What a wonderful evening it was recently at Club – Mike Griffiths recalled his days as a prison warden.  All so interesting relaxed and enjoyable and good fund-raiser too! It was only so successful because so much good work, preparation, and planning had been done behind the scenes-on behalf of the club I would like to thank Cheryl for arranging our speaker Mike to come along and to give such a fascinating talk and for organising the raffle and setting up the jewellery store. To Gaynor and her wonderful team our heartfelt thanks for our delicious supper and for generally giving the evening her distinctive special “feel good factor stamp”. Our thanks to Pat for her special hearty home-made soup and to the ladies who made the very special sweets Barbara and Janine and team who worked tirelessly making and serving endless cups of tea,

On Saturday 11 July two of our members Gill Wood & Veronica Prowse joined a posse of 1800 cowgirls and took to the streets of Torbay, walking ten miles in aid of Rowcroft Hospice. This year the Sleep Walk had two brand new five and ten mile routes; starting at Torbay Leisure Centre and passing through some of the best landmarks in the Bay. £169,000 was pledged on the night, and is still rising.  All funds raised will go towards supporting the hospice’s vital work, providing specialist palliative care and support for over 2200 adults every year living with  progressive, life limiting illnesses across 300 square miles of South Devon.

Our recent Interclub was another successful evening; all of us working hard to entertain and cater for the 40 members and guests who attended.  Rosegarth was bursting at the seams! Regional President Kay journeyed across the border from SI St. Austell and District, Cornwall; spoke about our club history, we were served a very tasty buffet prepared by club members under Gaynor’s watch, raffle tickets were sold and over £285.00 was raised in total for charity.

   SI Torquay members, friends and family gathered at Gill’s for a relaxed and sociable BBQ one Tuesday evening in July.  We enjoyed good food, entertaining company and conversation and, an added bonus, the sun shone late into the evening.

The Ricky Grant Day Centre at Torbay Hospital is a haematology/oncology day centre providing chemotherapy and other associated treatments, plus education and advice, on an outpatient basis. Last year President May Hulme and members of Torquay & District SI raised funds for the centre, we have all been touched by cancer and wanted to make the experience of having treatment and living with cancer better for people. The photograph shows Soroptimist member Gill Wood handing over a cheque to Sam Brenton Matron for Cancer Services for the Ricky Grant Day Centre.  

The Torquay Club is divided into various committees and each committee has a convenor.   Each convenor calls her own meetings, when and where necessary.     Sub-committee reports are given at business meetings so that all members of the club are kept informed of what is taking place.    Many members attend South West Regional meetings and report back to the membership and each year the President and usually a couple of other members attend the National Conference. Apart from the serious side of soroptimism we enjoy varied social activities including taking part in the Torbay Carnival and participating in various local events.       We give active support to the local Disabled Fellowship and endeavour to give time to elderly and disabled local people by arranging transport to take them out for a sight seeing trip and entertaining them to afternoon tea. A group of members help at a local

Maureen Hunnable and May Hulme were chef’s for the night at the recent BBQ held at Rosegarth, Torquay. The food was delicious and the array of salads and home made desserts were wonderful. This popular fundraiser was well attended and the fantastic sum of £125.00 was raised which include the proceeds from the night’s raffle. Thanks must be made for donations to Maureen’s grandson Calum who had recently completed a sponsored cycle ride across Dartmoor (£80.00), also a members donation of £100.00 plus the proceeds from the Summer Fayre increased the charity fund considerably.

Many children receiving Mary’s Meals don’t have basic learning tools such as pencils and notepads. Torquay & District SI decide to support this worthy cause so that children could get the most out of their lessons by donating backpacks full of the things they need.  For many, a Mary’s Meals backpack will be the only gift they’ll have ever had. Spare backpacks were brought from home and members appealed to the wider community for donations, wherever possible we bought things from charity shops or upcycle items we already owned. Before long, we had filled 15 backpacks which were collected and sent off. Packing such basic items gave us all a real sense of achievement at being able to arrange something relatively simply, that will make such a profound difference to children living in poverty too. The Backpack Project was a wonderful inclusion to our Programme

  Gill Wood and Veronica Prowse recently attended the Regional Conference held in Cornwall.  Pictured are Soroptimist members handing over the blue money pouches for the Water Aid project, in total £2300 has been raised.  

Members from the Torquay & District SI had an early start recently as they were attending the annual Cockington Fayre on Wednesday 5th August 2015.  The fayre held in the grounds of the historical Cockington Court was the venue for many stalls helping to raise funds for Cockington Church, local and national charities. Committee members Barbara Soames, Gaynor Raisey,and Veronica Prowse were joined by family members and friends hoping to raise vital funds for Soroptimist Charities. Members Jasmine Dawkins and Lesley Proctor joined the fund raising team later in the day to help with the very busy tombola and grab a duck stall. It was a brilliant day, not a cloud in sight, the fayre with all it’s stalls, live music, church bells ringing, fresh food available from the BBQ drew in thousands of people. The great thing about community events is that they bring people