June has certainly been a sunny month here in Cornwall. We’ve enjoyed lots of sunshine and lots of outdoor activities.
We started the month with an interesting club meeting where we discussed World Environment Day and we were encouraged to make pledges to ‘keep climate positive’. Soroptimist Dawn led a group activity where we were asked to think about the changes that we could make to our everyday lives that would really make a difference to the world. We’ll be doing more on this at our meeting in July. Guest speaker Julie told us all about sex and bees! An interesting and humorous talk!
Our club collected equipment to support Hannah from Penrice School who is going out to Ghana soon. This visit is organised by African Adventures Foundation. Hannah will be heading to a village community 100km outside of the capital, where poverty is extreme. She will be volunteering in the village at the school and supporting the local children.
Soroptimists Karen and Jane were seen at the Cornwall Air Ambulance volunteers’ party posing with Air Crew Andy. They also supported this cause at the Royal Cornwall Show.
There was a very special event at Sticker’s Memory Cafe this month. Thanks to donations in lieu of flowers at the funeral of former guest, Myrna Baker, we were able to treat guests, carers and volunteers to a lovely lunch at Heligan Gardens. Myrna’s husband and daughter joined us. We enjoyed walking around the gardens in the glorious sunshine.
Soroptimist Jane represented our club in the Race for Life event. She raised £778.50 for Cancer Research UK.
We held our second annual lunch for all of our Past Presidents in June. These women are the heart of our club and they enjoyed reminiscing about the past whilst enjoying a delicious lunch at the Kingswood Restaurant, St Austell.
Soroptimist Crystal became the Mayor of St Austell this month. Crystal believes in doing the best that you can for the people of St Austell. She currently sits on the Standards and Ethics committee for Cornwall Council.
We took part in another children’s book give away as a part of the first Children’s Literature Festival in St Austell. We loved watching the children diving into the piles of books and choosing their favourites. (We made the front page and page 3 of local newspaper for this event!)
President Jill and Soroptimist Wendy visited a fascinating exhibition in the impressive new Cornish Archive building in Redruth on ‘Women in Cornwall’. It’s a temporary exhibition so you’ll need to go and see it quickly!
Our STEM team ran an activity stand at the National Armed Forces Youth day event in Falmouth. We were promoting our sponsorship of teams of girls in the First Lego League Challenge. It was great fun playing with the lego and the controllable robots with school groups from across Cornwall.
Our Social Committee were also very active this month organising a range of fun activities to suit all tastes. Club members had a lovely afternoon with St Austell Bowling Club learning how to bowl and Soroptimist Angela made and organised a delicious cream tea and a raffle to round up the afternoon. Those that love to dress up donned fancy hats and frocks for Ladies Day at Newton Abbott Race Course. We all enjoyed a bit of a ‘flutter’ but we didn’t come back millionaires! It’s important to remember that being a Soroptimist is also about making friends and having fun!
