Update for October

Save Our Swale

At this month’s meeting we were joined as speakers by 3 representatives of Save Our Swale (SOS). They came to address the meeting about their campaign against pollution in the River Swale.  Brian Benson spoke about the poor history of water supply and sewage disposal regulation, in particular since the privatisation of the multiplicity of Water Companies under the Conservative Government in 1989 into a few large regional monopolies.  Nationally, management since then has resulted in massive dividend payments to the small number of shareholders, build-up of billions of pounds in debts, increasing charges and – most critical – ongoing underinvestment in the infrastructure.  This has resulted in leaks of 2-3bn litres of water a day, and chronic release of untreated sewage into our rivers.  Together with chemical run off and spills from farms this means widespread river pollution.

SOS is one of over 100 local groups campaigning about river pollution. Celine Barry described the actions they are taking.  They have applied for a stretch of the Swale in Richmond to be granted Designated Bathing Water Status (DBWS) as a means to force The Environment Agency to monitor water quality.  This has been a lengthy process, so for the last 2 years SOS has carried out its own monthly water quality monitoring which it reports to Yorkshire Water as part of campaign to hold the Government and Yorkshire Water to account.  They have widespread support from the County Council, our MP, and local businesses and landowners.  They use press and media and public meetings to raise awareness and pressure Yorkshire Water and – in coordination with the national Sewage Campaign Network – lobby for water and sewage services to be returned to not-for-profit public ownership.

Microbiologist Keith Thomas described the various means by which they monitor water quality.  Samples are taken at 7 locations from Wainwith to Brompton on Swale using a variety of test equipment to measure levels of bacteria, chemicals and invertebrates, plus observation of sewage plant overflows after rain. Despite reporting frequent high levels of pollution below the Richmond Sewage plant outfall and at Brompton on Swale below the Skeeby Beck junction, they have so far been unable to force Yorkshire Water to remedy the situation.  It is very difficult to prove that sickness is related to river contact, as the cause is unlikely to be reported medically.  However, one Richmond student who drank a pint of Swale water for a bet suffered a clostridium infection!

They are continuing to pursue their application for DBWS, monitoring and lobbying, in the hope that the Government will take notice of this national problem.  We wish them well with this important work.

Recent & Upcoming Activities

• Babs Hunt and Lin Ryan represented the Club at the Mayor’s Civic Dinner
• Jan Beeton will lay a wreath on our behalf at the War Memorial on Remembrance Day
• Babs and her husband (and guide dog puppy Iris!) will attend the Civic Service at St Mary’s Church as our representatives.
• Lin Ryan will attend the annual prize giving at Risedale School on 22nd October where the Soroptimist Cup for Making a Difference will be presented, and new member Lindsay represented us at the Prize Giving at Richmond School.

Programme Action

PA Officer Wendy Arrowsmith circulated the Yorkshire Region President’s Special Award for PA. This was awarded to us for our Tote Bags for Children in Care Project at last month’s Regional Conference.

We were pleased to note that the club continue to be trailblazers for PA in the Region, as two other awards related to Sharing Our Skills projects.  Regional Conference attendees brought donations for Smartworks, and took packs of Tote Bag fabric to make up. The Northern Region President had not been aware of EVA Women’s Aid, which we and Scarborough & Malton support, and intends to bring it up in her Region.

Volunteers signed up to assist at our upcoming Coffee Morning taking place on Saturday 8th November at Richmond Town Hall, for which members will be donating items for the tombola, raffle, cake and books & DVD stalls.

Membership Office Sue Eastham was pleased to see that 3 of our new members have been part of the group planning our Bingo Night fundraiser.  A total of 76 tickets have been sold for this event.

Yorkshire Region

Regional President Judith (who is one of our members) thanked the club for its support at the recent RCM at Scotch Corner, and also thanked Chris Bowran for designing her Presidential Logo (which is attracting favourable attention).  She is looking forward to the November meeting, which is her first as sole President instead of Joint President. The club wishes Judith well in her Presidential year.

Judith also encouraged any members who can to take part in the Train Safety Awareness Day being held on 4th December.  She would like as many people as possible to meet at York Station at 11:15 where she hopes to have a press and media presence.  Members from across the Region will be travelling to meet at this time, before continuing on from York to Scarborough.

