Several members of the club have been working with Club President Margaret Lenton to improve the Heritage Garden near to Windsor Guildhall in time for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The garden had become sadly overgrown and weedy but is now looking smart and attractive again.
President Margaret, club members and guests enjoyed a wonderful meal in the fabulous surroundings of Ditton Manor on Sunday 27th March when they celebrated the Diamond Anniversary of the club. Unfortunately a number of guests could not attend due to Covid including International President Maureen Maguire. However her talk was relayed by Alison Sutherland and a toast was drunk to Soroptimist International. Mr Tan Ikran CBE gave an interesting and informative talk relating to the issue of violence against women which sadly continues to be high on the agenda for Soroptimist International worldwide. The celebration cake made by club member Jackie was greatly admired.
The club was delighted to get news from Asmita who we are supporting through her studies to become a lawyer at the University of Katmandu. This year she received the top marks in her course at university. This is a great achievement.
The club members got together at Fredricks Hotel in Maidenhead to celebrate the Christmas season on Wednesday night. They also welcomed the CEO of DASH to their dinner. Each year the club puts together a present for each of the residents of the Refuge and this year there was an additional present for the children to give to their mothers on Christmas Day. Club members donated the gifts – mostly items such as hand cream, bath foam and such like – and Irene and Marilyn set to and wrapped them. Here is the end result:There was also a raffle which raised £70 for club funds. The Christmas hamper was one by Marilyn.
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, Pat Black was able to give a talk to the club at the November meeting from her home in Edinburgh. Pat is the SI Advocacy Advisor 2020 – 2021 and spends considerable amounts of time working with the SI group in Geneva. She explained the links between SI and the UN and the importance of having consultative status which interdepends on all clubs keeping their Programme Action Focus Forms up to date! In particular she told us about being invited recently through National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO) UK, to attend a virtual consultation with NGOs and the current President of the UN Security Council, His Excellency Sven Jurgenson of Estonia. It was a very interesting meeting attended by about 90 representatives from a wide range of non governmental organisations with consultative status at the UN. The President indicated
SI Slough Windsor & Maidenhead held a very successful lunch at Stirrups Hotel on Sunday 10th October. This event had been postponed twice due to Covid restrictions so it was particularly enjoyed by almost fifty members and guests. A reception with glasses of Pimms provided a good opportunity for mingling and chatting prior to a three course lunch. After toasts to Soroptimist International and ‘Our Guests’, Richard Goss who is a trustee of Thames Hospicecare talked about the amazing work which is undertaken by the Hospice. He explained how the new site was enabling more patients to be treated and how the facilities were also available to members of the public who just wanted to drop in to have a cup of coffee. He paid tribute to the huge number of volunteers including members of our club. President Margaret presented Richard with a cheque from
Club members have been very busy during September with a number of outdoor events which luckily coincided with some warm sunny weather. First off a few members helped out with the parking arrangements for the Windsor Lions Charity Horse Ride on 11th September. Next weekend the club had a stand at the first Windsor Community Showcase at Windsor Yards which attracted quite a bit of attention: photos show President Margaret Lenton with members. Next day it was the Duck Derby in Maidenhead where past PM Theresa May dropped by:
London Chilterns President Helen Byrne zoomed into the club’s meeting on Wednesday 21st July and gave an update about her rather unusual year in office whilst dealing with a pandemic. Despite the problems in being restricted to virtual meetings, she was enjoying meeting many clubs and was also making progress in linking up the London based clubs in both London Chilterns and London Anglia together with clubs on the fringes of London in Southern Region. She hopes that creating a London oriented group will make it more straightforward to attract more members in the London area.
