Meeting Speaker
SI R&D held it’s September meeting at the Colburn Village Hall on 16th September. The meeting began with a fascinating talk by local ex-army man Bryan Selkirk. He has been working for over 20 years with Charity Chernobyl Aid UK to support families from the Chernobyl area, which is now part of Belarus. Bryan hosted visiting children who came for holidays for a number of years, when they were able to have helath checks, and explore the area. He then went on to help set up a wheelchair-friendly home for disabled children – for whom conditions are otherwise very bad – and a respite home for families. For the next 10 years Bryan drove a truck as part of a humanitarian convoy to Belarus carrying donations of clothes and equipment. Sadly, the pandemic forced these to stop, but he hopes that they will soon be able to restart. Bryan has made a wonderful contribution to this charity, which is providing much needed help.
Our business meeting then discussed a number of fundraising events coming up in the next few weeks:
October and November fund-raising events
We will be holding a Coffee Morning at the Richmond Town Hall on 14th October, with a cake stall, tombola, raffle and a stand publicising our Toilet Twinning campaign. We will also be serving refreshments at the evening being organised by our local library services charity Catterick, Richmond & Colburn Community Libraries (CRACCL). This is a fundraiser talk on 16th October about the Royal Art Collection, by a former guide to the collection. We will then be holding a Quiz Night with Pie & Pea Supper on 20th November at the Holiday Inn, Scotch Corner. Donations were invited for a prize hamper and a raffle.
Soroptimist Cup
One of our members, Chris Bowran, was unable to attend the meeting as she was making a presentation of our Soroptimists Cup for Making a Difference to pupil Sarah Manning, at Richmond School that same evening. This is the citation from the school about Sarah:
“Sarah is caring, committed, mature and thoughtful, someone who can always be relied on to make school a better place for her peers and teachers. Not only that, but she is a real community hero, devoting much of her free time to charity work. Sarah was one of only fifty Year 10 to Year 13 students nationally to secure a place on the ‘Next Gen Nurse’ work experience programme. Supporting her quest to become a mental health nurse, Sarah approached a local nursing home about volunteering opportunities. She has been successful in her application to support residents with dementia. Sarah is a student leader and she will be in this ambassador role for a year and take part in many projects in the school to enhance the experiences of students. Alongside being a dedicated and hard-working student and student leader, during lockdown, Sarah raised £363 for Mind, by running a mile daily for 27 days in March.”
What a worthy cup winner, indeed!