UN Campaign about Violence Against Women

We were delighted to hear that last year’s Richmond School students on the Sharing Our Skills project are running their own project around the 16 Days of Activism against Violence Against Women. They have obtained permission to publicise this on the TV displays around the school.

The club held another Orange Café at the Swimming Pool café to mark this campaign.  Members were encouraged to use the café generally. It is run by a Ukrainian refugee couple, who are very welcoming.  This is particularly important while the pool itself remains closed for repairs.

Tote Bags for Children going into Care

Small team came together at Jenny’s this month to cut out and organise packs of fabric with sewing instructions for making Tote Bags. We pass bags to North Yorkshire Voice, who give them to children going into care to carry their personal belongings.   This was so that packs could be distributed at November’s RCM for other clubs to produce bags for equivalent uses in their areas.  More than 30 packs were made up.  About a dozen packs were given out at the previous RCM.

Bingo Night Fundraiser

September Meeting

This was the first “regular” meeting attended by our 3 new members, who joined us last month for the outing to Easby Abbey.  Babs was able to present them with their badges and formally welcome them.

Richmond Refugee Support

Our speaker was Annette Clarke from Richmond Refugee Support group. This is a voluntary group who provide social support for resettled people from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine.  They have arrived in our area by various different routes, though many are linked with the Ministry of Defence.  They and their families may have been given a settlement agreement for up to 3 years through work they performed for the MOD.  We were very impressed at the range of support the group gives.

The group helps provide a befriending service which provides many things. This includes explaining where local facilities are, taking people to medical appointments or helping support them to complete their driving license. The latter is very important to enable the refugees to have their own independence, get to work, and support other refugees mobility.

The group hosts a monthly meeting at the Swaledale Mountain Rescue Centre for mums and children called “Hokey Cokey”.  The do arts & crafts with the children but also some teaching of English – all ending in singing and dancing to the song.

There is also a bike scheme, providing donated bicycles for use by the refugees to get to work or the shops – or just for children to have fun. There is a maintenance day every month providing instruction on the bikes and how to keep them safe.

The Support group also learn a lot about the cultures of the people they are helping.  The volunteers say it is great to see multiple cultures joining together.  The refugees are encouraged to organise their own events. Invited volunteers are often overwhelmed by the generous hospitality they are given.

From 3rd October they are arranging a walking group where people attending will also be able to help their English language and conversational skills.  It is particularly important to provide support and social activities for the Asian women, who are generally much in the shadow of the men in their own cultures.

Business Update

• Two of our members will be representing us at the Mayor’s Civic Dinner and Sunday Service, events to which all local voluntary organisations are invited.
• Plans for our Bingo night in October are progressing.  This is in support of our charity this year, Richmond & Hambleton Palliative Care Team.
• A further 3 loans have been made through Lend With Care to female third world entrepreneurs.
• Dates were announced for three Coffee Mornings booked at the Town Hall in 2026. These are an invaluable source of income for our charity work, and an opportunity to publicise Soroptimism.
• There will be an Orange Cafe meeting on 25th at the Swimming Pool Cafe – which is run by Ukrainian refugees.  Members are urged to support this enterprise.

SI Yorkshire RCM

Our Club is hosting the Yorkshire Region Conference day at the Holiday Inn Scotch Corner. Eleven club members will be ‘meeting and greeting’ attendees, and guiding them through the vital car park registration procedure.  This meeting is the first chaired by our member Judith, who has taken over as Yorkshire President for the year 2025-6.  She will be announcing her programme of events.

There will be tables for all the clubs to display their programme action work, and arrangements were made to bring materials to show our work with

• North Yorkshire Voice (tote bags)
• Smartworks (clothing and accessory donations)
• the Women of Richmondshire Exhibition
• clothing supplies for the Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming Club.

These displays provide inspiration to club members across the region, encouraging cross-fertilisation with sharing of ideas.  We will also offer fabric, etc for attendees to make more tote bags. Donations will also be collected for Smartworks and EVA Women’s Aid.

Surprise Picnic

Several members surprised our long serving member Sandy with a picnic at Easby Abbey on Sunday 10th August.  Sandy lost her husband last year, and this would have been her 55th Wedding Anniversary.  Having been married at Easby Church, we planned with her daughter to take Sandy for a stroll around the Church and Abbey – and she was delighted to find us there, ready to picnic together.  It was a lovely occasion.

