March/April/May
Due to the Coronavirus emergency lockdown, our meetings for March, April and May had to be cancelled, together with the planned fund-raising Coffee Morning. The April meeting would have been the AGM, but this took place electronically, with all documentation distributed by email. It is hoped that we can carry out a proper “handover” to our new President’s in June. In the meantime, the club members have agreed a £100 donation to the local food bank to assist with the current emergency.
February
At our February meeting we were given a fascinating talk by James and Barbara Gravenor on the long and illustrious history of the Richmond Grammar School, which was the first school in Richmondshire. Originally, it accepted only boys and its only entry requirements were that pupils could read and write. Its original founding date is not known, however it first appears in a registry estimated to have been written in 1361–1474. It was awarded a charter ratifying its status on 14 March 1568 by Queen Elizabeth I and was one of the first free Grammar Schools in England. The first school was built on what is now the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, which stands on the hill opposite where a new building replaced the Elizabethan one in 1850. In 2012 a new campus on the edge of the town was constructed, and the old buildings became offices of the Richmondshire Council. When the Council ceased using the buildings, a project was begun, led by James Gravenor, to raise funding to the convert the buildings into a community space. Sadly, despite good local support and James’ sterling efforts, an application for funding from the National Heritage Lottery fund was unsuccessful. Without this the proposal was not viable and the project had to be abandoned. Currently the Council is attempting to find a use for the site.
Several project updates and donations were agreed at the meeting:
- £45 from the levy on club meeting meals, to purchase of further sanitary supplies for the Richmond Food Bank to issue
- £200 to South Yorkshire to assist in recovery from their disastrous flooding earlier in the year
- 3 further toilet have been “twined” as part of our Toilet Twinned Town project
- Following the success of selling Chris Bowran’s Christmas Cards for Zimbabwe at the Regional Council Meeting, it was agreed that this would be made a club project with a working group to assist with sales and marketing and a more general range of Greetings Cards. Jenny Cathcart offered to provide her designs to the mix
The Club also agreed to pay the fee for a new member to attend their first Regional meeting, which has been done previously.
January
Our January meeting featured the welcoming of 3 new members to Club, who were introduced by their mentors. We also had a presentation by another of our members, Jan Beeton, who spoke about her travels with Master Travel, an organisation which offers professionals an opportunity to offer their skills abroad. Jan has been doing annual trips with this organisation for nearly 20 years, and has visited a very wide range of countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Teams of professionals in health, education and social care are able to give assistance and training to workers in the sites visited, and to take materials to support their work. Jan has had a fascinating time supporting this worthwhile cause.
We were also able to pass on some donations from members:
- nightwear and underwear for EVA, the women’s refuge in Hartlepool, which now has it’s home for older women up and running.
- It was agreed to donate £50 to the proposed Junior Park Run scheme which it is hoped will encourage children in regular exercise by organising weekly runs from The Station.
- Money will also be going to SI Harare to help them in their work at this extraordinarily difficult time for the country. This consists of £100 raised by Sandy Baxter from beating at local shoots, plus another £50 donation given to her, plus the profits from the sale of Chris Bowran’s Christmas cards (total to be confirmed).
Our Programme Action Lead, Sharon Hanson-Cooper has also been busy, with tele-conferences on the SIGBI Nepal project, for which she is the Regional Ambassador. She has also been confirmed as one of the SIGBI delegates to the United National Commission on the Status of Women later this year.
Several members of the club visited Richmond School to see theTwinned Toilets funded by our Sharing our Skills students in situ, and commemorated the visit with a photo. We were also able to supply Storehouse, the local foodbank with a further donation of sanitary ware from the student’s fundraising. Articles praising the students, thanking SI R&D for their work with them, and showcasing the students efforts have been featured in the Darlington & Stockton Times and Northern Echo newspapers, and on the news websites North East Connected:
https://neconnected.co.uk/students-support-community-projects-at-home-and-abroad/
and Richmondshire Today::
December
We don’t have a monthly meeting in December, as it would be too close to Christmas. However, we did have a “Christmas” event: a Quiz night with supper held at the Richmond Cricket Club. This was attended by 100 people, and raised a sum of £541 for our President’s charities
November
On Sunday 10th November, two members represented the Club at the Richmond Remembrance Day Parade, Service and Wreath Laying. There was an impressive crowd watching on a beautiful sunny morning. Good to see so many commemorating our war dead.
This month we held another Coffee Morning at the Town Hall to raise funds for our charities. This was well attended despite it being a wet and gloomy day, and the members worked hard, raising £190.
