Carol singing at Grefriars December 2014
A few of us have been carol singing with the residents of the sheltered flats at Grefriars in the town centre. We made up in enthusiasm for what we lacked in skill! The residents all joined in and it was a lovely start to Christmas.
Celebration of Richmondshire Museum November 2014
It is forty years since the members of SI Richmond and Dales were instrumental in setting up the Richmondshire Museum in 1974. It is truly as hidden gem, to be found behind the market place in Ryders’ Wynd and run entirely by volunteers. The small entrance belies the depth and height of the building which houses fascinating treasures and is a must see for residents and visitors of all ages. Recently the current Soroptimists were invited by the management committee to join them for wine and canapés and a delightful private viewing of this wonderful museum. Our president, Sheila Harrisson was pleased to hand a cheque for £350 to the management committee, which was gratefully accepted by Mike Wood. This really is a community project on a grand scale.
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2014 SIGBI Conference, Harrogate
It is impossible to convey in this space the invigorating effect of this year’s conference, so please follow this link for a complete run down of all the speakers and lots of pictures https://sigbi.org/harrogate2014/ We were charged by the new federation president, Jenny Vince to ‘deliver the difference’.
15 members of SI Richmond and Dales attended conference this year and we all had a very good time. We laughed, cheered, wept and resolved to work hard by turns (sometimes all at once) and we re-established our bonds with our sisters from other clubs and especially those from overseas. It has to be said that we also ate and drank a lot, but that is part of the conference experience!
We were particularly proud to see Angela, one of our members, take on the mantle of the regional president of Yorkshire. We know that she will do a magnificent job and she knows that we will be behind her giving her our support.
Tooth brushes for the Mercy Ships
This year we have raised money for the Mercy Ships – a charity which sends a hospital ship to the poorest parts of the world to provide life-changing medical and community health interventions. We asked them what we could provide on a more practical level and they told us that they are constantly in need of new toothbrushes and toothpaste. So we have despatched 111 toothbrushes and 28 tubes of paste. We would like to pass on our thanks to the local dentists who donated boxes of sample toothpastes.
Club meeting October 2014 Edwina’s cakes
We were delighted to welcome Edwina of ‘Edwina’s Cakes’ to speak to us this month. Following the theme of President Sheila’s year, ‘Celebrating Local People’, we had enjoyed a very ‘foodie’ week! A super Cheese and Wine evening the previous Wednesday, hosted by the Cheesy Grin of Richmond, and now, a taste of delicious cakes, skillfully decorated with the SIGBI logo! Edwina described how her life in cakes had begun – with requests from her children to make birthday cakes in the shape of a tractor! Her cakes became sought after by her children’s friends, and she found herself baking and decorating cakes for nearly every birthday party in the school! Her early experience with Murray’s bakers gave her good experience, together with her time at The Coffee Bean, but it was her leap of faith, (and extremely hard work) that made the move to new premises such the success it is today. Edwina reminded us that October is exactly seven years since she opened her shop in Frenchgate. Today, although ably assisted by her daughter, and two part time staff, it is Edwina who still works long hours, often until midnight. Her determination to succeed is apparent, as well as her total commitment to her wonderful bakery. Testament to this is the 120-150 sponge cakes baked each week, and to the 60 birthday cakes iced and decorated each week. The new venture into a cafe has been a great success too, together with cake deliveries to local village shops in the surrounding area. We looked at the photographs of the wonderful cakes she has produced over the years, including a cake for the visit of the Queen to Catterick, some wonderful Mackenzie Thorpe sheep cakes, and the largest cake she has made – one which measured 24 x 24 inches! Not easy to transport in a little car! Edwina was asked which her favourite cake was, and she let us in on her guilty secret – Mr. Kipling’s Battenberg!! . .
Sharing Our Skills Project – Cohort 3 October 2014
We are delighted to welcome Samya and Katy to our club. They are the third cohort of students from Richmond School to shadow our club as part of our sharing our skills project and they will be with us throughout the autumn term. We hope that they will learn a lot about working within an organisation and how to work effectively to transform the lives of women and girls (as well as enjoying themselves!). All our members are looking forward to getting to know them.
