Charter Lunch 2009
Saturday 10th October 2009
Cartmel Racecourse
IPP Geraldine’s year - 2008-2009
The Charter Lunch was held at the Grange Hotel on Sunday 12th October. SI Grange-over-Sands welcomed Presidents from other clubs in the region.
Club Officers & Executive Committee 2009 - 2010
OFFICERS 2009/2010
PRESIDENT: Margaret Dennis
PRESIDENT ELECT: Isabel Huggett
VICE PRESIDENT:Vacant
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT: Geraldine Gordon
SECRETARY: Rosemary Hoyle
TREASURER: Dorothy Sheppard
MINUTING SECRETARY:
Executive:-……….. rota
Business:-………… rota
PROGRAMME ACTION OFFICER:. Janice Carrick
MEMBERSHIP & EXTENSION OFFICER: Geraldine Gordon
PROJECT GROUP FACILITATORS
Economic & Social Development: Pam Baines
Education: Janice Carrick
Environment: Sue Fleetwood
Health: June Gabbitas
Human Rights & the Status of Women: Mollie Bell
International Goodwill & Understanding: Penny Ward
REPRESENTATIVES TO REGIONAL COUNCIL
Geraldine Gordon…..until Nov 2009
Margaret Dennis
Isabel Huggett……from Nov 2009
Valentine Ceilidh
On Saturday 14th February SI Grange-over-Sands held a Valentine’s Ceilidh in aid of the local Citizens’ Advice Bureau. The village hall was decorated with hearts and balloons and deep pink floral displays from South Lakeland Nurseries and we took the opportunity to display our new roller Soroptimist banner.
All the tickets were sold. We had a great band, excellent supper and entusiastic dancers. There was a raffle with Valentine’s prizes like champagne, chocolates made by a local chocolatier and a heart-shaped cake. We also rolled £1 coins for a bottle of gin. In total £450 was raised for the CAB.
President Geraldine sent a big thank you to all involved in making the ceilidh a success. People were dancing, laughing, having fun and raising money for a good cause at the same time.
The Christmas Chocolate Fair 2008
On Saturday 13th December, SI Grange-over-Sands held a Christmas Chocolate Fair in the Victoria Hall, organised by our Programme Action Officer, Emilia Giffney and many hard-working volunteers behind the scenes as well as on the day itself. The day, although wet proved to be hugely successful with a steady stream of visitors enticed by the smell of chocolate and the opportunity to support Shelterbox. Shelterbox provides humanitarian aid in the form of unique “Shelterboxes” which have inside a 10 man tent and other essential supplies for an extended family to survive for at least six months. This charity, supported by Rotary International, has provided emergency aid for over half a million people in more than 40 countries. Each box costs £490 and our aim was to raise enough money for two. The event raised £1700 which was a wonderful surprise.
There were plenty of activities for families to take part in, games and craft stalls, storytelling, refreshments and not forgetting Father Christmas who was very busy all day. The chocolate fountain and box decorating were very popular and visitors were splendidly entertained throughout the day by members of Cartmel Music Centre. The pictures give a flavour of the day.
NSPCC Bike Ride
In aid of President Geraldine’s charity, the NSPCC, a number of intrepid cyclists set off on on part of the Walney to Wear bicycle route on Saturday 30th August. The route took them along through Meathop and Ulpha to Gilpin Bridge, and after a lunch stop, back into Grange. At the same time club members walked along the prom collecting donations and the event was so successful that there are hopes it will be repeated. Everyone who took part, club members, husbands, children and grandchildren had a memorable day.
