President Sue Gledhill and Membership Officer Liz McConnell met with Caroline Vandecasteele for SI of Kortrijk in Belgium, here in Stockport at the Alma Lodge.  Caroline’s husband Mike is a native of Stockport and so they are rregular vistors to the area.   Caroline, seated here in the middle, explained that Kortrijk is close to the Beigium border and that Flemish is their main language although most people speak English.  We hope to invite Caroline to one of our future Club meetings and hear more about how the Kortrijk Club is organised and runs.

May 2023 and President Sue has presented 2 members with long service awards. Pamela Brown received a certificate following 35 years of services with SI of Stockport And to Doreen Parker who was belatedly (apologies) presented with a 30 year service award; not long now until the 35 year certificate is due! October 2018 saw us celebrate 80 years of local, national and international action and service as the Club Soroptimist International of Stockport.  A celebratory 80th Charter Dinner took place and we were delighted to welcome so many guests from neighbouring clubs and one of our Friendship Link Clubs SI Guernsey who came for a weekend of fun and celebration.  We were joined by the Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport, a representative of greater Manchester Police and the Thank You from the guests was delivered by former MP Edwina Curry. 80th Year Charter Dinner

Poor sanitation kills and is degrading for individuals.  The charity Toilet Twinning (www.toilettwinning.org ) educates communities about sanitation and assists them in building latrines for themselves as well as building toilets for them.  £60 enables you to toilet twin with a community in need in Asia and Africa.  The Club held a lunch and raffle at President Sue Gledhill’s home enabling our first ‘twin’ in Malawi.  http://www.toilettwinning.org More success with our toilet twinning projest, this time including Myanmar and Kenya.  

The Club are delighted to have supported the Brinnington Contact Centre with £1000 of outdoor play equipment.  The Centre enables children in foster care and those on the child protection register who may still be with one parent to come and meet their parents, or the other parent under supervised access.  Siblings too placed with different foster carers also meet up at the Centre.  Stockport Council agreed to meet the installation and maintenance costs.

The Club were delighted to welcome Paul Ramsden from Stockport Talking Newspapers and present him with a cheque for £350 towards continuing activities.  Mr Ramsden gave a short talk on the operational aspects of the organisation that supports individuals with sight loss/reduction problems to stay in touch with news and events.  Stockport Talking Newspapers remains one of the Clubs’ on-going and local projects.  Paul Ramsden is seen here receiving the cheque from Club President Sue Gledhill, supported by Programme Action Officer Sue Wagstaffe.

2020’s lockdown has not stopped us from supporting GMP’s video interview unit.  Additional furniture, toys and drawing equipment have been provided for children who may be witnesses or victims of crime of accompanying adults who are. Stockport Soroptimists were delighted to be joined by local (now former) MP Ann Coffey in a visit to Greater Manchester Police’s video interview unit.  This important facility has been refurbished by the Club from something rather bare and not user friendly into a warm and welcoming space for victims and witnesses of crime 24 hours a day as necessary. Ann Coffey MP joins members of Soroptimist International of Stockport, DCI Chris Downey and DI Julia Bowden in one of the video unit’s recording lounges.

Our Friendship Links Syringe Driver Bags – May 2018 saw the Club primed for action in its 80th year with a Club Sew-A-Thon resulting in over 40 bags that enable patients to carry and move around with syringe driver of medication e.g., pain relief, that are attached to them via a cannula. The Sew-A-Thon work has continued into 2019 with bags made available to patients in St Ann’s Hospice, Stockort and Macclesfield via the District Nurses.          

Pleased to have a presence at Wyevale Garden Centre in Stockport on a busy pre-Easter weekend.  Promoting the Club, our work and benefits of membership has been enhanced with the addition of new display stands, posters and Club leaflets, as well photos and reports on our action based activities.

In addition to supporting the local foodbanks with items for users to eat, a need was identified for personal hygiene products. Pictured here is Myra Woodcock in delivery mode supplying items sourced by the Club. Pleased to say that Myra is also holding the Club’s new publicity and promotional poster!

SI Stockport & District were delighted to present Katy from Stockport Signpost for Young Carers with a cheque for £500 from Immediate Past President Ingrid, this being the last of the Club’s donations from Ingrid’s year 2016/17.  Katy gave a short talk on her work at Signpost Young Carers and in particular the Outward Bound Project that the donation will support.  Such projects give often isolated young carers a place to talk, make friends and be active outside of their carer roles and responsibilities.