New member Holly Hemsley was inducted to the SI Winchester & District club at their September business meeting and President Pat presented her badge.  Long term SI member Liz Batten, founder of the new Salisbury branch introduced Holly to members: “Holly was born in Bournemouth but moved to Kent and I discovered we both went to the same Grammar School (a few years apart…!) She worked in Canterbury for a rape crisis charity and a disabled children’s charity so is already familiar with the issues we engage with. She moved to Salisbury recently and is working as a ward administrator at Salisbury Hospital. She is studying in her spare time for her AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) exams. She says she does a lot of mad things for charity and is training to run the Salisbury Half Marathon next month. New in her household is

SI Winchester members spent a beautiful summer evening in the pastoral setting of the Broughton Water Buffalo Farm near Stockbridge.  A visit to the pastures to interact wth a friendly bull, cows and calves, with an introductory talk by the farmer about their natural farming system, was followed by a barbecue of gourmet burgers. Click on any image in the gallery below to enlarge:    

On Sunday 30th July members joined Gina at her home for afternoon tea. At the previous supper meeting Gina had given a talk on her collection of Shelley fine bone china and invited members to afternoon tea so that they could see the collection at first hand and take tea from Shelley cups and saucers. Everyone said the tea tasted better. The company, a Staffordshire pottery was in existence from the 1880s to 1966. Gina and her husband specialise in collecting “tea for twos” but as the tour of the house revealed they have succumbed to other items of Shelley along the way. After a tour of the displayed china everyone gathered in the garden for cake tea and a lively discourse. One of the rarest and most sought after pieces of Shelley is a coffee pot of Lady Constance Lytton, a suffragette, whose outlook

SI Winchester & District members were invited to A Textiles Showcase at The Mountbatten School, Romsey, last week that included a ‘Girls 4 Girls’ catwalk show of pillow case dresses made by pupils.  Josh, a contestant on this year’s ‘Great British Sewing Bee’ on BBC was the guest speaker and presented prizes.  President Pat attended with other members of the club.

 Peter Symonds College, Winchester, invited local organisations to contribute pre-loved bras to be pegged to washing lines across the college field on Tuesday 5th July, to raise awareness of the 60,000 people each year who are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK.   SI Winchester & District Club members played their part contributing 50 pre-loved bras on the day. Event organiser, Chrissie Rycroft commented :”A very BIG thank you to everyone that contributed in any way to Operation Bravo, whether it was donating bras, pegging them up or just taking the time to view the washing lines that held 600 bras. It was an incredible response to raise awareness of breast cancer & Oxfam will now distribute the bras on a world -wide basis, where ever they are needed. The Winchester Breast Cancer Unit think what you did was amazing & they are very

Painting a Brighter Future for Local Refuge Residents:   Local women setting up a new Soroptimist Cub in Salisbury got stuck in to their first project this week. Following in the footsteps of the previous Club in Salisbury, they have decided to provide support and assistance for the Salisbury Women’s Refuge. Answering a call for help from staff for some aid with painting and redecorating, they gave up their time and effort to make a difference. ‘Our aim is to give something back to the local community’, said Holly Hemsley, who initiated the volunteering ‘so this service project is in keeping with the organisation’s aim of transforming the lives of women and girls. It is great to be able to help in a really practical way to brighten the lives of women going through difficult and challenging times.’ The original Salisbury Soroptimist Club which closed

A group from  SI Winchester and District spent the weekend on a tour of The Hague in the Netherlands, organised by member Anna Elder.  It is a fascinating city of international peace and justice, home to many cultures.  Soroptimists from The Hague welcomed the group to a dinner on the Saturday evening.

Continuing the theme of ‘Food’ for this year’s programme of speakers and activities, members visited the Good Life Centre at Headbourne Worthy this weekend for breakfast.  After a talk about the sourcing of local foods, the Centre offered a delicious choice of breakfast, including ‘doorstep’ bacon sandwiches.  Members then had an opportunity to browse in the shop and garden centre or go for a walk in the area, visiting a Saxon church and trout farm.  Thanks to Myra for the excellent arrangements!

Two new members were inducted to the SI Winchester & District club at their supper meeting on Monday 25th Apil.  Joint President Pat welcomed Frances Dearn who previously belonged to a Soroptimist Club in London but now has time to be involved since she retired to the Winchester area. Karen Reddin joins the ‘daughter’ branch of Salisbury and is active in helping to recruit new members to the new branch.  She has a career in public health with a particular interest in the continuing needs of the population in Nepal.

Members of SI Southern England, including 4 representatives from SI Winchester & District, turned out in force to support the Southampton Half Marathon and related events on 24th April. Preparations had already begun the previous day, but nevertheless we got up at an impossibly early hour (for a Sunday!) in order to meet at 8am at Costa in Bargate.  It was a VERY cold morning! Thank goodness for coffee! Regional President Ruth’s planning was impeccable. Then we were off to decorate the mile we had been assigned.  We were lucky to be stationed along the High Street, close to coffee and loos! We had lots of balloons, including some in the shape of our dynamic S.       Here come the runners! Our banner is clearly in view but will the runners see it?  Will they ask ‘Why are you a Soroptimist?’   All

It was a real pleasure to help a young friend who has a long-term illness but who wants her children to benefit from the delights of gardening. Her digging SOS was answered and with the help of some home- made ginger cake, three of us cleared the final bed of it’s weeds. It’s ready now for the vegetables to be planted . Who needs a gym??

Members of the SI Winchester club enjoyed a fascinating tour of the conservation centre at the Briitish Library, led by Dr Cordelia Robertson. Researcher Vania demonstrated the painstaking assembly of manuscript fragments found on the ancient Silk Route and, in another section we saw how high tech imaging revealed hidden life drawings in a Leonardo da Vinci sketch book.  

