In line with SI South Lancs President Pam Wrights’s theme for her year, SI Southport ‘ROSE UP AND ROARED’ as we welcomed the Chinese Year of the Dragon in great style in mid-February 2024.
As a pre-cursor, President Agnes Ng gave club members an introduction to the Chinese New Year, which marks the beginning of the year based on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is very complicated!
To celebrate the start of the New Year, President Agnes hosted a magnificent celebration dinner, with over 130 guests, including the Mayor of Sefton, Cllr June Burns, and her consort and SI South Lancashire President Pam Wright. It was held at ‘Valhalla’ at Southport’s Pleasureland. The room was adorned with red Chinese lanterns and lots of gold and red balloons and the video wall showed some a continuous loop of traditional celebrations.
Our guests were greeted by a wonderful (and very noisy!) dragon dance by the amazing Blackpool Unicorn Association. We then enjoyed a sumptuous Chinese buffet, prepared by President Agnes’ catering team from the Dukes Folly Hotel. During dinner, our guests were challenged with a quiz and some riddles.
Many thanks to President Agnes, Lily Chan (one of our newest members) and their friends and relatives from the local Chinese community who brought the authenticity of the new year celebrations to Southport. We are also most grateful to our supporters for their help and in particular to the brilliant team from Dukes Folly Hotel. And enormous thanks to Norman Wallis, the CEO of Southport Pleasureland, for providing his wonderful venue and for his generosity and assistance.
The event was a great success – a truly enjoyable and enlightening experience, which raised over £1500 for Soroptimist charities. We ROARED that night!