Cheese and Wine Tasting October 2014
One of the regulars at Richmond’s Saturday market is The Cheesy Grin, purveyors of every cheese you can think of. We invited Mo Nicholson, co-owner, to put on an evening of cheese tasting so that we could have a relaxing evening together. She brought a varied selection of cheeses and we tucked in with gusto whilst being served complimentary wines by two husbands whom we had commandeered for the evening. Mo took a good number of orders for Christmas and sold all the stock she had brought with her so we hope The Cheesy Grin will have regarded it as a successful evening. As a long-time friend of our club, it was lovely to have Mo with us for the evening and we all enjoyed some down-time together. Our thanks go to Barry and Sue for their hospitality.
Launch of WEST – Women’s Education Society at Northumbria University 24th September 2014
Two of our members – Chris Bowran and Sandy Baxter – were privileged to speak at the first meeting of WEST, a new society set up by students at Northumbria University to raise awareness of the importance of educating girls. The founding members, Laura and Ella, come from Richmond and Laura spent time with us in SI Richmond and Dales, as part of the first cohort of students in our Sharing Our Skills project when she was in the sixth form at Richmond School back in 2011. (Cohort 3 has just been recruited – watch this space!)
Through the amazing network of relationships that is Soroptimism, we were able to put WEST in touch with SI Chennai Downtown in India and they are going to work together to support girls at five schools in Chennai, especially by providing sanitary protection to enable the girls to continue attending school whilst menstruating. There were 25 students at the meeting and an ambitious programme of meetings and fundraising has been planned. A great achievement!
Club Meeting October 2014 Marion Moverley – A Holy Charity Marion Moverley, a well known social historian gave a fascinating talk tracing the development of charitable giving from monastic times until the present day. In monastic times the belief was that, after death, one’s soul went to purgatory for a period of time before entering heaven or hell but the length of time spent in purgatory could be reduced by giving money or goods in kind. In other words, the purpose of charitable giving was for one’s own good. The monasteries provided basic food for those in need as well as shelter for some who were ill but the number of people seeking help became a considerable nuisance. The wealthy who were able to give money or land often granted it for a specific purpose. After the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries, the purpose for charitable giving slowly changed until today the emphasis is on supporting individuals and communities in need and the organisations that work towards that end. In the Richmond area alone there are three charities that were set up more than a century ago to support specific groups of people such as tailors’ widows who were members of the Anglican church and those of other tradesman. Marion is well known for the variety of courses she runs including exploring history through diaries and documents and, for those searching family history, the use of court, church and estate records and wills etc.
Fund raising Quiz night
Sixty people enjoyed a successful Quiz night at Richmond’s Kings Head Hotel in September in aid of the Richmondshire Local History Museum. We were delighted that SI-Darlington & District’s President, Dorothy Thompson, the not-to-be forgotten and entertaining Continuity Presenter at the 2013 SIGBI Conference, was Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening,
Forty years ago, in 1974, SI-Richmond & Dales embarked on a major community project by founding the Museum. It was a project that captured the talents and imagination of many local residents and has gone from strength to strength. Funded by donations, it is still run almost entirely by volunteers; our club is represented on its Management Committee. See its 10 galleries at www.richmondshiremuseum,org.uk.
Mpumi visits us from SI Bulawayo
Mpumi is one of our Zimbabwean sisters and this is the third time she has visited us at Richmond. It is always encouraging to hear about the wonderful work which SI Bulawayo and the other four clubs in Zimbabwe are doing. We know that any money we send to the Zimbabwean clubs will be spent directly on their projects, and that many women and children rely on their support.
Presentation of the Soroptimist Cup at Wavell School July 2014
Last year we presented Wavell School on Catterick Garrison with a cup to be presented each year to the class or group who had “made a difference”. The school launched into a fundraising project in which each class aimed to raise more than the others. The result was a magnificent £950 raised for charity and the class who raised the most won the cup last year.
However, this was only part of the story because the students then had to decide which charities would benefit from the donation. Some of our club members attended meetings with the school council and discussed potential beneficiaries and the school council members visited some local projects to see for themselves.
