Sunday 26th June saw the Torquay & District Soroptimist International celebrate their 70 year anniversary with a luncheon at the Redcliffe Hotel, Paignton. Invited guests were Adrian Sanders MP, Regional President Mary McNaughton and Guest Speaker Phil McDonald – Operation Smile. At the end of the lunch Regional President Mary McNaughton presented Maureen Hunnable with an honorary membership for outstanding service to our club.

A HISTORIAN has given a talk on remarkable women of Devon to the Torquay Soroptimist Club. Dr Todd Gray, an honorary research fellow at Exeter University and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, detailed the history of some of Devon’s notable characters. Soroptimist Club members said it was a ‘fascinating’ talk. Dr Gray specialises in Devon history. Penny Crump, who looks after the press and publicity for Soroptimist International Torquay and district, said: “When you consider that women make up more than half the population of Devon there is very little written about their exploits, even though they may have made remarkable contributions to the history of our county. “Most of us know about Agatha Christie, Lady Nancy Aster, and may be Dorothy Elmhirst of Dartington Hall, but what about Granny Scott and Betsy Gammon of Ilfracombe? Elizabeth Ann Holman, a Devon navvy? Or

Two Torquay and Brixham Soroptimist clubs joined together on Torquay Seafront at the recently altered Rock Walk to celebrate together in celebrating 100 years of Womens’ International Day. Members of both clubs had coffee together and then stood on the newly re-opened Rock Walk with banners. Torbay’s Mayor, Nick Bye. joined them to show his support.

This is the question many people have asked me since I joined the SI Torquay and District 5 years ago. Not a surprising question really as I had asked the same to a work colleague who had also joined the group.  The only person who really knew what a Soroptimist was is my father-in-law, himself an active member of the Normandy Veterans. If I can do half as much fund raising as he has done I will be very happy. I was invited to attend the first meeting which just happened to be the talk at St Matthias Church by Miss Anne Widdecombe and what struck me from that first night was the sincerity and friendship that was shown, it was a brilliant evening and confirmed to me that I wanted to join. the following July along with five other members from Torquay I travelled

Stop the Trafficking, Stop the Tears, Free Them from their Tormented Years’ 11 Things You Can Do in 2011 to Help Stamp Out Human Trafficking 1  Buy and wear a Purple Teardrop pinbadge 2  Become a member of the Purple Teardrop campaign 3  Make the Purple Teardrop Campaign one of the charities you support in 2011 4  Support the Campaign’s lobbies – sign-up to the lobby to ban sex for sales adverts which are used to market sex for sale using trafficked women and girls. Alternatively, download and print a multi-signature paper version. 5 Write to your local newspaper group if they are publishing sex for sale adverts – in the event of a negative response, why not ask other advertisers to threaten to boycott. Nothing speaks louder than money. 6  Contact your MP and ask them to sign up to EDM 931 and to support legislation

HIVE OF ACTIVITY DO BEES DRINK WATER? This is just one of the questions that Barton Primary School pupils will be able to answer as the Torquay and District Soroptimist Club have nominated the school and is pleased to announce that they will be sponsoring their BeePlus project during the Summer Term. The BeesPlus project as an interactive project for Key Stage 2 pupils at Junior Schools. It is a user friendly flexible resource, that fits into the science curriculum, but can also be used in a cross curricula way. Teachers can take a week or a term, involve the whole school, or just Key Stage 2 pupils. They can do all the activities or just choose the most suitable for their groups. The project topics for the pupils are: · All about bees · Honeybee colonies · Beekeeping · Honey and Beeswax · Problems

Ladies at the Torbay Soroptimist club have raised more than £170 for charity at their February fund raising evening. The group held a bangers and mash night for Bangladesh to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Soroptimists International. The aim was that each club should raise £75 in the 75th year of the club, but the Torquay and District organisation managed £174. During the evening the ladies were entertained by speaker Calum Deakin, who has just returned from a charity mission in Nepal. The club helped to sponsor his trip. Press and publicity officer Penny Crump said: “He gave us a talk on what they did out there.” The food was cooked by two of the club members and enjoyed by around 30 people who attended the event. “The sausages the ladies cooked were lovely. “We had sausages, mash and peas with lovely onion gravy. It

Torquay & District SI volunteer at the Torbay Holiday Helpers Network City to Sea 53 Event Several of our members gave up their Saturday to volunteer to help at the Dawlish and Kingskerswell checkpoints. The City to Sea Ultra started from Exeter Quayside and wound it’s way to Berry Head in Brixham before heading to Torquay and finally up to Babbacombe Downs for the finish line and event village. The City to Sea Marathon run or walk started from Exeter Quayside and took a more direct but still very scenic route to Babbacombe Downs and the event village. On Babbacombe Downs there was an event village, with finish line, information point, race HQ, live music, family entertainment, stalls, games and more.  It was a fun day out for all the family, raising over £14,500 for the Charity with sponsorship money is still coming in. This will help