March was a really busy month for our club. Events included our Unsung Heroine 2023 awards ceremony, our First Lego League Challenge, a World Book Day Give Away and of course International Women’s Day celebrations.

Encouraging girls into STEM

We began the month by presenting  an Andrew Flint Bursary of £500 to Ellen Winn who is a BTEC Engineering student at Truro College.  This bursary was set up in 2019 from a very generous bequest. It is used to support girls in Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths. We look forward to regular updates from Ellen as she progresses through her course.

 

World Book Day

On the 4th March we gave away over 1000 children’s books (donated by members) at St Austell Library to mark World Book Day.  Families were delighted to find a large collection of books available to them for free! Books included something suitable for every age group and so members were able to help their young visitors select something that they liked.  (See article in Club Menu for more details.)

Unsung Heroine Award 2023

Our flagship event, the Unsung Heroine Awards was held at Carlyon Bay Golf Club. The exceptional women who were nominated are shown in the photo. Invited special guests were Nour Chakroun of the Inspiring Women’s Network, our St Austell Lady Mayor Andrea Lanxon and Region President Valerie Nuttall. Nour kindly presented the awards. During the evening, a local jazz and classical singer, Bromley Tate entertained us.  As always the decisions were very difficult, but in the end Liz Northcott was recognised as the overall winner for her work with Cornwall One Parent Charity.  A special award of Highly Commended was given to Heather George.

 

 

First Lego League Challenge

First Lego League Challenge is a global STEM programme for teams of young people aged 9 to 16. Participants work together to explore a given topic, design, build and program a LEGO robot to solve missions. This year we sponsored two teams of primary school age girls from Sandy Hill Academy and Probus School in the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE Challenge held at RNAS Culdrose. The girls were up to the challenge, building their robots and answering the questions from the Referees. Two of our members volunteered as referees and judges.

International Women’s Day and…. lots of other activities..

At our March meeting members were photographed in the Embrace Equity position for International Women’s Day. Others, supported Bodmin Women’s Centre by attending their excellent International Women’s Day Exhibition. Some members attended the International Women’s Day Gala evening which included entertainment and supper in Truro. This was hosted by the Inspiring Women’s Network.

Some members had coffee with President Erene of SI Milford Haven , which is our new Friendship Link Club.    We also had a Soroptimist stand at Truro and Penrith Colleges Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Days in Penzance and Truro  raising awareness about our STEM projects and bursaries.