Their decision was to divide the money between support for children with diabetes and Mary’s Meals, which sets up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities where hunger and poverty prevent children from gaining an education. Because they were so diligent in their task, we decided this year that the school council should receive the Soroptimist Cup. Elaine Walton, who was club president last year, and Sheila Harrisson, our current president went with club members to the school for the presentation, and a wonderful time was had by all.
Forthcoming charity event QUIZ NIGHT Thursday 11th September
We will be holding a quiz night in support of the Richmondshire Museum at the Kings Head in Richmond on 11th September 6.30 for a 7pm start. Bring a team of four people, or come by yourself and join a team when you get here. Tickets cost £10 each including a light supper and there will be excellent raffle prizes. To assist with the administration, entry will be by ticket only and tickets are available from The Wives Kitchen in Finkle Street, Castle Hill Bookshop or on 01748 821057 or 07894 668005. Details also available on www.richmond.org
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Club Meeting July 2014 Sheila Harrisson – Longbows and short arms
We always have a speaker at our monthly meeting to entertain us or tell us about something interesting before we settle down to the business part of our meeting. This month we had at the top of the bill our very own Sheila Harrisson, club president. Sheila and her family have for many years practised archery and she brought along their bows and arrows and other paraphernalia to show us. We learned about the Scorton Silver Arrow competition which is the oldest, continuing archery competition in the world (it started in 1673) and happens on our doorstep – a fact previously unknown to most of us. We learned the origin of many phrases in common parlance and, more importantly as far as archers are concerned, the phrases which one mustn’t on any account use (archers “shoot” arrows, they don’t “fire” them!).
For obvious reasons it is apparently never done to string a bow indoors, but Sheila risked the wrath of the gods of archery to show us the tension required to shoot an arrow – we all escaped unscathed.
Tools With A Mission (TWAM)
In many countries of the world people have few skills, little education and no means of earning a living. A switch from aid dependency to self sufficiency is impossible without help. TWAM started 29 years ago, collecting old tools and refurbishing them for distribution overseas to enable people to earn a living and support themselves.
Members of SIR&D have had a rummage through garages and sheds and we have collected these old tools which we will now send to TWAM. Their futures will be a lot more useful than they would have been gathering dust in the back of our sheds.
Recycling and giving people a living, all in one go!
An evening with the History Wardrobe – Women and the Great War July 2014
http://www.historywardrobe.com/
Our aim was to raise funds for the Mercy Ships (http://www.mercyships.org.uk/) and to have a fun evening at the same time, and we accomplished both objectives in spades. Lucy Adlington and Meredith Towne put on a spectacular presentation that was informative, funny, moving and also inspired outrage at the inequalities which women have always had to endure
Lucy and Merry modelled original items of clothing from the First World War, some of which we coveted – the beautiful silk pyjamas and silk blouse – while the rough costume of the munitions worker is probably best left consigned to history.
We owe thanks to the generosity of all our guests who helped us raise over £700 for the Mercy Ships.
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Visit to The Supreme Court July 2014
We are very proud that the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and, incidentally, the first and so far only woman to preside in the Court, is a Richmond lass. Lady Hale was brought up in Richmond and educated at Richmond School (the High School as it was then).
Last year we invited Baroness Hale to speak at a club event. As a result of that very successful evening, a group of us have been to London to the Supreme Court to see it for ourselves. We had a most fascinating visit. Following an introductory session with one of the guides who answered many of our questions and briefed us about the cases currently being heard, we were able to sit in on two of the cases. Afterwards, Lady Hale met with us in the same courtroom and we were able to continue our discussions. We learned so much about the work of the Supreme Court and had many conversations about the best way to promote women into the higher echelons of the legal system. An additional bonus to our visit was that Lady Hale was able to bring a visiting judge to join us. Dorit Beinisch has recently retired as the President of the Israeli Supreme Court. The Israeli Supreme Court has 15 judges of whom five are women, whereas the UK Supreme Court has only one woman out of 12 judges, so her contribution to the discussion was very interesting.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and feel more informed about the way the legal system works at this level. We were also impressed by the transparency of the process. The Supreme Court is very accessible: members of the public can walk in to any of the hearings, only having to go through the usual security scan at the main door. The building itself is impressive, there is an informative exhibition and it has a good cafeteria as well which we were very pleased to patronise!
