Soroptimist Runcorn, Frodsham and District will be celebrating seventy years of service, fundraising and friendship at their Charter dinner on 17th March. We are delighted that Federation President Sue Biggs will be joining club members and their guests to mark this special milestone. In preparing for the event members have been looking back at the minute books and scrap books that record our founding and early years.
Soroptimist International Runcorn & Frodsham was chartered on 17th March 1948. This followed an initial invitation meeting with Soroptimist International Ellesmere Port taking the chair on the 18th September 1947 when 23 ladies signed the petition to form a club. The Club held its first business meeting 8 days later and appointed officers and executive members – It cost £1-1-0d (£1.10p) to join and a yearly subscription of £1-11-6d (£1.55p). In preparing for the event members have been looking back at the minute books and scrap books that record our founding and early years.
The early projects and activities reflected the ‘lean ‘years following the Second World War and met the needs of local people and charities. From reading the records, we think that the first project of the Club was a Christmas Draw and its proceeds funded a distribution of 10 shillings each to 33 needy ladies of the district and it seemed that subsequent fundraising was mostly done through raffles, whist drives and selling embroidered pieces at a regular bring-and-buy stall. The records show that our first service project was transcribing print into braille.
We’ve learnt that we follow in the footsteps of some strong and amazing women whose actions and concerns still echo with us today. The local newspaper in 1948 reported the words of the first President Miss M E Moston: “If we could only get women to take a greater part in the world’s affairs we should not only get peace we should keep it.”
To find out what Soroptimists in Runcorn and Frodsham are doing please visit the Club Projects page of this website.