13/12/23 Christmas Supper
Congratulations to President Sue and Anne for organising such a successful Christmas Supper, including a quiz – more challenging than first expected.
Special thanks to Jackie for the pretty chocolate favours.
21/11/23 Temple Spa Evening
Fun and fund raising at November’s supper evening. Thanks to Nicola and Louise, great ambassadors for Temple Spa, who ensured that we all enjoyed the test kits. The raffle raised £92 for Mums in Need.
Congratulations to the organisers
17/10/23 Purple Party
In Aid of Lost Chord, a nation wide Dementia Charity.
Everyone was resplendent in purple to celebrate our fund raiser for Lost Chord, a charity that raises money to enable musicians to meet with sufferers of dementia and through music entertain and enable them to enjoy music. Luke came to talk to us about their work but instead of speaking got us involved in exactly what they do when they go into care homes. We shouted out, sang, waved our arms and even composed our own song which was great fun but showed very clearly the work that Lost Chord does. We held a raffle, all themed in purple, a present tree and we rounded off the evening being entertained by Cait Gregory; granddaughter of one of our members who is at Wakefield University studying production and music. So a fun evening and we raised about £300 for the charity.
Report by Hilary.
18/07/23 National Memorial Arboretum
Our summer outing this year was to the National Memorial Arboretum. A great day out, thanks to Morag who organised a full schedule which included periods for own choice activities; during one of which some of our hardier members made a dash through the drizzle to the Soroptimist’s Memorial.
An early start, we arrived in time for a welcome introduction before coffee and biscuits, attended the daily memorial service, toured the Arboretum on the land train, ate a delicious lunch and still had time for the galleries and shop before the journey home.
Thanks again to Morag – great work, and to Daphne for managing the day.
20/06/23 Beckie and the Military Wives Choir.
Beckie, now working at Tapton Hall, explained her experiences with supporting wives and families during the the Afghanistan war. The audience all felt the poignancy of informing families of deaths in action.
During this time Catterick formed the Military WAG’s Choir. Gareth Malone inspired by this decided to include a Military Wives Choir in his television series (The Choir – Episode 4 ). Beckie found herself as the co-ordinator between the selected bases; Plymouth and Chivenor; both in Devon but at opposite sides of Dartmoor; and the production team. This motivated Chris Evans to start a campaign to win the Choir Number 1 Christmas record which was achieved with the single ‘Wherever you are’ written by Paul Mealor using extracts from letters between wives and their husbands who were serving in Afghanistan
The Choir then went from strength to strength performing at many occasions including the 2012 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Royal Gala Performance in addition to other awards.
The Choir members live up to their motto – Stronger Together- and know that the camaraderie between the them will last a lifetime.
More 2000 women (wives, mothers, sisters, daughters etc.) of military personnel now participate in a Military Wives Choir of which there are over 75 across the world.
Thanks to Beckie for the story of her involvement; it was touching, impressive and often amusing.
16/05/23 Supporting Aid Water
Who would have expected that the history of drinking water could be both absorbing and amusing. Jennifer Stephenson, a local doctor, has researched her subject thoroughly, written and self published books to raise money for Water Aid. Her talk included several examples of Sheffield water fountains and history of the reservoirs. We were so pleased to able buy her Sheffield based book – she raised £200 for Water Aid.
18/04/23 Mums In Need Coffee Morning
Mums in Need kindly invited our members to their coffee meeting which both President Daphne and President Elect Sue were delighted to attend.SIGBI Sheffield contributed some raffle prizes.
25/03/23 95th Charter Lunch
Our Charter Lunch at Tapton was well attended.Pesident Daphne opened the proceedings with a welcome to all guests (see below) and lit friendship candles, Linda said grace prior to the efficent serving of an excellent meal. Sally acted as admirable toast master while everyone was inpired by Dame Julie Denny’s dymanic speech.
Thanks and congratulation to those who organised and catered for such a memorable event.
- President, SI Yorkshire (Jane Glendinning)
- Master Cutler (Dame Julie Kenny)
- Lady Mayor
- Lord Mayor (Sioned-Mair Richards)
- President, SI Sheffield (Daphne)
- Mistress Cutler.
14/02/23 Pub Lunch
We met at the Sportsman at Crosspool where everyone enjoyed the good company and food. A highlight was Jackie’s distribution of favours – a nod to Valentine’s day.
