Good Morning sister Soroptimists
After such a week of wind and rain, I do hope that you are all dry and safe and have not suffered any damage. Suddenly all the clubs seem to be moving forward into face-to-face special meetings so I
have been busy these past two weeks with visits to S.I.Cockermouth; S.I. Sunderland; S.I. Durham and S.I. Tynemouth, Whitley Bay & District. I also spent hours of screen time watching the “Soroptimist International 100 Celebrations” last Saturday and Sunday.
First news from S.I. Stockton-on-Tees who gathered together in the garden of member Sue Scott for their first face-to-face meeting. This Garden Party was in aid of Teesside Hospice ( different from Butterwick Hospice Care ) and just over £600 was raised with only 18 attendees including two Soroptimister’s and Kath Sainsbury from S.I. Middlesbrough. The rain stayed away and the event was much enjoyed by all. The photograph shows Club President Christine Fryer drawing the winning raffle tickets.
Secondly to our celebrations with members of S.I. Cockermouth & District where their 40th Charter Anniversary was marked in great style. Rather than write a report, President Claire has sent me a link which contains photographs and a video ( taken from a drone by the key speaker Mr Richard Warren who is Chairman of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association) which has captured the joy felt by all present. It certainly was an uplifting occasion. View what happened:
After the main video of the Charter Celebrations, you may like to watch some further You Tube video clips of the work of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team ( especially those of you who are dog lovers !). While we were at Cockermouth, I was able to take the opportunity to present face-to-face the Regional Best Practice Certificates to some of the clubs who were represented there. S.I. Middlesbrough received a certificate for their Lockdown project of the writing and compiling the book “Overcoming the Odds”.
Club President Geraldine Nuttall is in the photograph above receiving the certificate. This is certainly on the ‘recommended reading’ list and I understand that copes are still available from Pam Cooper at £10 each plus P&P. Next was a certificate for S.I. Stockton-on-Tees for their project on the support for the Rainbow Rooms at North Tees and Hartlepool hospitals. These rooms had been equipped by a grant from the Captain Tom Trust. This SINE Best Practice Award was in recognition of their much needed support of NHS staff during the Pandemic. They provided supplies of beverages, chocolates and biscuits together with toiletries, hand creams, lip balms and shower gels. The photograph shows member Caroline Allred receiving the certificate.
It was lovely to have representatives of S.I. Penrith and District present and they not only received their Best Practice Award Certificate but also the “Reach for the Skies” trophy as the overall winner of this year’s judging. The Penrith club is a small number of enthusiastic members who have engaged in a wide variety of community projects such as the tree planting in the Ullswater Catchment Area which is helping to alleviate the local flooding risks; the very practical support given to the Eden Valley Women’sRefuge in many forms from new start bags to children’s craft bags and the successful application for a grant to buy white goods for women moving into their own safe homes; the make-over of the Coronation Garden in central 
Penrith which had wonderful embellishments to explain about Soroptimism – and many more projects. The photograph shows members Pat Newsham (on the right ) and Moira Rogers (on the left ) receiving their award. Congratulations on all their dedicated hard work.
The last Regional Best Practice certificate presentation was to S.I. Tynemouth, Whitley Bay and District for the way in which they organise their very inclusive and comprehensive Programme Action projects. Every club member is part of one of the 5 ‘P’s teams, each team produces a plan of activity which is presented to all club members for approval and then takes the lead to organise and enact the Programme Action topic. I appreciate that this award was not for a specific PA project but the way in which they go about making PA the central core to their club is an example to us all. Every member is involved and the resulting programme is very lively as you will have seen from some previous reports in this Newsletter – AND they all have so much 
fun, friendship and laughter along the way ! The photograph shows Joint President Anne Gunning receiving the certificate . While you are watching video’s, you may like to see the edited versions of the S.I. Northern England 100 years of Soroptimist International which were held on 19 June 2021 – on a virtual platform.
There are four parts :
- Part 1 records the introduction and early years from 1921 through to the 1950’s
- Part 2 records from the 1950’s through to 1982
- Part 3 is a recording of the presentation given by Past International President Ann Garvie
- Part 4 is a recordig of the presentation given by Federation President Cathy Cottridge
To view these video’s – use this link to go to the SINE website : SINE Web site Then once into our web site, chose the members area on the righthand side of the screen. This is only open to members and needs a password which is sine999.
Thank you very much to Bethan for all the editing and final presentations which record our own Regional Celebrations of the Centennial. Enjoy and remember what a wonderful global women’s organisation we all belong to.
S.I.Sunderland have sent in this report and photographs of their Club Celebratory lunch for the 100 years of S.I. Sunderland Club Celebrates the Centenary of Soroptimism On Saturday 2nd October SI Sunderland gathered for a special lunch to celebrate 100 years since the birth of the organisation in America. President Suzanne Brown welcomed special guests Regional Presidents Joyce Chesney and Christine Lumsdon and they both spoke about their memories and highlights of the celebrations. A beautiful knitted banner of 100 poppies was on display. It will be given to the Royal British legion to display during Remembrance week. SI Sunderland has celebrated the centenary by carrying out many activities with a 100 theme. Members have walked 100 miles, picked up 100 pieces of litter, scattered wildflower seeds, made lap blankets from 100 knitted squares, donated 400 books to community libraries, donated hundreds of food items to 2 food banks, planted 100 bulbs and donated 100 each to Herrington Country Park and Hylton Castle, donated 400 items to the Afghan Refugee Appeal and we planted a Redwood tree! All a fitting tribute to mark this special occasion.
The afternoon was full of fun laughter and pride in all the clubs work as well as a very pleasant way to enjoy good company among friends. Several of us have been compiling reports following many hours of screen watching for the SI 100th Celebrations which we joined on 2nd and 3rd October. I know that in-coming President Pam will be editing and distributing these reports ready for feed back to all members, but I feel that several of us have already expressed our disappointment in how the programme was composed and advertised. It was very difficult to isolate sessions that individuals wanted to tune in to so congratulations to those of you who made some sense of it all to enable us to report back. It was interesting to hear from S.I. Europe Federation that they are saving their big celebrations until 2024 when they will be 100 ! May be SIGBI might think of doing something similar when it is our major anniversary – but I wonder which date they might chose ? The first club in Britain was the Greater London club chartered in 1924 but the expanding number of clubs in the UK remained part of the European Federation until SIGBI was founded in 1934. As we start to return to face-to-face meetings, Clubs are reviewing how to do this to include all members. Some are happy to continue using Zoom ( particularly on the dark winter evenings ) while others are venturing into ‘Hybrid’ meetings. From some discussions that I have heard, it would seem that there are tips and bits of information gained that might help in the successful production of a hybrid meeting – some meeting face-to-face at a venue and others at home and tuning in on Zoom ( or equivalent). If any club would like to send in their experiences of trying hybrid meetings then I am sure that the information would be welcome where others are still trying out various combinations of laptops & microphone etc. We have come so far in our use and knowledge of new technology that it would be good to share successful practice. Any offers of tips very welcome !!
My next Regional Newsletter will be on 24th October and will be the last edition while I am
Regional President. Please do remember to send me news of events, clubs and members.
In friendship
ChristineLumsdon – your Regional President