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Welcome to SI Northallerton and District: a new club for Yorkshire
After two years of hard work by a few members of SI Richmond and Dales and some very determined women in Northallerton, the newest club in the region received its charter on Saturday June 28th. Ann Whitewick , the first president of SI Northallerton and District, received the charter from Federation President, Margaret Oldroyd with the Regional President Margaret Cook and Regional President-elect Angela Edwards (a member of SIR&D) in attendance. Apart from all the top brass, many Soroptimists from across Yorkshire came to give a resounding welcome to their new sisters. It is always an exciting moment when a new club is chartered – who knows what differences these women will make to the lives of women and children across the globe in the years to come.
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Club Meeting July 2014 Sheila Harrisson – Longbows and short arms
We always have a speaker at our monthly meeting to entertain us or tell us about something interesting before we settle down to the business part of our meeting. This month we had at the top of the bill our very own Sheila Harrisson, club president. Sheila and her family have for many years practised archery and she brought along their bows and arrows and other paraphernalia to show us. We learned about the Scorton Silver Arrow competition which is the oldest, continuing archery competition in the world (it started in 1673) and happens on our doorstep – a fact previously unknown to most of us. We learned the origin of many phrases in common parlance and, more importantly as far as archers are concerned, the phrases which one mustn’t on any account use (archers “shoot” arrows, they don’t “fire” them!).
For obvious reasons it is apparently never done to string a bow indoors, but Sheila risked the wrath of the gods of archery to show us the tension required to shoot an arrow – we all escaped unscathed.
Mary Hillary Award Success – again!
SI Richmond and Dales has won the Mary Hillary Award, a regional programme action prize, for the second year running! The award was given for the work we have done with women and children on Catterick Garrison. We ran several projects including:
Elaine Walton who was club president last year and who instigated the projects, was at the regional meeting to receive the award on behalf of the club from Margaret Cook, President of SI Yorkshire. Elaine gave a very impressive presentation about the work in which we have all been involved. .
Club Meeting June 2014 Living in the Tower of London – Richard Sands
Members of SI Richmond and Dales were delighted to welcome Regional President Margaret Cook and Regional Link Officer Pat Kilbane to their June meeting. Both had been attracted to this meeting in particular as the guest speaker was Richard Sands who had spent 23 years ‘imprisoned in the Tower of London’. In other words he served as ‘Her Majesty’s Bodyguard, Yeoman Warder of the Tower’. Iconic and enduring, but please don’t call them beefeaters or yeomen of the guard! Richard addressed the meeting wearing his wonderful blue and red uniform and also on show was his magnificent dress uniform in bright red – heavily embellished and extremely heavy. Not fun to wear on a warm June evening. Richard’s tales from the Tower included imprisonment, torture and murder along with amusing anecdotes of the modern visitor: American tourists love the fact that the Traitors Gate was once known as the Watergate. Richard confirmed that the Crown Jewels are in fact the genuine article, unless Her Majesty is wearing them, in which case a small card is placed behind the bullet-proof glass stating ‘in use’. The legend that ‘should the ravens ever leave the Tower of London then the White Tower will crumble and a great disaster shall befall England’ is respected and a Raven Master is employed to look after the health and wellbeing of the six ravens, although Richard did tell us that the urban foxes have had one or two in recent years.
Life serving as a Yeoman warder entitled Richard and his wife Libby to live within the precincts of the Tower. Their house overlooked Tower Green, a place of execution in times past. It was deemed a privilege for those of high rank to be beheaded on Tower Green in private, rather than in public on Tower Hill. This included wives of Henry VIII Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, as well as the 17 year old Lady Jane Grey. A place full of sadness and not without the odd ghost or two; Richard told us tales of Sir Walter Raleigh and his fondness for the women, but he was less tolerant of men. Richard’s father, when staying with Richard and Libby was thrown out of bed, but by whom? Could it have been Sir Walter?? We heard about living modern day life in such a historic environment with issues such as shopping and parking, but Richard and Libby are both happy to be now living in Richmond. They gave us an extremely informative and entertaining evening. .
