Nine members of SI St Austell attended the Region AGM and Friendship weekend in Bristol. A welcome reception and buffet was held at The Penny Brohn Centre on Friday evening. President Sue, chaired the Annual General Meeting at Redwood Hotel on Saturday. President Elect Kay from St Austell presented a fascinating review of the year from club reports. Excluding Programme Action (144 programme focus report forms) our 500 members in this region raised £72,807. for wide variety of charities organisations and individuals, locally and internationally. 10 clubs were invited to display their Programme Action activities for the year and we were proud to show off just some examples of our projects including See Solar Cook Solar, knitting for the BIG project , Endometriosis awareness, pillowcase dresses for girls in Africa, Commemoration of the Suffragettes and a local Beach clean. International President Ann Garvie addressed the delegates. In the afternoon we were shown a film of the Mary’s Meals project and President Sue presented Magnus MacFarlane Brown with a cheque for £1,400 from the members of this Region. They now support 900,000 children daily with a hot meal at school. They work in 16 countries. Baroness Jean Corston spoke about the way the her report has improved the lives of women in the criminal justice system with alternatives to custodial sentences. The final speaker was Anita Corbin a highly regarded photographer who specialises in photographing women and is shooting and collecting iconic portraits of 21st century women who have been “First Woman “in their fields.
On Saturday evening President Wendy of SI Bristol hosted a dinner at the Walton Hotel Clevedon. On Sunday morning members met for a stroll in the sunshine on the beautifully maintained Clevedon Pier after a coffee one car went on to lunch at the home of a Bristol Soroptimist and the other back to Cornwall.