At our 2022 club AGM president Linda was proud to award club member and multiple-term club and Yorkshire president Judith Alce with honorary membership. Congratulations from all your Soroptimist sisters Judith, its a well deserved honour.

On Saturday 23rd April a group of intrepid Wakefield soroptimists set off on a sponsored hike around St Aidens nature reserve in a show of solidarity with #SHEWALKS2, a campaign highlighting the barriers faced by girls in rural Zimbabwe, many of whom have huge financial, geographic and administrative barriers to get to school and receive an education. The charity SHE is working with these girls to break down the barriers they face by providing sponsorship and other practical support like bicycles and textbooks to enable more young girls to receive their education and realise their dreams of a brighter future. Find out more about this inspiring charity at SHE – part of the Catalyst Foundation – SHE is led by girls in Zimbabwe, to break down the barriers to their education.

SI Wakefield and SI Dewsbury have worked together to plant trees at Dewsbury Country park to support the environment.  Two Coastal Redwoods were planted in the country park arboretum feature to celebrate the Soroptimists International Centenary  and soroptimists helped plant  further also planted 50 small trees to help start off a new small woodland on the 19th and 21st November. The trees are still small, but will hopefully grow and future soroptimists will be able to reap the rewards of improved air quality and biodiversity.

The Brilliant Breakfast event hosted by Wakefield Soroptimists by the Queens Mill tearooms, Castleford on the 14th October, raised £130 for the Princes Trust women supporting women campaign. During the event President Linda presented Jane Walton, chair of Castleford Heritage Trust with a toilet twinning certificate to thank them for hosting the Brilliant Breakfast on the 14th October.  

Wakefield soroptimists responded to a recent appeal from the office of their local MP, Yvette Cooper for books for needy families. Pictured handing over the collected book donations to an aide is president Linda Phillips

Wakefield soroptimists (along with some of our soropti-Misters – our husbands and partners) visited Newby Hall on Thursday 22nd July for a long awaited reunion and picnic after our meetings continued online for the last 18 months under lockdowns. It was a lovely day, rather warm at times, and club members spent quite a while catching up on each other’s news, enjoying each others company again, sitting under trees in the lovely setting of Newby Hall gardens drinking coffee and tea, and then lunch – a fairly typical Soroptimist outing! It was good to be out and about again after such a long period at virtual meetings. We look forward to being able to resume our usual regular meetings in person again in September.

Recently Wakefield Soroptimists raised £1080 to fund latrines with our ‘5P2P’ initiative. Members donated 5p every time they used their bathroom and  communities in Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan were able to have basic latrines built for them through charity Tearfund and its toilet twinning appeal. It also helped fund water taps in Guatemala, Malawi and Nepal, plus school blocks in Pakistan and Malawi and other facilities. Find out more about this charity and the fabulous work they do to bring sanitation and clean water to the poorest communities worldwide at https://www.toilettwinning.org/ . 

Although its impossible to thank our brave  NHS and keyworker staff enough for their service during the Covid 19  pandemic, SI Wakefield assembled a small token of our appreciation and delivered a gift of thanks to our local hospital. We were grateful for the support of our local supermarkets who donated some items and the rest was supported by our membership. Here are some photos of the treats and thank you cards we took to Pinderfields Hospital to say a big thank you to the staff for working so hard through the pandemic. There were 10 boxes, 1 of toiletries and 1 of chocolates and snacks for each of 5 departments- ICU, acute respiratory unit, Covid ward, pathology lab and the mortuary staff.  Neither words or deeds can express our gratitude for their professionalism and dedication.

This has been a Presidential year with a difference, as so far we have not been able to meet face to face as a club. Our technology skills have improved immensely though – we have kept in touch via Zoom, both as a club and a region. 4 members even ‘went’ to a virtual Federation conference with 900 others from across the world. The ladies unable to use Zoom were contacted by telephone. In summer we were able to meet in the rose garden of a local park in groups of 6 and in August I invited 2 small groups to my home for tea and cake. This was a substitute for a fundraiser for the International project to help girls in Nepal, but with generous contributions of homemade jams, chutneys, birthday cards and knitted baby items, we still managed to raise £100.Early in lockdown

On the sunny morning of Tuesday, January 21st Wakefield Soroptimists again assembled and rolled up their sleeves to ensure the grave of one of Wakefield’s unsung women was cleared and cleaned the grave and tidy for Spring. The grave in St John’s Churchyard, Wakefield is that of local 19th century artist Louisa Fennell, which soroptimists helped to clear and plant with spring bulbs last year. Louisa (1847–1930) was an English watercolour painter, best known as a painter of landscapes and townscapes in the West Riding of Yorkshire, particularly Wakefield, her home town. As part of the Forgotten Women of Wakefield project a blue plaque to celebrate her life and work has now also been placed in St John’s Square. Find out more about the Forgotten Women of Wakefield project we are actively involved in supporting here . Wakefield Soroptimists are committed to ensuring that her talent