Whitstable & District Soroptimist club officially began in October 2023 after many months of preparation. We hope to welcome members from Whitstable, Herne Bay, Faversham and the local villages.
The idea came from a long standing Soroptimist and member of the Canterbury club who lived in Whitstable. Canterbury is a cathedral and university city where there have been Soroptimists for more than 60 years. It’s seven miles from Whitstable, which is a fishing port with an artistic community and many newcomers. The two locations have very different histories and characters.
The impetus was an awareness of the environmental and financial costs of travelling to Canterbury for meetings, programme action and social events. Five members lived in Whitstable and recognised the value of meeting locally and supporting local projects and so in early 2023 we started to make plans.
Four women with Soroptimist experience soon joined us and we decided to grow slowly beginning with an open meeting in May 2023 when we spoke to guests about what Soroptimism means to us, introduced ideas for project work and explained that we were looking for women to take an active part in our club.
The club was chartered by the Federation President on 1 October 2023 with 16 founder members. We planned an informal event overlooking the Whitstable coastline, with local touches such as pebbles for place names. It was a lovely day and guests mingled in the sunshine, enjoyed a delicious meal followed by a sea swim for some guests
Our vision is for a relaxed, inclusive club where people of like minded views support and offer friendship to one another and to the women and families of our local community. We want to adhere to our Soroptimist mission and principles whilst making new friends, learning new skills, gaining satisfaction and having fun.
Each founder member is enthusiastic and actively involved. We decided to have a president to act as a focal point for members and guests with a President’s brooch commissioned to reflect our locality.
We are now busy integrating our members, involving everyone in programme action work, raising funds and spreading the word locally with two public events planned for the coming months.
We quickly became involved with Maya’s Community Support Centre, an amazing charity in Herne Bay and are working to revive the Plastic Free status of Whitstable. Read more about our programme action projects here:
