The Salisbury Community Lottery has a weekly draw, and tickets cost just £1 each week. Players have the chance to win great cash prizes, all while supporting worthy local causes like our projects. Why not sign up today? Here’s the link to our page
As part of the #Orangetheworld 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women, on Sunday 6 December members of SI Salisbury raised awareness at our stall in the Market Square. Although the day was decided chilly, the weather was kind to us with lots of sun. We were delighted to meet and chat to lots of people of all ages and to discuss the important issue of domestic abuse in all its forms. Although this wasn’t a fundraising activity, generous visitors to our stall donated a total of £50, which we are passing on to Salisbury Women’s Refuge who like us, say ‘thank you!’ This was our #Orangetheworld Christmas tree, which was displayed at the St Thomas’s Christmas Tree Festival.
Salisbury has recently established a Friendship Link with SI Chisinau in the SI European Union of Moldova. At the Club’s meeting by Zoom on 23 November the 14 Salisbury members who joined the call welcomed 6 Soroptimists from SI Chisinau. It was a great opportunity to meet each other long distance, to introduce ourselves and to have a chat about our respective Clubs and our projects. As always with these get togethers, we found we had much in common and we are already starting to discuss the possibility of a joint project between the two clubs. The Moldovan Soroptimists highlighted the huge need in their country amongst older women, almost a whole generation has been wiped away for various reasons and elderly women have suffered badly, even prior to the current pandemic. Things have only got worse. In the summer, SI Salisbury decided to accept
On Friday 13 November, friends and family from across the country gathered together virtually for a night of quizzing. With over 100 people taking part, grouped into 24 teams, technology was used to enable most to join together between households. As the quiz was organised by Salisbury Soroptimists, it seemed appropriate that most of the questions were about women – powerful women, mothers and daughters, literary heroines, songs from musicals, and many more. Despite the challenges of technology and physical separation, a fun evening was had by all. Team members conferred from household to household by all manner of means – phone, text, WhatsApp and e mail – cyberspace was positively buzzing with quiz conversations! The winning team was “Juliet’s Jokers”, but the real winners were the charities that were supported by the event. With over £800 raised, donations will be used to sponsor a
Despite the difficulties of lockdown, members of the Her Salisbury Story project team have continued to develop the project via Zoom meetings. Work has progressed and the team are pleased to announce the launch of the Her Salisbury Story website on 3 September coupled with a call for volunteers to take the project forward to the next stage. Listen to an interview with team members Louise, Barbara and Sue at My Salisbury: Podcast: mySalisbury – Soroptimists of Salisbury
Taking a few cautious steps out of lockdown, members of SI Salisbury and a number of guests got together – following all the social distancing rules – to mark our first anniversary as a Club. We had hoped for a picnic in the beautiful garden but the weather wasn’t cooperative so we spread out across the dining room of Hilary’s lovey home, a B&B. It was so good to see each other again (face to face at last) and as well as a catch up chat with each other we chatted to several local women who are interested in what we do. President Teresa inducted Hilary as a member and we held a socially distanced change of insignia ceremony as Immediate Past President Lisa handed on the Club chain to Teresa, who handed on hers to President Elect Eleanor. Change of insignia
The Salisbury ‘Smalls for All’ delivery by Club Treasurer Penny has arrived! She took a grand total of 1251 donated ‘preloved’ bras to the sorting room of Smalls for All in Scotland. Penny set off with her trusty camper van loaded high with the generous contributions from the women of Salisbury and surrounding areas. Despite lockdown, our call for donations of bras was heard and responded to by generous women across the area, allowing us to surpass our last year’s total of 1120 by a healthy margin. Donations were left on doorsteps, in gardens, pushed through letterboxes and even handed through open windows! All obeying social distancing rules and adding up to a great contribution for women in the poorest parts of Africa, where wearing a bra gives a woman dignity and self respect. We held a socially distanced sorting evening in July when
Are you spending enforced time at home giving all those cupboards and drawers a turn out? If so, you might like to know that for a fourth year Salisbury Soroptimists will be collecting lightly used bras to donate to ‘Smalls for All‘. The charity then ships them out to a variety of areas in Africa where, as the charity has found, bras give women dignity and self-worth. The message is: please save your pre worn bras. If your daily exercise takes you past 60 Endless Street, ring the doorbell and Penny will be pleased to receive your donations. Over the past three years a total of 2841 bras have been collected by the local Soroptimist Club from generous local ladies! We are hoping to add substantially to that total this year.
A brand new project supported by a £10K grant from the Heritage Fund was launched at an all day event at Salisbury’s Guildhall on Sunday 8 March, International Women’s Day. In her speech officially launching the new project ‘Her Salisbury Story’, Mayoress Carrie Walsh said: ‘As Mayoress I have been privileged to meet many inspirational women working in Salisbury: community project workers, charity workers and leaders, women in business, medicine and the arts to name just a few. Their backgrounds are diverse, their contribution to our city is a legacy to be discovered, acknowledged and shared. Over the coming months you will be able to learn more about all of these women and have the chance to nominate women you know and admire for inclusion in the heritage project.’ Following her speech, The Mayoress joined her husband Mayor Councillor John Walsh to
