Great meeting tonight with lots of programme action discussed.  Smellies for the Sick had toiletry donations they wanted to give to us and we donated items to Street Spirit for the homeless. Southend YMCA, one of our partner organisations, want to construct a quilt with squares made by people from Southend to represent what  2020 had been like for them.  The quilt would then be displayed in the town.Having decided that the club would make some squares, Sharon R immediately started designing! We were delighted that Mel, our regional president, was able to join us and participate in the meeting.

  Waitrose Crisis Fund President Jackie was contacted by Waitrose in Southend:their staff having heard about our refuge donations. Jackie explained all about our work with the refuge and they then offered to buy us some items using their crisis fund. We are absolutely delighted to have been gifted £400 of toiletries/towels for us to use. A huge thank you to Waitrose.

SS Fitness Sharon Stevenson and her members at SS Fitness are great supporters of the club and very kindly donated all these items.       Scarborough Drive & The Elms Pharmacy We are also grateful to the residents of Scarborough Drive & to the Elms Pharmacy for this bundle of toiletries. All these items will be sorted by President Jill and packed into bags for the refuge deliveries.     Local Churches Having heard about our refuge bags we were delighted to receive a huge amount of donations (this is just a third of it) from St Andrews Church in Shoebury, St Margaret’s in Leigh and St Michael’s & All Angels in Westcliff. The residents of Scarborough Drive also contributed again.   Our thanks go to everyone who has helped us so far.

Toiletry Items This photo shows the toiletry items we pack into bags for the Southend and Basildon women’s refuges. Southend Soroptimists have been supporting the refuges with these bags for many years. The incidence of domestic abuse has rocketed during the Covid19 lockdown so these donations are more important than ever. If you have any donations or you’d like further information then please contact us via Facebook messenger or email us at sisouthend@gmail.com  

  Very busy meeting tonight, Pat & Beryl talked about when they joined Soroptimists many years ago! Heather visited the Meru project whilst out working in Kenya and told us all about her trip. Sharon updated us all on our programme action work and President Jackie welcomed new member Tracey to our club!

Good fun meeting this month. Our speaker was Lin Boulter, CEO of Age Concern Southend.  They will be our charity this year. She gave a brilliant talk explaining all the work they do and all the projects they undertake. They have just opened The Haven Older People’s Community Hub in Hamlet Court Road. Lots of volunteering & fundraising opportunities! It is hoped that we can have a joint intergenerational project with last year’s charity Southend YMCA and Age Concern Southend.

Lively AGM where President Sharon was delighted to present a cheque to Syrie Cox, CEO Southend YMCA, for £3200 which is a record breaking sum for our President’s charity. The money will be used to refurbish a residential room at Southend YMCA and will have Southend Soroptimists name plaque on the door!       President Sharon’s last duty was to hand over the chain of office to Jackie & Jill – ‘The Two J’s’ who will be sharing the presidency this year. They have a really busy & interesting year coming up raising funds for Age Concern Southend so watch this space for further information.

  Great meeting last night with Jacqui Kershaw.  Jacqui set up the charity Sweet Ways to Stop Abuse – a Not for Profit Organisation which supports, counsels & educates young people whose lives are being or have been affected by toxic and abusive relationships both in the real and the virtual world. Jacqui told us about all her differing roles and work in the field of domestic abuse and shared her amazing life story.  

Lively business meeting again after a very interesting & informative talk by Carmel from Havens Hospices. We have long had a link with the hospice so it was great to get an update on their new building with all its planned facilities. Lots more programme action to come, starting with a stand at The Royals in Southend on Saturday March 9th celebrating International Women’s Day. We will be there from 10.30 to 3.30 and we are asking people to donate individual chocolate bars, cereal bars, packets of crisps, cartons of drink with straws, pot noodles, cup ‘a’ soups and small roll on deodorants – all for the One Love Soup Kitchen helping the homeless in Southend.

Unfortunately our speaker was unable to join us tonight due to problems at work. However, we had 7 guests which was fantastic and we were able to take longer over dinner to chat and catch up with each other after our Christmas break. We discussed all our recent programme action work and set out our thoughts and ideas for the coming months. It was a great way for our guests to learn all about us and what we do and there are some good plans in the pipeline. Our next major event will be a stand in The Royals in Southend on Saturday March 9th to raise awareness of the club and celebrate International Women’s Day. More details to follow next month!