Meeting at Easby Abbey

Easby Abbey

We held our July Meeting at Easby Abbey, the English Heritage ruins on the edge of Richmond.  The evening began with a picnic in the grounds on a lovely evening, which was followed by a tour and talk about the history of the Abbey by Kate Streatfield, one of the English Heritage custodians.

Evidence suggests that a religious community of some sort existed on the site before the abbey was founded. This was probably based on the surviving parish church of St Agatha, and may have been an Anglian minster, a community of priests responsible for serving the surrounding parishes.  The Abbey itself was founded in about 1152 by Roald, constable of Richmond, and may have absorbed the earlier minster.  It was a Premonstratensian Foundation, only the third one in England.
Most of the Abbey was built in the 13th century.

The Premonstratensian order was founded in 1121 in Prémontré, France, by St Norbert of Xanten. Most monks followed the 6th-century Rule of St Benedict, renouncing the world for a contemplative life.  Norbert elected instead to follow the older Rule of St Augustine, which better fitted his aims that Premonstratensians should serve communities by preaching, teaching, charitable work, and sometimes by direct service as parish priests.  Nonetheless, the Premonstratensians were heavily influenced by the Cistercian order, borrowing their rules for founding abbeys, the use of lay brothers to carry out much of the manual work for the community, and the regulation of daily life. The Premonstratensians adopted white robes like the Cistercians, and were known as ‘white canons’.

The Abbey was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1536, following the establishment of the Church of England. The lands were sold off, and the buildings rapidly lapsed into ruin.  Stone was taken for building, and some substantial pieces were taken away – a choir screen which is in St Mary’s Church, Richmond and another screen in Wensley Church.  The estate was sold in the 18th Century to William Smith of Melsonby, who built a hospital and Easby Hall.  The ruins became an object of interest for antiquarians and Romantic artists in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The grandeur of the surviving buildings testifies to the success and wealth of the abbey.

In the 1950’s the Custodianship of the Abbey was given to the Ministry of Works, and was passed to its successor in charge of national monuments, English Heritage when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.  English Heritage is now an independent Charity. Below is an illustration of what the Abbey would have looked like when it was fully built and in use and a photograph of the current ruins.

Business

A brief business discussion followed the talk, which included the welcoming of 2 new members.

We will be holding a fundraising Bingo Night at Richmond Town Hall on Friday 17th October 7pm for 7:30pm, in aid of this year’s charity, with proceeds going to Palliative Care Richmond & Hambleton.  We will obtain a temporary liquor license to hold a bar for the night. There is a sub-group organising this.

Wendy will be reviewing our PA reports and see if any are suitable to go forward for Regional awards in September.  We are hosting the September SI Yorkshire Regional Council Meeting at the Scotch Corner Hotel, as our member Judith will be the new President.  Members will be acting as club ambassadors to meet and greet our visitors.  There will be “show and tell” tables for clubs to demonstrate their Programme Action work.  We will be showing

• details of the Swimming Packs we funded
• the folder of entries from our International Women’s Day “Women of Richmond” exhibition
• examples of the tote bags for young people in care which we have been making.  We hope to encourage other clubs to make some too!

As the Club has it’s Summer Break in August, the next meeting will be our annual visit to Colburn Community Support at Colburn Village Hall in September. Members were reminded to bring contributions towards their Christmas Hamper Appeal, as usual.  Food staples such as pasta, tinned soup, tinned beans, tomatoes, corned beef, and ham are requested, and toiletries suitable for teenagers. Fray Bentos pies as well as Christmas treats such as small Christmas cakes, packets of biscuits, chocolate treats are really welcome. They will have a “warm rail” for donations of good quality warm clothes for adults and children, and a toy appeal for children for new or nearly new toys.

Our June Meeting

We held our June meeting at Holiday Inn, Scotch Corner on a very warm evening.  Sadly, our guest speaker from the Richmond & Hambleton Palliative Care Team, had been taken ill and could not be with us. However, our newest member, Sara-Louise offered to stand up and speak to us about her life and work. Sara is a real local, having been born in Northallerton, and lived all her life in Richmond.  She works as a senior member of a Chartered Accountancy firm in Richmond.  Her main focus is supporting new clients, especially those setting up new businesses, as well as supporting the women on her team.  She discovered Soroptimism when her Godmother Lin (our past President and current club Secretary) nominated her for our ‘Women of Richmond Exhibition’ for International Women’s Day. Sara received a very warm welcome from club members.