At our November meeting we had an excellent talk on “Sustaining the North Yorkshire Dales National Park” by Peter Stockton, Head of Sustainability at the Yorkshire Dales National 
Park, looking at current and future challenges in the park. There are 20 English counties smaller than the very rural park, home to 23,500 people, 4,500 barns, 2,000 listed buildings, mountains, the second largest cave in the UK (St Paul’s Cathedral would fit in nicely), red squirrels, peregrine falcons and dormice. The archeology of the park is visible from the air because the Dales have never been ploughed but sustainability is a challenge. The population has declined since 2008 with a rise in those aged over 65 but fewer children of school age. Fifty new houses a year are needed but, while planning permission is granted for this number, few are built; smaller flats are particularly in demand and scarce. Keyworkers need to pay 5 times their income for houses and this lack of affordability has resulted in 30% vacancy rate in Richmondshire. Maintaining services is problematic and farming is vulnerable, placing some settlements in a knife edge. Emphasising the Dales as a place to live aswell as visit, farm diversification, and fast broadband together with more affordable housing will all help to make the park sustainable.
Turning to climate change, Peter highlighted the cloudburst that brought flooding to the Dales in the summer and damaged some scheduled monuments. Managing water stored in peat, planting more woodland and selecting housing sites to reduce the need to travel is the focus of the park authority. The aggregate industry continues to increase its use of rail as opposed to road to transport its products. Paying farmers to manage the landscape is also being investigated.
The club is grateful to Peter for talking to members about this wonderful natural landscape on our doorstep and hopes the efforts by the Park Authority to maintain and sustain the considerable area they manage is successful.
At this meeting we also had a presentation to our SOS students. The latest cohort of students from Richmond School joined SI Richmond and Dales as part of their ongoing Sharing our Skills project. The seven girls, five of whom are pictured, were impressed with the club’s aim to make Richmond a toilet twinned town and concerned to learn a number of their contemporaries could miss out on school due to period poverty. The girls held a dress down day at the school, raising a splendid £1000.64. After consulting each other, the girls decided to purchase 6 twinned toilets, splitting the remaining funds equally between period poverty and club projects. In the photo are the 6 toilets twinned with the toilets in the girls’ block at their school and a small part of the sanitary products to be donated to the local foodbank. Richmond and Dales will be sending their share of the girls’ donation to their Friendship Link in Harare. Inspired by Wendy Arrowsmith’s recent report on her trip to the Gambia, the girls donated £100 of their funds to purchase a sewing machine and material for local women and girls to make sani pads. The photo shows sewing in progress. Richmond and Dales presented each girl with a Certificate of Appreciation and are very proud of these young women and their commitment to improving the lives of women and girls at home and abroad.
October
This month we held our annual Club Review, where we look at the Programme Action work we have been doing, and assess our aims and methods to see what improvements we can make, as well as the contributions we make to Regional, National and International projects.
The current 3 year Meru Garden project, supporting women in agriculture in Kenya, will close just before Federation Conference in November. The total sum raised is in excess of £160,000. The new project, to run from 2019 to 2022, is titled “ Empowering Girls in Nepal” and will be launched at Conference. This will be Katmandu focussed, where a safe house has been built with the aim of rescuing girls who have been trafficked into India and returning them to Nepal. Here they will receive therapy, re-training and support for justice through the Nepalise legal system. Our PA Officer, Sharon Hanson-Cooper. has been appointed Regional Project Ambassador, so our club will have close contact and knowledgef progress.
Sharon also reported back on the 3 day quadrennial Soroptimist International Convention in Kuala Lumpur where she met women from all parts of the globe. The new International President’s Appeal is “The Road to Equality”. The theme embrace projects which are advocacy driven: e.g. modern day slavery, climate change issues and encouraging women into positions of influence.
Book Signing
Baroness Hale came to the Richmond Library to sign copies of the book about her published just after our event last month. A number of members assisted with the signing, and bought copies.
September
Baroness Hale
This month we were proud to invite fellow Soroptimists and friends to a fundraising event at the Scotch Corner Hotel. This comprised supper and a talk by Baroness Hale, President of the Supreme Court, and our Club Patron. Lady Hale described her upbringing in Richmond, and the steps in her academic and legal career which led her to become the first female Supreme Court Judge, as well as it’s first female President. This excellent event was attended by 120 people from our own Club and 15 others clubs in Yorkshire and the North East. The event fell just before the publication of a children’s book about Baroness Hale and the Supreme Court. Preview copies were available to view, and orders were taken for 25 copies. Baroness Hale also posted a picture of herself with our Club Presidents on the Supreme Court website.
