SI Sevenoaks club members attended the SI South East Region June Meeting where they celebrated and acknowledged World Ocean Day by wearing blue. World Oceans Day takes place every 8 June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development and the Ocean Institute of Canada at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wikipedia .  Why Celebrate World Oceans Day? https://www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/ “We celebrate World Oceans Day to remind everyone of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. They are the lungs of our planet, providing most of the oxygen we breathe. The purpose of the Day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilize and unite the world’s population on a project for

The club took part in the bi-annual Jacque Emery Award and we are delighted that our entry Chloe from Walthamstow Hall was the “winner of winners”.  The title of the essay was “To what extent have women worldwide achieved equality?”    21 schools entered and there were 177 essays judged.   Chloe and her family attended our SI South East Region Meeting on Saturday where Chloe very eloquently read out her essay.  

Club members are continuing to plant and maintain The Vine Sensory garden ahead of the South and South East in Bloom judging day on 5th July. It is looking very colourful with the theme of the competition for 2019 being red, white and blue and edible plants.  We have also just been given the herb garden area at The Vine to maintain – looking forward to planting edible herbs! We were delighted that the Mayor for Sevenoaks Cllr Nicholas Busvine OBE came to visit the garden yesterday, to see all our efforts and hard work.

President Penelope Robbins and Programme Action Officer Isobel Groves went up to Chelsea Flower Show to support and see the Camfed Garden. Camfed is the Presidents chosen International Charity for the year and the club has already been fundraising for bicycles for girls to ride to school and agricultural business starter packs. Penelope and Isobel were delighted to meet ladies from the CAMA alumnae network from Zimbabwe who shared their horticultural expertise and the designer of the garden Jilayne Rickards. The garden won Gold and Best in Show in the “Space to Grow Gardens” category which is amazing as it is the first time the designer had exhibited at Chelsea! https://camfed.org/latest-news/chelsea-garden-gold-medal/

Club members wore green at the club meeting in support of Mental Health Awareness week – Monday 13 to Sunday 19 May 2019. This also supports the Soroptimist International ‘Think on It’ campaign, which is focused on mental health. The theme for the week is “Body Image – how we see ourselves and how that makes us feel.  Body image issues can directly impact our mental health and affect all of us at any age.  President Penny Robbins gave details at the meeting of the Mental Health Foundation survey as below:- New online surveys were conducted by the Mental Health Foundation with YouGov in March 2019 of 4,505 UK adults 18+ and 1,118 GB teenagers (aged 13-19). The results highlighted that: One in five adults (20%) felt shame, just over one third (34%) felt down or low, and 19% felt disgusted because of their body image in

An evening with Band without Boundaries and friends What have the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to do with Band without Boundaries? Everything! As their aims and objects exactly match the goals of health and wellbeing, quality education, promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing justice for all, promoting non-discriminatory policies for sustainable development which is what our organisation Soroptimist International is pledged to do being affiliated to the United Nations Penny Robbins President of Soroptimist International Sevenoaks and I loved our evening on 17th April making and developing music, making friends in an atmosphere of total inclusivity where attendees spoke of their feelings of feeling safe to relax and be themselves. Penny has chosen to support Arts without Boundaries as her charity this year to highlight the importance of inclusivity of all members of our communities and fundraise for the charity. Sevenoaks Soroptimists look forward

Another beautiful shawl handknitted by club member Pauline Payne ready to be sent off to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital In Ethiopia  https://sigbi.org/sevenoaks/2019/04/24/shawls-for-hospital-in-ethiopia/

Club members have been busy knitting sqaures fo make into shawls – these have now been sent to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. Hamlin hospital prepares a hospital discharge pack for their patients which includes knitted shawls providing warmth at night. Soroptimist clubs around the UK have responded to this need.SI Sevenoaks has joined this response. The women are thrilled to have something of their own to wear. See ” What we do” section on our club website for more details https://sigbi.org/sevenoaks/what-we-do/ and link to the hospital website.    

Several members of SI Sevenoaks attended The Mayor and Mayoress of Sevenoaks, Councillor Roderick Hogarth and Mrs Mary Hogarth End of Term Reception on 12th  April, at Bat and Ball Station.  Club member Pat Downing MBE was there in her capacity as President of West Kent Mind and Linda Larter MBE Chief Executive and town clerk for Sevenoaks Town Council.  This was a lovely event showcasing the Mayor’s work and an opportunity to see the stations sympathetic renovations.

SI Sevenoaks held its annual President’s Lunch at St Julians Club on 23 March for President Jill Davison organised by club member Ann Hines  http://www.stjulians.co.uk/ We were very pleased to entertain 40 guests, including the Chairman of Sevenoaks District Council, Pat Bosley; Sevenoaks Town Mayor, Roddy Hogarth; and the President of SE Region, Carol Infanti. Other guests welcomed by our President were representatives from SI Bromley, SI Croydon and SI Tunbridge Wells. We were very happy to see several previous members and also a prospective member [our numbers are expanding thanks to tireless work by Past President, Sandie Higgs!]. Our loyal band of SoroptiMISTERS were there to support us and individual guests of members had come as they so often do to functions. In responding to the toast to the guests, Pat Bosley gave us a brief insight to the community work that SDC carries