Our Programme Action officer reported back on recent donations of tote bags to North Yorkshire Voice, and clothing to SmartWorks. She also reported on recent loans to a team of ladies in Togo through our ongoing microfinancing via Lend With Care. She is currently corresponding with our Friendship Club SI Harare about the best way to send them the money we have earmarked to help them with their work.

We were reminded of Angie Dale’s work at Colburn Community Centre. We meet there in November, and in the past have contributed to the Christmas hampers that Angie and her helpers send out to those in need. She likes to add a gift for families with children, but has found that gifts for teenage girls are not always donated. She has asked the club to donate suitable gifts for these girls such as make-up sets, nail polish, fluffy socks, jewellery, pyjamas, emery boards, body lotion, perfume or body spray. We will  bring suitable donations in November!

Members also signed up to volunteer at our next fundraising coffee morning being held at the Town Hall in July. Members man the door and stalls, and make and serve beverages, as well as bringing donations for the tombola and raffle.

Donation to North Yorkshire Voice

Members of SI Richmond and Dales met recently with a representative of North Yorkshire Voice at The Station, Richmond. North Yorkshire Voice is an arm of North Yorkshire County Council which aims to give young people a voice within North Yorkshire, joining communities together through youth engagement. They work in particular with young people at risk or in care.  Our members met NY Voice to deliver a supply of large tote bags made by members of the Club. These will be given to youngsters going into care to carry their personal belongings. Otherwise they often have only black bin bags for lack of other options.

May Meeting

Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming Club

At our May meeting we were delighted to welcome as speaker Esme Flounders from Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming Club, who came to inform us of the impact of our fundraising for them. The £1146 raised at the Sharron Davies Evening has massively aided young girls to maintain training schedules.

Presently they have about 160 members in the club with 50% of the younger members and 65% of older ones being girls. Members commit to 12-16 hours a week training, increased for the older ones who also have 2 hours of gymnastic work each week. Prior to our support there had been a huge issue with girls missing training during menstrual cycles.

There are a range of products available for girls, but these are very expensive. We heard that race suits for a gala cost around £300 each and girls would need four per gala. Our funds have enabled the purchase of special swim pants to wear under swimsuits, some swimsuits and also starter packs of minerals and vitamins. Female immune systems dip before menstruation and these packs replace lost iron, magnesium and zinc plus pre-biotics to maintain optimal training fitness.

Chair Babs thanked Esme on behalf of the club for her detailed talk.

Scarves and Clothes

The evening was also designated as a Swap-Shop event for club funds with members bringing an array of scarves, for purchase after our talk.

Members also donated a substantial collection of clothes and accessories to be passed on to Smartworks local representative

Update for April

After the excitement of our International Women’s Day Exhibition in May, April has been a quieter month.  We held our Annual General Meeting at the Scotch Corner Hotel, looking back on the year 2024-5.  Another busy year with lots of activities, campaigns and fundraising, as usual. We were also delighted to welcome a new member at the meeting.  The Secretary thanked all those who served as Officers on the Executive, and/or worked on our projects.

We confirmed the new executive Committee, and the programme for the coming year.  This information is now available on our website.  Our joint Presidents Babs Hunt and Lin Ryan will continue to be our formal Presidents for ‘official’ duties, though each month our meetings will be chaired by a different member of the club.  This will reduce the workload for the Presidents, especially as they both hold other Executive posts.  Babs is also serving this year as Yorkshire Regional Treasurer, alongside our member Judith Clark as joint Yorkshire Region President.

International Women’s Day Exhibition: Women of Richmondshire

In March 2024 SI Richmond and Dales celebrated International Women’s Day by putting on an exhibition of over 100 women who contribute to the community in Richmond. The response from the many people who came to see it was so encouraging that we expanded the exhibition for 2025 to include women of Richmondshire.

This display covered women from local past history as well as women of today, from varied walks of life.  They are women who contribute to local life in all sorts of roles, exalted or humble, but each in some way keeps the wheels of their community turning or enhances local life.