Highly Commended
SI Richmond and Dales has been highly commended following our nomination for the Making A Difference In Richmondshire Awards. We were nominated for our ongoing support of The Beacon, a centre for homeless veterans on Catterick Garrison. For the past two years club members have been volunteering at The Beacon’s artisan bakery which provides a training opportunity for some of the veterans. We also regularly collect food for their food bank. In addition, residents at The Beacon were actively encouraged to take part in the writing competition which we ran on Catterick Garrison last year, one of them being awarded a prize.
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Club Meeting March 2014 ENJOYING WATERCOLOURS – AN ENTHRALLING EVENING WITH NORA YATES What a feast it was! In the most matter-of-fact and understated way, local artist, Nora Yates gave members and guests a fascinating portrait in words of the people who had influenced her, how she began painting with watercolours and, how she developed her technique and prodigious talent. Her encouragement to draw and paint was infectious. We also learned that Nora holds summer workshops for children and works with people who have various long-term debilitating conditions. At the end of her talk, using just two colours – blue and red – mixed with water, she gave a demonstration of how to put a wash on paper followed by a wash with the colours. Ten minutes later, to everyone’s astonishment, Nora had created with simple brush strokes a delicately coloured picture of hills, mist, lakes, trees and rocks. But that was not all, she gave the painting to the club to be raffled for charity at the AGM. She was warmly thanked for an inspirational talk and for her generosity. .
Club Meeting February 2014 RESUSCITATION SKILLS Davy Hogg, a genial, Scottish paramedic who had served in the army Medical Corps at Catterick Garrison and abroad for many years gave club members and guests a not-to-be forgotten informative and amusing talk with ‘hands-on’ practice using realistically recumbent dummies. His ability to include everyone, his question-and-answer technique and his appropriate humour were memorable. The photograph gives a flavour of the evening . .
Club Meeting January 2014 WHAT KIND OF A TEAM PLAYER ARE YOU? Angela Wall, a management consultant, discussed the work of R Meredith Belbin on management teams and the roles of individuals within such teams to ensure that team-work is carried out effectively. His findings suggest that an effective team has members who, between them, cover eight/nine key roles to carry out its work. Based on Belbin’s proposition, Club members were asked to complete a self-perception form based on their own understanding of their personal skills and their style of working within a team. It was interesting to note that, between them, Club members covered all of the eight/nine roles. Angela was thanked for being both a thought-provoking and entertaining speaker. The next step can only be Onward and Upward!
GREAT NEWS!
ON 28TH JUNE 2014 SI-NORTHALLERTON AND DISTRICT WILL BECOME THE 25TH CLUB IN YORKSHIRE!
Congratulations to all the Northallerton and District members and very special thanks to the SI Richmond and Dales team led by Angela Edwards for their unceasing encouragement and support.
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17 February 2014
GOOD NEWS HOT OFF THE PRESS!
PROPOSED CLUB OF SI-NORTHALLERTON AND DISTRICT
At a meeting last week,18 people signed up for membership of the proposed Club which is the number required before it can be taken forward to SIGBI. Congratulations to all potential members of Northallerton & District – another Club for North Yorkshire! Congratulations also to the small SI-Richmond & Dales team led by Angela Edwards that has provided so much encouragement and support from the very beginning. It is hoped that the proposed Club will be chartered in the summer.
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PROPOSED CLUB OF SI NORTHALLERTON AND DISTRICT
Great progress has been made during the last 14 months in the development of the Northallerton Club. At last night’s meeting 19 women were present to hear a fascinating talk by the curator of Kiplin Hall, near Scorton. We are intending to Charter the new Club in the summer of 2014 and have, to date, 17 founder members, signed up and ready to go, out of the required 18! We are continuing to try to attract more members and have an interesting programme of events ahead. Everyone is very excited about the success of this project. Meetings are on the second Thursday in the month, currently at the Golden Lion Hotel in Northallerton at 7.00pm. However the venue will shortly be changing as we now need a much bigger room to accommodate us all in comfort. If you wish to find out more please contact Angela Edwards, angelamaurice1@yahoo.com or on 01522 811793.
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13 December 2013
RICHMOND & DALES SOROPTIMIST
CHRISTMAS CONCERT BY CANDLELIGHT
in aid of two local charities
A report and photograph of the highly successful concert held in St Mary’s Parish Church, Richmond which raised £2,400 can be seen on the Events 2013 page of this website.
