SI Sheffield were able sponsor a Lost Chord Concert at Prior Bank Nursing Home. The concert proved great fun, everyone was encouraged to sing - raising the roof! Lost Chord, a charity aims to improve wellbeing and quality of for those suffering dementia by musical interaction https://lost-chord.org.uk

06/11/23 Lady Mayoress presents Orange Poster Design awards Our November business meeting was enlivened by the presence of Mrs Susan Ross, Lady Mayoress, and winners of the Orange Poster Competition to whom she presented awards and prizes Congratulations to all the worthy winners. New Member. We were all also delighted to welcome our new member Lynne. 22/11/23 Follow up; KES girls distribute Orange Posters in Broomhill. A group of KES girls; involved in this year's Share Our Skills project; helped President Sue and Daphne distribute 'Orange the World' posters to shops in Broomhill. Thank you all.

Our monthly Orange Café events at Waitrose continue. Members enjoy meeting and conversing with a wide variety of interesting people.

In Aid of Lost Chord, a nation wide Dementia Charity. Pictures by Sally. 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

We have; with the addition of a generous donation from Tesco;  been able to give shirts and blouses to school children from Winn Gardens who were delighted. Thanks to Tesco for all the support and Suzanne for distributing gifts

Our first Orange the World event took place on July 25th at Waitrose cafe. A global campaign supported by the UN Orange the World seeks to eliminate violence against women. Orange day, November 25th, the first day of the annual 16 days of activism against gender based violence, is designated as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The 16 days end on December 10th, Human Rights Day Please wear or display something Orange on November 25th to demonstrate support.

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.

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 incuding the 2012 Queen's Diamond

Iffat told the story of her life since coming to Sheffield. She inaugurated Urdu programmes on local BBC and as a teacher won the right for Asian  girls to have further education at Sheffield schools. She has been awarded an MBE and also two awards from local radio for her inspirational programmes. She described the stages it took to reach these achievements and showed us her awards. Thanks and Congratulations Iffat.