The exhibition was displayed in a free exhibition in Richmond Town Hall on Friday March 7th, and we were very proud that it was opened by Richmond’s Lady Town Crier. Entrance was free, with light refreshments served.  Thanks go to members of the club for donating these, especially our bakers. As usual, we held a raffle and some visitors gave donations, so we were able to raise £160 for our funds.  Almost 100 people attended this successful event.

We now have a display from the exhibition on view in the Richmondshire Museum, which opened on April 1st for it’s 2025 season.  Our thanks go to the Museum for giving us this opportunity to extend our exhibition’s life.

March Meeting

Choir of the Earth

Our March meeting featured one of our members as speaker.  Jenny Cathcart talked to members about the online choir of which she is a member.  This began as a COVID project, to bring an opportunity to choral singers to sing together remotely during lockdowns.  The Self-Isolation Choir was a tremendous success, producing a performance of the Messiah featuring 12,000 singers from all round the world. This was “broadcast” on YouTube.  It was such a success, that the choir is still going strong.  Now transformed into The Choir of the Earth (COTE), it has just celebrated its 5th Birthday.  YouTube video “classes” and guide recordings are used to teach members the music. Those who wish to can make recordings of themselves to send in.  These are mixed by audio engineers with professional accompaniment and soloists to produce virtual concerts. All the choir’s concerts be seen on YouTube.  Concerts range from choral works large and small, from Mozart Masses to songs by ABBA and The Beatles.  COTE is a source of great enjoyment for members, all in the comfort of their own homes.

Charity Fundraising

Speakers and events are now all confirmed for our 2025-26 programme.  The biggest fundraiser will be a Knock-out Rounders Match on Sunday 8th June at Richmond Equestrian Centre in Tunstall.  The aim is to encourage 16 teams of 10 to enter, at £50 per team.  On the day there will be various other activities including face painting, bouncy castle Poo Bingo.  A barbecue will be run, plus donations bar, tea and coffee and a cake stall.  It is hope there could be 200+ people attending. The money raised will go to our main charity of the year, Hambleton & Richmondshire Palliative Care Team. We will be assisting the daughter of one of our members in organising this event. She is leading on the project in memory of her father, who received wonderful care from the Palliative Care Team until he passed away late last year.

We will also be running 3 fund-raising coffee mornings at Richmond Town Hall, as usual – with raffle, tombola, cake and book stalls.  We have also agreed to hold a mini-raffle at each of our meetings for a small prize which will be donated by members in turn.

“Material” Help

We have also confirmed plans with North Yorkshire County Council’s Youth Voice Team to make large tote bags to be given to children in care to carry their possessions, in place of the current “bin-bags”.  Packs of upholstery and curtain fabrics have been purchased from a haberdashery sale, and packs (plus instructions!) were given out at the meeting to members with sewing machines to start on the first batch.

We were also pleased to welcome to the meeting the newly appointed local representative of SmartWorks Leeds, who is based in Catterick. We will be collecting further items of suitable clothing, shoes and accessories for their clients, to enable them to dress smartly for job interviews.

February Update

Riding for the Disabled

The Speaker at our February meeting was Chair of Richmond & Catterick Riding for the Disabled Association, an organisation we have previously supported. Their ‘mantra’ is “It’s what you can do” and he went on to describe the happy, positive and highly valued organisation that sees 25,000 children and adults helped nationally through 470 groups completely run by volunteers.  In Richmond & Catterick, 30 Riders can attend the Saddle Club on Wednesdays and Saturdays, hosted by a team 0f 90 volunteers. Riders of all ages from 4 to 55 with all disabilities are accepted.  From the video shown, the joy of the riders was clear.  This activity  results in many positive outcomes, amongst them improved confidence, balance, co-ordination and a sense of achievement. Riders learn all aspects of horse care and management in addition to learning to ride, and can go on to take part in events and competitions.

Plans for 2024-25

The business meeting then went on to confirm the speaker plans proposed at our planning meeting in January, which cover a wide variety of charities and local interests.  We also confirmed the charities we will be supporting next year.  The prime one will be the Richmond & Hambleton Palliative Care Team which provides invaluable support and comfort to patients and their families with end-of-life care. This was experienced recently by one of our members, whose family are also fundraising for the service.

