SHEFFIELD IS TOILET TWINNED
Well done SI Sheffield!
With our final presentations is March, we have managed to achieve Toilet Twinned Status for Sheffield. Our launch evening planned for 23rd March has had to be postponed, but no doubt we will celebrate this amazing achievement later in the year. Thank you to our King Ted’s SOS girls for their invaluable support.
Welcome to Soroptimist International of Sheffield
Soroptimist International is a worldwide organisation for women. Our mission is to raise awareness, act as advocates and take action to improve the advancement of the status of women throughout the world. The club is actively involved in many local projects.
SI Sheffield meet for supper at Hallamshire Golf Club on the third Tuesday of every month and we invite a guest speaker. Prospective members are encouraged to attend. On the first Monday of every month we hold our main Business Meetings, at Tapton Hall, Shore Lane. In addition, we hold special fund raising events in support of our various projects. In order to foster friendship between our members, we have a very busy, active social calendar that people may participate in.
We will continue to develop the club by enjoying each other’s company, by encouraging the members to run events, fund raise and contribute in practical ways to the women’s refuges that we support and to homeless and other members of the Sheffield community. Our charity for the year is ROTHACS (Rotherham Abuse Counselling Services) who are trying to help women, who have been abused, move from being victims to survivors.
We had a very successful Fashion Show raising over £1200 for ROTHACS. We were greatly assisted in the organisation by our King Edward’s School Share Our Skills students who contributed really positively to the organisation, including appearing in the Star and on Radio Sheffield. Thank you girls!
The four Sixth Form students who have been working with us this year have contributed really positively to the organisation of this year’s show, including appearing in the Star and on Radio Sheffield. Thank you girls!
We were treated to a superb lunch at Hassop Hall to celebrate our 91st year, As well as beautiful surroundings, lovely food and great company, we welcomed the Master and Mistress Cutler as our guests of honour, and also the president of SI Yorkshire and members from several other SI clubs
We held the inaugural steering meeting of club members to plan the campaign to make Sheffield a ‘Toilet Twinned’ city.
As many as 2.3 billion people in the world don’t have a loo.
Women and girls and children are particularly vulnerable to a lack of sanitation.
We were delighted to welcome Rebecca and Carol to our meeting this month. The changes in the opportunities available to all within the Girlguiding movement were clearly explained and the activities looked most exciting and appealing.
We have enjoyed putting Christmas bags together for the local women’s refuge, as well as collecting gifts for the Snowdrop Project. Thank you to all members who contributed and to our Programme Action representatives for all their hard work in organising this. HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
We were delighted to welcome Lucy from the British Red Cross to our meeting this month. She told us about the work of this amazing organisation – both at home who suffered the loss of their homes through fire and required immediate support, to the wider role of the Red Cross in the world.
Members enjoyed a wonderful Curry Evening with super food and friendship. We raised funds for SI Karachi – and have sent £739 which will help support the Skills Development Centre which they have set up.
Former President Chris is visiting New Zealand – The SI Lower Hutt club is small but has a number of projects including supporting a local women’s refuge and ‘Fill the bus’, a homeless charity. Recently, they gave an academic grant to Alison, a 45 year old Maori lady who is studying at the University of Wellington. She spoke at our Christmas meal and was inspirational. She left school with no qualifications; married young and had 5 children. Her husband left them when the youngest was only 5. She became a community police officer serving the Maori community and later went on to train as a police officer then worked in a very troubled area of Wellington. Frustrated that all she seemed to do was be reactive to criminal activities, she wanted to do something to help prevent people becoming criminals, so she is studying criminology and law in the hope that she will be able to work in a more preventative role in the future. (The full text can be seen on our Club News Page)
Our ‘Big Pink’ party, an evening of fun, food, friendship and a wee bit of fundraising too. Our meal of chicken or salmon, with pretty pink desserts to follow, was delicious. Coffee and chocolates trimmed in pink completed the meal. Amy from Breast Cancer Care and Julia from Tesco, did a great job of encouraging everyone to take a chance on the competitions, and Jackie’s special pink tombola was very popular, whilst the auction created a great buzz of excitement. Although this event was not purely just about fundraising, a fantastic amount was raised and £725 has been forwarded to Breast Cancer Care in Sheffield. A huge thank you to everyone for supporting this special event, which showcased Soroptimism at its best!
Last Tuesday many members were treated to a great cruise on the Sheffield Canal with a cream tea, as part of SI Sheffield’s 90th Birthday celebrations.
The sun shone and the cake was plentiful – what more does a garden party need? Many thanks to Jane for hosting and to all members and friends who attended. As well as having fun, money was raised for the Trussel Trust.
We launched the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of SI Sheffield’s Charter in style with a black tie dinner at Baldwin’s Omega. We were honored to be joined by the Lord Mayor, the Bishop of Sheffield and the Master and Mistress Cutler. After a lovely dinner, which matched the Omega’s usual high standards, President Christine introduced our Guest Speaker. Members and guests were able to look at our specially commissioned book, giving a visual history of much of the last 90 years of SI Sheffield and everyone was given a beautiful commemorative paperweight bearing a replica of SI Sheffield’s presidential badge.
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