Barbara Jeremiah attended the memorial service of a very interesting Soroptimist, Mrs Betty Sugden MRCVS, at Hook, Hampshire on 22nd February of this year and brought back this story to our club, SI Winchester, where we held a minute’s silence for Betty. Barbara says, ‘We first met  Betty, a former local and national President of SI Zimbabwe when she had just returned from over 40 years as a veterinary surgeon in Africa, arriving back with just a suitcase.  Her son Richard, went to get his mother after she had suffered and been held at knife point during an uprising in Zimbabwe. When she came to lunch at our cottage she still had the bruises around her neck from the assault and terrifying situation she had experienced.’ As a member of the Soroptimists in Zimbabwe over 40 years she was elected Local President in 1963 and

“… it’s more food bags,” says Carol Forse who is leading our contribution to the daily food bags that the Trinity Centre hands out to homeless people they support. The “Cold Bag” is for people with no facilities for cooking and the “Kettle Bag” for those who have access to a kettle.

In a series of updates from schools taking part in the Girls 4 Girls pillowcase dress competition we have photos of pupils receiving their sewing machine prize at Mountbatten School … … and at Eggars School. Henry Beaufort sent links to stories on their website: http://www.beaufort.hants.sch.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=1&storyid=533 http://www.beaufort.hants.sch.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=1&storyid=508 Carol tells us that the Hampshire Chronicle also featured a story about Henry Beaufort prizewinners on p.46 of 12th November edition and on their website – ‘search Henry Beaufort’ says Carol.

SI Winchester members, friends and family enjoyed a Mad Hatters’ Tea Party in Kay and Barbara’s lovely garden last Saturday 1st August. There was croquet after lunch, followed by cake for tea.  Competitions included tea tasting, most unusual teapot and most striking hat.  Winners of the hat competition were joint-chair Pat and her grand-daughter.

At Winchester SI AGM on April 13th President Julie handed over the chain of office to Pat and Jenny who will share the post for the coming year.  Julie was presented with a farewell gift and expressed her wish to continue to participate in all activities. Pat Abbott described the very positive joint planning experience so far and Jenny Stratford outlined the programme which will have the theme of food and will allow for exciting collaborations with students at Winchester University.

Carol has designed these beautiful bags from SI tea towels to sell for fundraising…

In November President Julie accompanied her mother (from SI Nantwich) on a visit to relatives in Australia. In true Soroptimist style it was also an opportunity to meet with fellow Soroptimists and with a few well timed emails beforehand this fell into place. The first stop was Melbourne where President Erica of SI Melba had started this new club as a breakaway from the established SI Melbourne. As happens from time to time there are different views and Erica is a dynamic Soroptimist and used to be a member of SI Lewisham hence the connection with President Julie, as they had shared the same Chilterns Region in the past. Erica clearly had a good group of members and they had recently held an event for schools where the attendance was 300 young girls, to listen to motivational speakers and how to progress in education and

St John’s Winchester in 3 minutes At the supper meeting on 27th October, the new Director of St Johns’, Clive Cook, gave a brief history of the almshouse charity from its foundation in 934.  ‘For our future … we need new trustees, friends and  all sorts of volunteers with different skill sets,’ said Clive, who can be contacted via the website  www.stjohnswinchester.co.uk.  

What a great time we had – all thanks to our wonderful hostesses, Barbara and Kay. Happy moments captured by Carol’s camera.    

Not really known for their craft work, SI Winchester members have been putting long-forgotten skills to good use.   For more information on the Pillowcase Dress project click here.     Urged by Gerry Godwin, our Regional Ambassador for The BIG Project, we took up our needles to make over forty shawls for premature babies supported by the project.  To find out more about our work for BIG click here.     So many clubs responded to Gerry’s call to knit, by the time we finished our shawls they were surplus to requirements in the Gambia. All was not lost because they were welcomed enthusiastically by the Premature Baby Unit in our own local hospital.  

  Founder Member Veronica (Vee) Coleman-Rowthorn died peacefully on International Women’s Day, 8th March 2013. Vee would have been 100 years old the following month.  At our club meeting on 13th January President Liz Batten unveiled a plaque in her memory with the help of Wendy Couchman, our newest member inducted just minutes earlier.  The plaque has been wall mounted in the reception area of the Holiday Inn Winchester, our regular meeting place. Slideshow (includes archive photos of Founder Member Vee) To pause a slide just “mouse-hover” over it  [new_royalslider id=”15″]    

Celebrating together in style at The Golden Lion …   To pause on a slide just “mouse hover” over it. [new_royalslider id=”14″]             As usual we used the occasion to collect money for our International President’s 10th December Appeal* in lieu of sending each other Christmas cards.  This year our donation was boosted by a surprise raffle.  The raffle prizes were kindly donated by Jane Howard in memory of her aunt, Veronica Coleman-Rowthorn, our founder member who died this year, a month short of her 100th birthday.  In total £380 was collected. * 2013-2014 International President’s Appeal: See Solar, Cook Solar Soroptimist International President, Ann Garvie, has chosen “See Solar, Cook Solar” for her International President’s Appeal: “Can you imagine finding time to earn your living if you had to spend hours every day collecting firewood?  Or how you would

Malala Yousafzai and her book need no introduction.*  Deeming it a “must-read” for all young women, the club decided to provide a copy to five local schools.  No doubt the schools have already ordered their own copies but we wanted to demonstrate that our organisation is at one with Malala in the huge importance we attach to the right of every girl to an education.  The book was co-written with Christina Lamb, Foreign Correspondent with The Sunday Times and an interesting and inspiring speaker at our 2009 Federation Conference in Cardiff.       * But just in case … When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out.  Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.  On Tuesday 9 October 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price.  Shot in the head at point blank range