hat made for the Victorian Christmas Market that
S.I.Cockermouth supported several yeas ago, a woolly hat, a cap and a variety of sun hats! Members are donating their coffee/hot chocolate money to Brain Tumour Research – which you may remember was President Helen Lord’s charity in 2018, the year that they lost both Soroptimists Wendy Dempster and Diana Clark to brain tumours. They ended their meeting by playing a song on YouTube called “We love the SDG’s” – have a look on this link – its quite fun ! We Love the SDG’s
TV interview on LocalTVNorthEast (Channel 7 Freeview ) :
Through the excellent negotiating skills of our Federation Consultative Councillor – Margaret Clark – I was invited to join Federation President Johanna on a short video clip ( 3 minutes ) that promoted our 100 year celebrations. This was shown on Wednesday evening at 6.0pm on the North East News, and repeated over the next couple of hours.
It was quite an experience and although I had prepared many descriptions of our club activities throughout the region, it was heavily edited with the TV Journalist Alice Oliver speaking over some graphics and pictures that were not from us. If you missed it then this link will take you to the Soroptimist Facebook page where you can chose the TV Home Page. The item needs to be found by scrolling right down till you reach “Happy 100th : SI is celebrating 100 years of empowering women and girls”. There is a 40 sec advert from Meangame first – make sure you have the sound on !
The Exchange of the Chains !
With the easing of COVID restrictions on 29 March we could begin to think about catching up with each other in the open air and with limited numbers. So on 30 March I was able to meet up with IPP Joyce Chesney at the picnic tables outside McDonalds in Dalton Park Shopping Centre ( not yet open !). We were joined by Joan Heckels and Hilary Clavering so there was great celebrations as we presented Joyce with her gifts from the 
Regional Officers Group and two outdoor planters of colourful Spring flowers ( chosen carefully as her wayward new cat ‘Harry’ has a habit of eating indoor cut flowers, many of which are toxic to cats !) Joyce was able to hand over the Regional Presidential chain of office – keeping to social distancing.
The next day, I was able to visit Regional President Elect Pam Turner at her home in Morpeth and Patricia Gatherum acted as photographer for the handover of the SINE President Elect chain of office. On both occasions we were blessed with bright sunshine and it was an absolute pleasure to meet up with friends and take part in this ceremony albeit in a very different way
this year.
Regional Coffee Gathering :
Don’t forget that if you would like to join the virtual Coffee Gathering on Zoom on Saturday 10th April from 10.30 to 11.30am – then please do request a link from margaretayton40@gmail.com All members are welcome to join this social and chatty group – provide your own coffee !
I hope that you have enjoyed reading through this collection of Club and Regional News and please do remember to let me know about your own club or member activities.
In friendship
Christine Lumsdon – your Regional President