To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England: Thank you to everyone who has sent in news items for this week’s edition.  Certainly, it looks as if club programmes are starting their new years with energy and exercise as well as thinking of others less fortunate than ourselves. S.I. South Shields and District have started their latest project “Adopt a Planter (or two)”  to improve the local area in Harton Village.   They spent the Bank Holiday morning making over one of the planters at the corner of Moor Lane and Sunderland Road.  This was cleared of all weeds and refuse, and then planted up.   What a mammoth task it was given how badly it was overgrown.   They have their eye on a second one now!   Fortunately, the weather stayed fine in the morning, and just as they left, the heavens opened watering everything in for

To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England. You must have all been very busy over the past few weeks with your future plans and Annual General Meetings.  I have few reports this week so hope to hear from you with your club and member news for next week. From S.I.Middlesbrough  who are reminding us that from 10 to 16 May is Mental Health Awareness Week  and this year it will focus on reconnecting with nature.  For the month of May, and beyond,  members of S.I.Middlesbrough will try to carry out acts of kindness to promote mental wellbeing.   These acts could be as simple as taking someone to the seaside or park,  giving them flowers or a plant.  Any act of kindness, over and above what we normally do, will bring pleasure to someone.   Club members are even thinking of aiming to give 100 acts

To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England, I hope that you all are feeling that Spring has arrived and that May will  “bring forth the flowers “ and liven up our gardens.  I have just heard the statistics on the weather for the past month and it tells us that in the UK there was a frost on each of the 30 days in April.  Too cold for most of the little seedlings in my greenhouse to even think about going outside! First, we celebrate the life of Miss Florence Kirkby MBE ,  a member of S.I.Newcastle upon Tyne for 47 years.  She is featured in this May selection of prominent Soroptimists in #whoisshe  on the SIGBI Centennial web site.   She will be remembered by many members as she was our Regional President from 2010 to 2011. I leave you to read of all

To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England  April 25th is the start of the World Health Organisation’s  World Immunisation Week.  This subject of immunisation must be in everyone’s minds at the moment,  not only thinking about ourselves and whether we have had one or two jabs,  but thinking of the people of countries  where access to vaccines is sparse and fraught with difficulties -  politically, logistically and economically.  I wonder if there are any joint projects related to COVID-19 where Soroptimist clubs have worked together with their Friendship Link clubs to compare their comparative situations and help each other ? Do let me know if you have news of any collaborative schemes. To start this week’s news on an upbeat note,  I have received some lovely photographs from  S.I.Tynemouth, Whitley Bay & District who have been out and about in the sunshine in a

To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England What beautiful blue skies we have been having for some days now.  Spring is certainly here and I hope that the early morning frosts have not been causing too much damage in your gardens. On Wednesday 21st April it is the U.N.World Day of Creativity and Innovation.  I hope that this is reflected by members and clubs as they have their A.G.M.s and plan their programmes for the next club year -  and the main months to celebrate our 100 years of being Soroptimists around the world. Last Monday,  I was invited to join S.I.Darlington & District for their club meeting when they had a fascinating guest speaker -  Sue Fortescue.   Sue is currently living near Bournemouth but has travelled the world with her work in IT and as a translator as she speaks fluent French and

To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England  This is the season of Club Annual General Meetings and I thank all of the club officers for their past year of service and wish all the new incoming post holders a happy experience in this our Centennial year. S.I. Stockton-on-Tees  have sent me further news of their Centenary Project –  RAINBOW ROOM  .  This was briefly presented at the last Regional Meeting but I thought you might like to read more about how it was organised and delivered. “Stockton Soroptimists met in January to discuss ideas for celebrating the Soroptimist Centenary.  Late last year members had collected 100 sanitary items for the local Food Bank but that was just an extension of what they had been doing for some time. Jane Leak had heard about a Sunderland Hospital having a ‘Wobble Room’ – a designated place

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

Good Morning to all sister Soroptimists Some of you may have seen a previous weekly email that was sent out in error on Friday.  Apologies for this but my IT skills ran away with me in the stress of creating my first message to you all.  I am going to continue Joyce’s numbering ( now week 51 ) as a reminder of how time passes while we are still affected by the circumstances of the Pandemic.     First,  I must express my sincere thanks to Joyce for the remarkable work that she has achieved over the past year.  Who would have guessed that the world would change so dramatically and affect us all in every detail of our daily lives.   Joyce rose to the challenge  and this weekly email emerged as one of the most successful strategies to keep us all connected and informed.  I hope

Good Morning Soroptimist Sisters, I am not sure why I wrote that very first message to you all in March last year?  Mainly, I think, to apologise that our Regional Council Meeting had to be cancelled and to speculate what we were all going to do whilst we were locked down! I don’t know about you, but I was expecting that it would only last a few weeks and we would soon return to normal; how naive was I?  Who would have thought that one year on, we would still be locked down and with a UK death total of 126,000 – that is a shocking and dreadful statistic! This awful pandemic has affected so many and I know that there have been members in our Region who have been bereaved; my thoughts are, and have always been, with them. So in those early days,

Good Morning Soroptimist Sisters This week has seen an outpouring of grief for Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped and murdered in London. Sarah studied at Durham University and originated from York, so may be known to some of our members or their families. Christine Cottingham’s granddaughter, Amy, who lives in Clapham, attended an event on Clapham Common on Saturday Afternoon – this is what she wrote: ‘An emotional and overwhelming event to be part of. Struggling to find the words to explain how myself and many other women are feeling. Angry, scared and incredibly sad. Rest in peace Sarah Everard’. Christine added – ‘We, the older generation of women, and also as Soroptimists must support the younger generation of women, to try to show men that being threatening and misogynistic is not how they should behave towards women. I believe that how their parents bring them