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Meetings Archive 2012

18 September 2012

 DEVELOPING A RETAIL FASHION BUSINESS

 Nichola, fashion designer and owner of Erica Dillon Fashion in Richmond kept members fascinated as she spoke about how she established her fashion business from scratch after moving from a completely different career. It was a successful and inspired move.

 She and her colleague, Lynn brought with them a representative sample of fashion goods ranging from coats, wraps and tunics to shoes, jewellery and make-up. It’s not difficult to believe that members and their guests browsed with delight.

 Nichola’s shop in Finkle Street could quite realistically be re-named, The Fashion-Tardis for the single-fronted shop belies the variety, quality and quantity of what is displayed in its various rooms.

27 September 2012

ZIMBABWE – PROGRAMME ACTION

Past President, Chris Bowran, who with four SI-Yorkshire colleagues visited the five Soroptimist Clubs in Zimbabwe last month,  gave an enthralling presentation to Club members and many guests about the Soroptimist-led activities in Zimbabwe. SI-Harare was established 76 years ago and was the first Soroptimist Club in the whole of Africa.

Because of the economic situation in the country, poverty is the norm for the majority of people regardless of the fact that the rate of literacy is high. Electricity supply is limited and erratic, a clean water supply for most people is virtually non-existent and bore-holes, where they exist, rely on expensive electricity-powered pumps.  But despite the substantial physical and financial limitations, the five Zimbabwean Clubs have funded, and continue to support, a very large number of educational, health and welfare projects. These include: support and mentoring for pregnant women with HIV/Aids; residential care for the aged and destitute; hostels for lost, orphaned or abandoned street-children; latrine blocks for schools; play-areas at clinics; youth work of various kinds; improving inadequate living accommodation for  teachers at one school; cervical screening clinic.

Chris took with her the £1,000 raised by SI-Richmond & Dales from running three Call My Bluff evenings. The money provided £200 for each of the five Clubs to be spent on specific, ongoing projects. SI-Zimbabwe members not only help to set up and support projects but they monitor progress at all levels. It was humbling to hear how even the poorest of the population are themselves involved in community work.  The range of work supported by Zimbabwe Club members is truly astounding.

In the photograph, Chris Bowran (fourth from right) with colleagues from SI-Harare and SI-Yorkshire buying oranges on the long journey from  Harare to Kwe Kwe at a roadside fruit and vegetable stall. They took them to the Kwe Kwe hospital project which is supported by SI-Kwe Kwe.

19 July 2012

BRINGING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER THROUGH SONG AND MUSIC

John Forsythe MBE FRSA, violinist and guitarist, founder of the Tees Valley Youth Choir, founder and director of the newly formed North East Youth Chorale and director of the Cleveland Philharmonic Choir has worked with young people for more than 40 years.

John enthralled us, firstly by playing two pieces of Elizabethan guitar music and then by giving us an inspirational talk about current influences on musical performance, his experience of working with young singers and an exciting new project, the Gabrieli Young Singers Scheme. The project brings together four of the best of British youth choirs, one of which is the North East Youth Chorale, with the Gabriele Consort’s professional musicians in the performance of masterpieces of the oratorio tradition.

[More information about the Gabrieli Young Singers Scheme at: http://www.gabrieli.com/aboutus/gabrieli-young-singers-scheme.html]

 

21 July 2012

TEENAGE CANCER TRUST

Abigail Batchelor, Regional Fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust gave a stimulating and thought-provoking talk about the work of the Trust in the Yorkshire & Humberside Region. The Trust is one of our President’s charities this year.

Every day in the UK, six young people between the ages of 16-24 will be diagnosed with cancer yet, because only 0.5% of all cancers occur in teenagers and young adults, they are often misdiagnosed initially which can decrease their chances of survival. Not only can they get some of the most rare and aggressive forms of cancer but the emotional upheaval of adolescence can make a cancer diagnosis even harder to cope with.

Until the age of 16 yrs a teenager is likely to be treated in a paediatric ward alongside children and babies. After that age many are cared for in adult wards with elderly patients; their feeling of isolation in both those environments is acute. To date, however, the Teenage Cancer Trust has funded, developed and opened 17 specialist units for young people in NHS hospitals across the UK where they can be treated together by experts in teenage cancer care in an environment tailored for them. Five of the 17 specialist units are in Yorkshire & Humberside.

The Trust not only raises awareness of the prevalence of cancers but also leads the world in the care of young people with cancer and has transformed the experiences of thousands of them.

Visit the Trust’s website:  www.teenagecancertrust.org

 

17 May 2012

TARGET OVARIAN CANCER

One of our President’s charities is Target Ovarian Cancer. Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer in women in the UK but most women know little, if anything, about it prior to diagnosis and most delay going to their GP.

Because most women know relatively little about the condition our Club held a lively awareness-raising event on a busy market day in Richmond’s Market Place early this month.

This month, too, we were delighted to welcome as our speaker, Amy Cartlidge, Target Ovarian Cancer’s Fundraising Manager who gave a fascinating account of the charity’s work and, in particular, the preliminary research that was carried out in the UK prior to wider research collaboration in Europe.

Target Ovarian Cancer has just been awarded one of the prestigious, annual GSK Impact Awards  The citation reads:  Target Ovarian Cancer is the national ovarian cancer charity working to save lives and help women diagnosed live their lives to the full, wherever they live in the UK.

 

19 JANUARY 2012

JENNY MOONEY, PRISON GOVERNOR

It was a pleasure to have as our speaker, Jenny Mooney, Prison Governor of Deerbolt Prison, shortly taking up a new post as Governor of Home House, Prison, Stockton on Tees.  Jenny outlined her career from Probation Officer to Prison Governor, projecting a very humane view of her outlook on her work.  She was thanked by Carole le Duc.

16  FEBRUARY 2012

CHAMPION IN A MAN’S WORLD

Vera Selby, who was born and brought up in Richmond is an amazing person. Not only is she the Guinness and Embassy Women’s World Snooker Champion, 9 times the British Women’s Billiards Champion, 5 times the British Women’s Snooker Champion and the first ever Professional Billiards and Snooker Woman Referee in Britain, but in 2009, she was appointed Master of the Fellmongers Guild – the first woman in the ancient Guild’s long history to hold that office. Trained in art and design at Leeds University, Vera is also in demand as a teacher of both those subjects.

It was a privilege to listen to Vera who, wearing her official, elegant referee’s uniform chose to talk about her life in the pursuit of billiards and snooker, giving Club members a fascinating and very humorous glimpse of what it was like to be a woman in a male dominated activity. For many years, despite her undoubted expertise, professionalism and her appearance at competitions across the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe, Vera was excluded from much of the social interaction that goes with the sport.  However, that has been overcome; she now captains several male snooker clubs in the North East and still plays three times each week.

 

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