September Meeting
Speaker at our September Meeting was Pat Brent – sister of one of our joint Presidents. Pat spoke about the Suffragists (the women’s suffrage group which rejected violence and law-breaking) and their influence in obtaining women the vote. Pat also tested members with a quiz on women’s rights. We also welcomed a visitor to our meeting, Angelika Maurel, the President of SI Victoria, Seychelles and Mahe. She spoke about her club and it’s PA work, and presented members with Seychelles souvenir fridge magnets made from coco-de-mer seed pods.
Chennai Downtown
This month we also heard from the Chennai Downtown Club about the school we have been helping them to support. This is the letter we received:
“ Another year has gone by. Yesterday we honoured the two students with the Rolling trophy in Roshni School. Just a background of the school. This is in a village near Gudvancheri. About two hours drive from Chennai. Here the students are mostly first generation learners. School strength has gone up to 600 students now and growing. It is a charity from one of our members Shagufta Musvi’s community, and she is the correspondent of there.
Our club has done tree planting, Health check up for students, teachers and other staff by one of the best hospitals of our country.
The Cup instituted by your club is very encouraging for the students. On behalf of our club we give a cash prize of Rs 1000 which actually is merely £12. These students were toppers in their school as well as the district.
The school organised a grand welcome with dance and skits. It was the school’s founding day too. Marking the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi launched the Swachha Bharat Mission (Clean India) As an Environmentalist I gave a talk on importance of the mission and gave a wonderful activity to the students “Earn your pocket money from the trash”. This is done by segregation of waste and here in India we have recycling shops where they buy old newspapers, plastic and metal waste. Rather any waste that can be upcycled. You can take the trash there and get money for it.
My club members join me in thanking you and members of the your club for this gesture.”
August
Flash Floods in the Dales
On Tuesday 30th July, 150mm of rain fell on Swaledale, Arkengarthdale and Lower Wensleydale in less than 3 hours causing flash floods which swept animals, cars and crops away. Boulders, mud and debris arrived in houses and businesses, causing substantial damage and making a number of families homeless. Roads and bridges were damaged including part of the route planned for the UCI World Championships in September. The fire station in Leyburn was under water while the firefighters were rescuing people caught in the floods and their own cars were floating in the car park. Current estimates suggest repairs will take up to a year and damage to roads will cost some £3m. Richmond and Dales are very grateful for messages of support from the Regional President and others.
The club ran a coffee morning in Richmond Town Hall in August to raise funds for the flood victims when we were joined by Rishi Sunak whose constituency includes Richmond and the Dales and is now a member of the Cabinet. The coffee morning and donations from Sheffield, Selby, Skipton, Scarborough, Leeds, Garforth Elmet, Harrogate and Region itself will raise over £1500. This will be donated to the two ridings charity whose recovery fund to support people affected by the floods is giving grants of £300 to families and others in immediate need. Richmond and Dales wishes to thank our sister Soroptimist clubs for their generous help and support at this difficult time.
July Activities
Instead of our usual monthly meeting, in July we were invited to visit The Jonas Centre, a holiday retreat in a beautiful location in Wensleydale which we have been supporting for several years. The centre gives holidays to 
underprivileged families, and we took a donation of equipment for the lodges: a microwave oven, toasters and towels. We were treated to supper and a tour of the facilities, and donated the money we would normally have spent on our monthly meeting meal.
Several members accompanied by their husbands also attended an event organised by SI Middleborough. This was a delicious afternoon tea to raise funds for their project to buy a “Pink Tuk-Tuk” for Sri Lanka. This is on behalf of The Rosie May Foundation, which is providing Pink Tuk-Tuks driven by 
women to provide secure public transport for women and children. 80% of women surveyed reported being sexually harassed or attacked on public transport. The fund was started by a couple in memory of their daughter who was murdered. They buy custom coloured tuk-tuks and train the drivers. SI Middlesbrough is aiming to raise £3,500 to fund one vehicle and training for two drivers to operate it. We heard a speech from the fund’s founder, and were also entertained by a local community choir. Over £1,100 was raised at the event.
Busy in June
At our June meeting one of our members, Wendy Arrowsmith gave an excellent presentation on her recent visit to Gambia. 
A teacher herself, Wendy was working with a local charity run by Marion Casson – School in Gambia – which provides training and support for teachers and pupils. Wendy learned a lot from her visit, and hopes that she was able to give as much to the children and adults she met. She modelled a lovely traditional outfit which she had made by the local tailor.