In addition, we will also continue to provide support for EVA Women’s Aid, and the work of our Friendship Link Club SI Harare. Sue Eastham reported that her husband’s garage business continues to give generous donations to EVA, including pyjamas this Christmas.

Following a fascinating talk in November about their work, we will also be developing a relationship with the North Yorkshire County Council’s Youth Voice programme, which supports children in care and at risk.  The club is buying stocks of upholstery fabric from a local firm which is closing down.  This will be used to make large hardwearing tote bags to be given to children taken into care.  Currently they are often only provided with black bin bags to carry all their possessions.

We were also delighted to hear that SmartWorks now has a local branch, through a new Outreach Assistant living in Catterick.  We look forward to working with her, and generating more clothing and accessory donations.

International Women’s Day

Work is well in hand for our exhibition marking International Womens’ Day.  This will be the second year we are celebrating the contribution of local women to the community.  This “Women of Richmondshire” exhibition will be on show at Richmond Town Hall on Friday, March 7th from 3:00 to 6:30, with free entry and light refreshments.  We hope this will be as successful as the previous one.

Happy New Year!

Annual Planning Day

Not surprisingly, January is a fairly quiet month.  Our main activity is to begin 2025 with our annual planning day at the Holiday Inn, Scotch Corner.  This is when we discuss what SI Richmond & Dales will be doing in our next year, April 2025 – March 2026, and review where we are as we approach the end of the current year.  We were delighted to be joined for the meeting by our two new Sharing our Skills students from Richmond School.

Review of processes

Our first task was to reflect on how the organisation has been operating, and some improvements to our routines were agreed, and Executive posts confirmed. We decided to revive having Programme Action Review as part of our AGM, and some ideas for new projects were considered to run alongside our ongoing activities.

Charity Funding

We also apportioned the charity funds which have not yet been allocated, and agreed to make donations to the Richmondshire Museum, and our sister club SI Harare, among others.  The Museum will be providing space for a follow on exhibition of our International Women’s Day Exhibition planned for Richmond Town Hall in March.  SI Harare is working within a national programme to promote cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccinations.  We also nominated organisations to be our new Annual Charity following on from our successful project this year with Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming Club.

Events and Club Meetings

There was a very fruitful discussion of possible speakers for our meetings in the coming year.  These were wide-ranging and overlapped in some cases with charity proposals.  We soon had a very interesting tentative programme in place.

One of our members has offered to run a quiz, which will make an excellent fundraising event, alongside our usual Coffee Mornings.  In addition, some suggestions were made for social events.  We have been offered a tour of Easby Abbey, one of our local English Heritage sites. This could be combined with a picnic in the grounds during the summer.  Several members also volunteered to host a bring a dish supper.

All the above proposals are being circulated to the full membership for comments and votes on proposals – as some members were unable to attend the session.  All told a very successful meeting, and some exciting ideas on offer for next year.

Seasons Greetings

As Christmas is nearly upon us, here are our Seasons Greetings to all!

Yorkshire Regional Council Meeting

On 23rd November, SI Yorkshire had its quarterly meeting with lunch which marks the start of a new Soroptimist year.  Despite the unexpected arrival of 6-7 inches of snow in the Richmond area overnight, SI R&D was represented in strength.  We were keen to support our member Judith Clark who has become joint Region President alongside Sue Butler of Ilkley club, and also our member Babs Hunt, who has taken up the role of Regional Treasurer.

Members were all delayed by conditions, but managed to make it to The Bridge Hotel, Wetherby in time to hear the speaker, who was very thought-provoking.  We also enjoyed the excellent lunch, which was most welcome after our difficult journey.  To mark Judith’s appointment club members had written and performed a comic song (set to the tune of Ilkley Moor bar t’At) exemplifying Judith’s commitment to Soroptimism.  This was very well received, especially by Judith!

The New Regional Committee & Joint Presidents

Orange Coffee Morning

The following weekend we held another fund-raising Coffee Morning in Richmond Town Hall.  As this coincided with the UN 16 Days of Activism against gender Based Violence, the members taking part all wore Orange, and a display of information about the UN campaign was put on.  We had a well stocked cake-stall (supplied by members), plus books & bric-a-brac, tombola and raffle.  This was another successful event, and we raised a total of just over £300 for our Charity funds.

