To celebrate International Women’s Day members of SI Tamworth wore something blue/yellow in support of the the people (and particularly Soroptimists) of Ukraine. Members also heard about the conditions women and children face when fleeing conflicts and saw a couple of videos from Ukrainian women about their experiences.
President Linda, and members of SI Tamworth welcomed new member Debbie at our February Business meeting.
Members and guests enjoyed our annual Christmas party. Quiz master Malcolm tested our knowledge of all things Christmas. The every popular hamper raffle raises £220.00 for our charities.
Throughout the year Tamworth Soroptimists support the girls at No.8, a local charity that provides supportive accommodation for young Moms and their babies and pregnant young Moms to be, in an environment where they can feel safe and secure. At Xmas the girls are given pamper hampers and we were asked if we could provide socks and gloves to go in the hampers. As usual the ladies generously supported this project.
SI Tamworth had a stall at the Tamworth Victorian Market. Some members dressed for the occasion. Items on sale were donated by members but a great big thank you went to the mother of one of the members for knitting all the wonderful toys. The stall raised £512 for our charities.
Members of SI Tamworth had a stall at Lea Marston to raise awareness of breast cancer. Not only did we promote the work of Breast Care Awareness our tombola raised £207 for this charity.
Members of SI Tamworth marked the start of our 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, by wearing something orange to our November dinner meeting.
Early this month Tamworth Hygiene Bank put out an urgent appeal for items as their stocks had become desperately low. Members of SI Tamworth responded by donating over 100 items to the charity. These were handed over to Marie Ballard, who runs the Hygiene Bank at our November dinner meeting.
Marilyn, from Dogs for Good (www.dogsforgood.org ) gave an interesting and informative talk at our November Dinner meeting. This charity empowers people with all disabilities to live more independent lives by providing expertly trained dogs. The dogs they train have a lot of different skills, from fetching the post, opening doors, emptying washing machines to helping with shopping. The star of the show was Wilkie who was an assistance dog for Helen. Helen spoke about how Wilkie, the star of the night, has given her so much freedom.
President Linda lay a wreath of poppies on behalf of SI Tamworth ably supported by Gill Holmes – our newest member and long serving Betty Bates – who has been a member since 1985 was Club President 1991-92.