Joint President Sue confirmed that Dame Tanni Grey-Thomson will be our speaker at an event in April next year, as a belated International Women’s Day activity. That makes two Dames, as our Patron, Baroness Hale – President of the Supreme Court – is speaking to us in September.
Three of our members attended the Yorkshire Regional Conference, which was held at the Yorkshire Air Museum
on the theme Home Front to Front Line. Speakers told us about the history of the base which became the museum, the history of the women of the Air Transport Auxilliary and the WAAFs. We were also delighted to hear
from Iris Newbould, a sprightly 94 year-old reminiscing about her time in the Womens Land Army, and Corporal Katherine Weight, who shared her varied and challenging experiences in the RAF, where she is a Logistics specialist. An excellent day all round.
(The image behind Iris is of the remarkable Womens Land Army Memorial at Clochan, near Elgin in NE Scotland.)
Seven of us made a visit to Helmsley to see our former member, Mary Lovell MBE, taking her for Afternoon Tea. Mary moved from Richmond only 2 months ago, to be nearer her daughter, but it was lovely to see her in good form, and to admire her lovely new apartment. Mary is already settled in and making friends.
Finally, the “Caring for You” rose bush which we planted in the Friary Garden as part of Richmond in Bloom is now in flower, and looking lovely.
EVA at May Meeting
Richinda Taylor, the CEO of Eva Women’s Aid, gave a powerful and, at times, moving presentation about their work to end violence to women and girls. They offer a range of free, confidential and non judgemental services to provide the only wrap around care in the North East to include housing, counselling, safe houses, women’s aid and rape crisis centre. 
Members were concerned to learn there is no legal definition of domestic violence meaning there are, at present, no associated criminal offences meaning reliance must be placed on other law. Richinda told us 2 women a week are killed by their current or a former partner and there are around 1.3m female victims of domestic violence a year in the UK. Some 130,000 children live in households where there is a high risk of domestic abuse and domestic violence accounts for 16% of all violent crime. It is more difficult for older women to seek support which led Eva to start their 45+ project, the first and only safe house solely for older women in the UK. This safe house was full within a week of opening its doors.
The club presented Richinda with a collection of underwear, toiletries and nightwear for women seeking sanctuary with Eva.
Going for Gold
Faye Doorbar and Sue Young assisted by Emily, Sue’s granddaughter, plant a standard rose tree sponsored by SI 
Richmond and Dales as the club’s contribution to Richmond’s entry in Britain in Bloom. A silver winner last year, the town is hoping to achieve gold in 2019 when the judging takes place in early July. The rose variety, Caring for You, is especially apt for the Soroptimists and chimes with our principles to inspire action, create healthy environments and a sustainable future for women and girls.
May Charity Concert
These lovely ladies are members of the Brompton on Swale Ladies Choir who performed ‘Songs from the Shows’ after SI Richmond and Dales stepped in at the last minute to host their Spring concert after the previous organisers had to withdraw. The choir’s rehearsals started in January and cancellation would be a disappointment after all their hard work. Their repertoire included old favourites such as Oklahoma as well as more modern pieces from Mamma Mia. A bottle tombola and raffle together with the modest entry fee raised nearly £400 for charity including the Fawcett Society Equal Pay Fund established with
Caroline Gracie’s back pay from the BBC after she successfully won her case. £200 will enable a woman to have her case considered in depth by an appropriate lawyer. Our Friendship Link in SI Harare will also benefit from the monies raised.
Charity Donation
Immediate Past President Sue Eastham handing over the final cheque to Debbie Barker CEO of the Rape Crisis centre (RSACC) from our fundraising last year. Debbie was absolutely thrilled with our contributions to the centre , and expressed grateful thanks to all members.
April Meeting – AGM
Our Annual General Meeting was preceded by a visit from our neighbouring club. SI Darlington Songbirds regaled us with a set of songs they had written for the club’s 70th Anniversary – setting very funny lyrics to a selection of classic show tunes and pop telling the story of Soroptimists past and present. Highly enjoyable!
We then presented a cheque for £1050 to Eslpeth Robinson for the Kumi Foundation, one of the Presidents Charities for 2018-19.
We then had our formal AGM overview of the year, which – as always – has been remarkably busy with fundraising, campaigning and socialising. Thanks were given to all the Committee members and others for their work through the year, and to our retiring joint Presidents, Sue Eastham and Michele Herdman. They then passed the torch to the new joint Presidents for 2019-20, Sue Young and Judith Clark, who outlined their plans for another interesting and varied programme of events, meetings and fundraising.
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