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THE MARY HILLARY AWARD
A DOUBLE WIN FOR SI-RICHMOND & DALES
For the second time in three years, SI-Richmond & Dales Club has been awarded the Mary Hillary Award. The first of these was in 2011 for raising funds and creating awareness of Women in Need, the charity which helps ill, destitute and homeless women in the Napur region of India. This year the 2013 award was given for the Club’s Sharing our Skills project. It was presented by the Yorkshire regional president, Julie Thompson.. For full details and photographs look on the Events page and Events Archive pages of this website.
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Market Stall On June 7th we had a stall in the Market Place to raise awareness both of Soroptimism generally and our club’s activities in particular, and of several issues which affect the lives of women such as domestic abuse and ovarian cancer. The weather was not on our side and there were fewer shoppers out and about than usual – and those who were out did not feel like stopping to chat, but pressed on, heads down against the elements to get the errands done so they could go home. However, Soroptimists are nothing if not persistent and we have withstood worse weather! Despite the slings and arrows of outrageous elements we will continue to spread the word! .
Grant of Friendship Visit
It is one of the joys of Soroptimism that we have the opportunity to meet like-minded women from all over the world. Our region, SI Yorkshire, has built up a Grant of Friendship fund so that we can, every three years, invite Soroptimists from other countries to visit us, to the benefit of all involved.
This year, as our contribution to the scheme, SI Richmond and Dales played host to Andrea Sachs from SI Plauen in Germany. We enjoyed showing Andrea around our beautiful town, though the weather let us down on the trip up the dale! We were able to exchange a great deal of information about our respective clubs’ programme action and the way our clubs work. This process always enables us to identify different ways of doing things and stops us becoming too settled in our ways.
Andrea echoed our own thoughts when she said that, being a Soroptimist means that you will find friends anywhere you go.
Club Meeting May 2014 Mercy Ships. Drs John and Iris Rhodes
This month we welcomed John and Iris Rhodes as ambassadors for the charity MERCY SHIPS. This is to be our president’s charity this year. John gave us a very informative presentation about the retired cruise liners which the charity has fitted out since the 1970s, to be taken to anchor in ports all over the world, where poor people have no access to the medical care they need. We saw the queues of, literally, thousands of people who wait patiently to be seen, hoping that their condition will be operable, and we saw some of those people after their debilitating condition has been corrected, giving them new hope for a better life.The variety of surgery carried out is too enormous to list here, but many of the conditions treated are routinely taken care on in the UK and we have no idea how life-changing they can be when left untreated. Iris read us some life stories to illustrate the impact of the Mercy Ship. In addition to their on-board work, the Mercy Ship’s team works with existing groups ashore to promote health and develop community health activities. The current ship, Africa Mercy, is staffed entirely by volunteers who stay for varying lengths of time. The ship is comfortably fitted out with accommodation for the staff and sometimes their families too. http://www.mercyships.org .
Club Meeting March 2014 ENJOYING WATERCOLOURS – AN ENTHRALLING EVENING WITH NORA YATES What a feast it was! In the most matter-of-fact and understated way, local artist, Nora Yates gave members and guests a fascinating portrait in words of the people who had influenced her, how she began painting with watercolours and, how she developed her technique and prodigious talent. Her encouragement to draw and paint was infectious. We also learned that Nora holds summer workshops for children and works with people who have various long-term debilitating conditions. At the end of her talk, using just two colours – blue and red – mixed with water, she gave a demonstration of how to put a wash on paper followed by a wash with the colours. Ten minutes later, to everyone’s astonishment, Nora had created with simple brush strokes a delicately coloured picture of hills, mist, lakes, trees and rocks. But that was not all, she gave the painting to the club to be raffled for charity at the AGM. She was warmly thanked for an inspirational talk and for her generosity. .
Club Meeting February 2014 RESUSCITATION SKILLS Davy Hogg, a genial, Scottish paramedic who had served in the army Medical Corps at Catterick Garrison and abroad for many years gave club members and guests a not-to-be forgotten informative and amusing talk with ‘hands-on’ practice using realistically recumbent dummies. His ability to include everyone, his question-and-answer technique and his appropriate humour were memorable. The photograph gives a flavour of the evening . .
