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May Meeting

May Meeting

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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

Update for April

Update for April

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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. 

Update on our March activities

Update on our March activities

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Here is an update on our March activities: 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

February Update

February Update

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Here is the February update on our activities. 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

New Year Update

New Year Update

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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

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings

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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

Eventful November

Eventful November

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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

October Update

October Update

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October Meeting At our October Meeting we were given an excellent presentation by volunteer Sheonagh Jones about the work of the Great North Air Ambulance Service.  This charity provides emergency medical care by helicopter – backed up by cars in bad weather and overnight.  They cover  North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumbria and recently added the Isle of Man.  This is the largest and most rural area covered by any of the 21 UK Air Ambulance charities.  Working with the NHS and other emergency service, plus Mountain Rescue, the GNAAS is an important part of major incident response throughout the North of England. We saw videos of the dispatchers who are linked to the emergency services, responding to calls, sending out the helicopters and cars.  We also saw their teams of pilot, pre-hospital doctor and specialist paramedic (who is also trained as a navigator and to assist

September Meeting

September Meeting

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Our September meeting was held, as usual, at the Scotch Corner Hotel. Speaker from SIYAMS We were very pleased to welcome our fellow Yorkshire Soroptimist Pat Kilbane to speak to us about SIYAMS.  This is the Regional group “Soroptimist International Yorkshire Against Modern Slavery”, which has been campaigning for many years.  Pat gave us a history of the group, and talked about the important work it has been – and continues – to do. This talk was followed by a light hearted quiz about Soroptimism, before the business meeting began. Richmondshire School Presentation We were delighted to hear that two of our Sharing Our Skills students at Richmond School were selected to receive the “Soroptimist Cup for Making a Difference” this year.  This recognised their successful project raising fund for Family Help Darlington. President Lin was on hand to present them with their prize at

Award for our students

Award for our students

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Hannah Slater and Philippa Kind spent the spring term with the Richmond & Dales Soroptimists as part of our Sharing Our Skills project.  During this time, they engaged enthusiastically with the club and, after discussion, decided that they would like to support a local domestic abuse charity.  They settled on Family Help Darlington.  To this end they gathered their friends – male and female – and organised a walk into town in fancy dress, giving out publicity material as they went.  Despite inclement weather they raised a lot of interest and around £500 in sponsorship money for Family help Darlington.  Awareness was raised in the town and within the Sixth Form College of both the issue of domestic abuse and the support available from Family Help Darlington. As a result of these sterling efforts, Hannah and Philippa were awarded the annual “Soroptimist Cup for Making a