Orange the World Christmas Tree Our Club Supports women and children by Education Empowerment and by providing enabling opportunities Each year we support the United Nations ‘Orange the World’ campaign, and 16 Days of activism against gender-based violence. The 16 days runs from 25th November Orange the World Day until United Nations Day of Human Rights on 10th December. As a bright and optimistic colour, orange represents a future free from exploitation of women and children. We have decorated our tree to raise awareness of the ‘Orange the World’ Campaign. It is part of a Christmas Tree Festival at our local church St Michael and All Angels Runcorn. The Festival starts Wednesday 6th December until Saturday 9th December, and  is attended by many people.  

BINGO Fundraiser – A HUGE Success What were members of Soroptimist Runcorn/Frodsham doing on Saturday night 14th October? Yes! –  playing Bingo! It was a great fun evening and we raised over £600 towards our Christmas projects. Huge thanks to all who came and supported our event and delighted that Region President Susan came and joined in the fun. Special thanks to member Pat and her team who organised the evening and to her husband Alan our Bingo Caller for the night. It was such a successful evening for our #Soroptimist club, we had some fabulous BINGO prizes and a Grand Raffle. It was great to raise so much for our ‘Operation Christmas Appeal’ where we support our local Runcorn & District Foodbank and also purchase toys for local under privileged children.  

Garden Party - A Triumph over the Elements This year Karen and Ken hosted our club garden party - it rained.... It kept on raining, but thanks to Ken for erecting a fabulous marquee, we were all able to enjoy a fabulous afternoon together of Fun, Food and Friendship We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the food was great. Huge thanks to Karen and Ken for Hosting and to Sandra and her team for organising Please click on pics below to enlarge

Teddy Tombola 2023 Runcorn/Frodsham Soroptimists have been running a ‘Teddy Tombola’ stall at the ‘Festival in the Park’ Frodsham since 2009, raising funds for our local Hospice. The Festival is staged by partners ‘Rotary’ as part of the community voluntary sector for the Festival.   We run our Tombola annually in aid of our local hospice  ‘Halton Haven’. Each Teddy is given a number and the corresponding number is put in a box for the children to draw out. Every child is a winner.   This year we were able to raise £250 for the hospice, which enables men and women who need palliative care, to be looked after near their families.   Throughout the year all club members collect Teddies and Soft toys for the Teddy Tombola Event, these are washed ready for the stall. Members of the club man the stall throughout the

Club Trip to Jodrell Bank 2023 The huge Lovell Telescope has been a much-loved fixture of the Cheshire countryside since 1957. We visited as a club in the summer of 2000, and remembered a wonderful planetarium presentation but a rather basic visitor centre. The trees of the surrounding arboretum were still immature then too. So in 2023 we thought it was high time we went to Jodrell Bank again and we made it our summer outing for this year. The visitor Centre is now in several buildings and the museum display is amazing, going through the history of the site and how important it was during the Cold War - it was actually neutral, and did work for and received scientists from both Western governments and the Soviet Union. It was thus a very important bridge in keeping communications open between the two sides. There

Fairtrade and Local Produce – From Farm to Table The first event in our new club year 2023/24 was our Fairtrade picnic at the Arts Centre in Castle Park, Frodsham. This was a super event enjoyed by all who attended. All members were asked to bring a ‘Picnic Tea’ which included Fairtrade and local produce, and many interesting items were used – Fairtrade quinoa, almonds and dried fruit along with much loved favourite bananas and chocolate. Thanks to Lesley for organising. We were able to raise  funds for Transform Trade, a Fairtrade organisation which partners with people who are fighting for their communities and finding better ways to trade. Sue prepared a presentation showing the work of 7 women Fairtrade Farmers in Africa, Asia and South America, pen portraits telling of their work and successes. Members took the parts of these Farmers and told their stories

Cheers to us! It may only be tea, but we can still toast our club at the end of a particularly good year. Winning an award, a poster selected for the Dublin Convention and other projects we are proud of left us with a ‘feel good factor’ at our AGM. Necessary officers in place, members committed to Programme Action projects and a programme of fundraising and social event planned – bring on the new club year!

Happy 75th Birthday to our club On Sunday 26th March club members family and friends gathered together to celebrate 75 years of Soroptimist International Runcorn/Frodsham and District. We received messages of Congratulations from across all 5 Soroptimist Federations - thank you so much for your support. We had a lovely celebration lunch and drank a toast to ourselves, particularly to our longest serving member Edwina in the centre of the photo. We have put together this image of all current members of our club and an image of the clubs first Charter dinner in 1948

A Fabulous 'Good Fun' Evening Last night 15th February at Runcorn Golf Cub, the club held our first fund raiser of the year - a fabulous quiz to raise funds for our local Hospice 'Halton Haven' It was a really successful evening and we made over £500 for our charity. Huge thanks to Quiz master Simon Chesterson for a "Good Fun Quiz' with video and audio clips - a great night was had by all. Thanks to our member Karen Webb and her team for organising this event.

Fantastic News Thank you to SIGBI – #Soroptimist Runcorn Frodsham & District members are thrilled to win this award with our project: “100 Mastectomy Cushions for 100 years Celebrating Soroptimist Centenary 1921/2021” The club challenged itself to make 100 mastectomy cushions to celebrate 100 years. The project has been running for 8 years and involves every member of our club. The cushions are donated to Halton Hospital Runcorn and the Countess of Chester Hospitals, Chester. Please read more