November Club Meeting

Colburn Community Hub & Cafe

Our November Club Meeting was held at the Colburn Community Hub & Cafe, which we visit every year at this time.  Our lovely evening meal was prepared and served by the lady volunteers who are responsible for meals at the Community Centre.  These volunteers also give cooking lessons to local people who need a bit of help, and dietary advice.  As usual, we took along donations of food for their Community Christmas Hampers – including some special Christmas treats – and gave contributions to their  ‘Warm Rail’.  This is a collection of warm clothes donated for gifting to those in need.

North Yorkshire Voice

Our speaker that evening was Chloe Thwaite, from NY Voice, which is a body within North Yorkshire Council which supports and advocates for young people across the county.  Chloe gave us a whistlestop overview (with particular reference to girls and young women) of the wide variety of services and groups which NY Voice provides or supports.  We were very impressed by the range of work being carried out, and the achievements of some of the children in care whom she spoke about.

We were also struck by the potential synergy between the work of NY Voice and Soroptimism.  SI Yorkshire and its constituent clubs could work in partnership with NY Voice in several capacities, and options will be pursued.   We made sure Chloe had Soroptimist contact details before she left, as well as our good wishes for herself and the rest of the team doing such excellent work on a very tight budget.

Joint President Babs with Chloe

Projects Update

• We now have the total raised at our recent fundraiser for Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming club: a magnificent £1146 has been sent to the club for equipment to support their girl swimmers during their periods.
• Plans are proceeding for our next intake of students from Richmond School for our Sharing Our Skills project next term.
• Two members have recently taken a donation of clothes to the Newcastle branch of SmartWorks, following up on our recent donation to Leeds branch.
• A further LendWithCare donation has been given to a 15-year-old entrepreneur in Thailand.  She inherited her father’s farm where she lives with her grandfather and sister. She has ideas for expanding the business.
• Members recently met with representatives of the Richmondshire Museum to discuss options to support each other.  The Museum has agreed to mount an exhibition of material from our International Women’s Day “Women of Richmond” display when it reopens in Spring 2025.  In return, we have been asked for volunteers to assist with manning the Museum during opening hours for the 6 months of the year it is able to welcome visitors.  The Museum is entirely charitably funded, with no endowments, and only one half time employee.  Everything else is done by the team of volunteers.
• Work is also in progress in gathering nominees for our second IWD exhibition entitled “Women of Richmond & Dales”.  This will be presented in Richmond Town Hall to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2025.

Eventful November

We are having quite an eventful November!

Sharron Davies Evening

Last night we held an event at the Scotch Corner Hotel featuring the great Olympic swimmer and campaigner for women in sport, Sharron Davies. The evening was a fundraiser on behalf of the Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming club, to help fund equipment for their girl swimmers.  This is one of our charities for 2024-25. Before the event, Sharron attended their training session, meeting their young swimmers and putting them through their paces: what a privilege! In the evening, over 120 people had supper followed by a talk by Sharron about her career and issues in women’s sport.  She was a terrific speaker, and very inspirational.  After the talk she spent lots of time talking to attendees, especially the youngsters, and let everyone examine her Olympic torches and her medals.  An outstanding evening with an outstanding woman!

Remembrance Day

Join President Lin accompanies by member Jan Beeton attended the annual British Legion Remembrance Day parade and service as our representatives. As is our custom, they laid a wreath at the Richmond War Memorial in memory of the fallen.  Being a military town, this is always an important event, with many community organisations playing their part alongside the military.

SIGBI Conference in Edinburgh

The SIGBI Conference took place in Edinburgh at the beginning of November.  A group of seven members from Richmond & Dales attended, with 3 going for their first time.  Conference is an important opportunity to meet with fellow Soroptimists from all over the world, and to share in the ceremony in which Regional Presidents hand over their regalia to the incoming new Presidents.  This time one of our members, Judith Clark, was inducted as Joint President of Yorkshire for 2024-2025. Highlight of the conference was the keynote speaker – Baroness Floella Benjamin, the actress, TV presenter, writer of children’s books and active member of the House of Lords.  Dame Floella has received many awards in recognition of her work for children,  immigrant communities and other charitable groups.  Two of our members were lucky enough to meet her at the conference.