A Strawberry tea was held in Helen and Peter’s lovely garden on Saturday. Apart from the food / drink, handmade jewellery and crafts were for sale, as well as quiz sheets put together by Helen. About 20 guests came, and Helen and Anne Reeve were assisted by Jill Spensley and Helen’s daughter and husband (Alice and Peter). The event raised £242.50 towards our collective events for the Meru project.   Well done!

Skipton members Jill Spensley and Rosalie Holroyd represented the club at our friendship club in Lurgan N.I. celebrating their 60th birthday.  In true Yorkshire style the girls took fruit cake and Wensleydale cheese to help the with the celebrations.

On Saturday June 17th Soroptimist International Skipton in Craven took part in The Great Get Together to remember Jo Cox, MP, whose life was so tragically cut short last year, and to celebrate all we have in common. An Afternoon Tea was organised at the home of SI Skipton in Craven member Jill Spensley and was attended by almost forty members and guests. SI Skipton in Craven’s President, Jane Jolly, welcomed Skipton Mayor, Councillor Andrew Rankine, together with his consort, Angela Rankine, the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Alan Hickman, and his wife, Marie, and both Councillors made brief speeches about the importance of remembering Jo Cox and all that she stood for. Guests then heard a description of all that she had achieved before her death and literally applauded her amazing record. £315.00 was raised on the day for the charity “Hope not hate”, a charity dear

On Thursday May 4th the club organised a Gardeners’ Question Time Event in support of the Meru Women’s Garden Project in Kenya, a collaboration between Child.org, Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland and the women of Meru. The project aims to create sustainable gardening techniques and tools for enabling women to become mentors and pioneers of agricultural sustainability within the community. It also educates girls on their rights, empowering them to stand up to damaging cultural practices like FGM. By providing economic opportunities to women and girls, the MWGP will achieve long term change by strengthening entire communities; improving the lives and opportunities for children and generations to come. Find out more at: meruwomen.org. A panel from RHS Harlow Carr kindly gave their time free of charge to answer the audience’s questions and £240.00 was raised on the night.  

Soroptimist International Skipton in Craven are hosting a concert to be given by Skipton Ukulele Club. It takes place at 7.30pm on SATURDAY 18TH FEBRUARY at St. Andrew’s Church Hall, Newmarket Street, Skipton. BD23 2JE. This will be a relaxed, fun evening costing £8.00 which includes light refreshments. All proceeds go to Mercy Ships, our President’s charity. Tickets are available: via the contact form on this website from the Secretary of the club (email: siskiptonsecretary@gmail.com or tel: 01756 794067) from any Skipton Soroptimist from members of the Skipton Ukulele Club

“An Evening with Dr. Helen Pankhurst”, organised by Soroptimist International Skipton in Craven, took place before a packed (mostly female) audience at St. Andrew’s Church, Skipton, on Monday 19th September. Helen invited questions on three topics as a starter to the event: the Suffragettes, the work of Care international and how much things have changed for women over the last hundred years. Her answers and the subsequent discussion covered subject such as: how the film “Suffragette” had combined historical fact with fiction in creating some characters, eg: Maud, who were composites rather than actual people; how providing wells and pumps for places where women still walk miles every day to fetch water can bring many  benefits but also unforeseen consequences such as increasing a women’s fertility; and how much still remains to be done to achieve true equality for women in pay, in business and

  Would like to invite you to a special speaker event we are having on Monday 19th September 2016 at 7:30pm at St Andrews Church, Newmarket Street, Skipton. Our guest speaker is Dr Helen Pankhurst. Dr. Helen, great-granddaughter of Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, is CARE International UK’s Senior Advisor on Gender Equality and figurehead for CARE’s Walk in Her Shoes Campaign. Helen is also a Senior Technical Advisor for the Water Team of CARE USA with a remit of support to CARE’s water sector work internationally. Helen was born in Ethiopia and worked there for three years as the Country Representative for WaterAid. She also worked as Head of International Programmes for five years at Womankind Worldwide and for five years as the Regional Manager for the Horn of Africa at the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD). Dr Helen’s academic background has

Members of Soroptimist International of Skipton in Craven enjoyed a wonderful talk and presentation by Kate Snyth of Todmorden about Assistance Dogs with her specially trained dog Hal, a beautiful Golden Retriever who helps her deal with her disabilities from semi progressive MS on daily basis. Despite Kate being wheelchair-bound, she is able to be employed and Hal goes everywhere with her, and sits through endless meetings, and countless Hospital appointments, and also visits patients in Hospitals. Hal was supplied through a wonderful Charity “Dogs for Good”, formerly known as “Dogs for the Disabled” which gives specially selected dogs training at their Training School in Banbury. Dogs for Good trains assistance dogs for adults with physical disabilities. Every dog is specially trained to help with practical tasks that many people with disabilities find difficult or impossible to do, such as: Opening and closing doors Helping

Further Congratulations to Joanna, Jane and Sheila, our wonderful “Walk  in  Her Shoes” volunteers.    They jointly raised the wonderful sum of £850, which will be doubled by Government matched funding. All funds that were pledged for Walk In Her Shoes by 4 June will be used to   introduce a number of life-changing improvements for the women and girls of the Afar region of Ethiopia – one of the most geographically remote and inhospitable areas of Africa. Because of our write-up in the Craven Herald which was spotted by CARE International, SI Skipton were invited to enter into a draw for community groups who had completed the “Walk in Her Shoes Challenge” and SI Skipton were picked as the winners. The prize is to have Dr Helen Pankhurst, great grand-daughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst as a guest speaker on Monday 19th September 2016. (Further details to

    Skipton Soroptimists joined with other Soroptimist Clubs in Yorkshire to celebrate their 80th birthday Anniversary with a CreamTea at Hazelwood Castle. Entertainment included a talk on the infamous women connected with the Castle, followed by some hilarious homespun vocal entertainment by members who had written their own words to some familiar traditional tunes. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.