Diary 2009 - 2010
2009 - 2010 Programme
MAY 2009
Tuesday 5th Club Meeting
Fri-Sun 8th-10th Joint Regional Conference Castle Green Hotel, Kendal ‘Let’s Be Fair’
Sunday 31st Closing date - Regional President’s Rosebowl Competition
JUNE 2009
Tuesday 2nd Club Meeting
Saturday 13th Edwardian Festival
Saturday 20th Regional Meeting - Lancaster University
Sunday 21st Regional Lunch at Crofters Hotel
JULY 2009
Saturday 4th Progressive Dinner
Saturday 4th Annual Regional Walk
Tuesday 7th Club Meeting
Thurs-Tue 16th-21st Friendship Links Visit
Saturday 18th Club Outing
SEPT 2009
Tuesday 1st Club Meeting
Saturday 12th Regional Meeting - Lancaster University
Saturday 26th Musical Evening
** A Friendship Evening will be held in
September or October
OCT 2009
Thursday 1st Regional Fashion Show - Garstang GCC
Tuesday 6th Club Meeting
Saturday 10th Charter Lunch - Cartmel Racecourse
Saturday 17th Day of Reflection
Thurs-Sat 29th-31st Federation Conference - Cardiff
NOV 2009
Tuesday 3rd Club Meeting
Saturday 14th Regional Meeting - Lancaster University
DEC 2009
Tuesday 1st Club Meeting
date to be confirmed Christmas Party
JAN 2010
Tuesday 19th Club Meeting
FEB 2010
Tuesday 2nd Club Meeting
Saturday 27th Regional Meeting - Lancaster University
MARCH 2010
Tuesday 2nd Club Meeting
Tuesday 16th PA Open Meeting
APRIL 2010
Tuesday 13th Business / AGM
Tuesday 20th Change of Insignia
S I Grange-over-Sands Projects
SI Grange over Sands Projects
Each Soroptimist International club identifies the needs of its community, then establishes specific projects to address these needs. All our projects relate to one or more of the six Programme Focus Areas: Economic and Social Development, Education, Environment, Health, Human Rights and the Status of Women, and International Goodwill and Understanding.
More information is available in the Our Work pages, where you can read more about the current Programme Focus aims and the Quadrennial Project, supported by all clubs in the Federation.
The projects listed below include some of the local and international issues we research and support in SI Grange over Sands:
First Responders
First responders are trained volunteers who are sent out by the ambulance service if the ambulance is delayed because of a previous callout. The volunteers are sent out to people suffering heart prtoblems. They wait with patients until the ambulance arr
Two years ago it was decided to set up a local team as a programme action challenge. This was achieved by organising an open meeting, signing up local volunteers, obtaining grants and raising money by fundraising. The volunteers were trained and last year the Grange and District First Responders was up and running.
Monday 26 March is their first anniversary party
Fairtrade
Grange achieved Fairtrade Town Status in Spetember 2006
There was an open meeting at The Parish Hall in Grange in October 2005. Joe Human. who is chair of the Cumbria Fairtrade Network, was the speaker. There was a display of Fairtrade information, Fairtrade goods on sale and Fairtrade refreshments available.
At the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight in March 2006 a number of Grange Soroptimists went to a meeting in Keswick to celebrate Cumbria achieving Fairtrade County Status. George Alegiah posed for a picture with Grange Soroptimists.
As a result of a public meeting in March 2006 a committee was elected and work began to register names of individuals, businesses and organisations who support Fairtrade
Safe Houses
Items are collected by club members and are taken to safe houses locally twice a year
Wednesday Club
For several years club members have taken a young woman with Downes Syndrome from Grange to Ulverston to enjoy a weekly social club meeting
Grange Soroptimists work with Ladies’ Circle to provide this respite for carers. The project started with three young children. However, as time has passed, two of the children have grown up to achieve more independence
Mercy Ships
Mercy Ships, a global charity, has operated a growing fleet of hospital ships in developing nations since 1978.
This is one of President Jane’s charities for the year. Kay Rouse, who has spent time working with the charity during holidays, gave an inspirational talk to the club about the medical care given by volunteers. Before Kay came to the club an article in the local newspaper, Grange Now, resulted in an amazing number of new and nearly new sheets and blankets for the wards. Pens, paints and paper were also donated for children to use while they were either waiting for, or recovering from, treatment. Financial donations were also given.
Updates
Children’s Writing Workshop
Over 70 Year 5 children from five local primary schools were given the practical experience of how to write an exiting short story
On Tuesday 7 February over seventy year nine children from local schools attended a writing workshop with Alan Gibbons. This workshop was organised and funded by SI Grange over Sands and is an example of the club working pro actively with the community.
Alan Gibbons has been writing children’s books for 12 years. He is the winner of the Blue Peter Book Award 2000 for his best-selling book Shadow of the Minotaur. He has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2001 and 2003 and has won the Leicester Book of the Year Award. His books have been published in Japanese, German, Italian, French, Thai, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Swedish and other languages. So he knows what he is talking about!
The workshop addressed the current concerns with children’s writing in a wonderfully humorous style in combination with a very impressive, structured presentation. Alan Gibbons managed to keep the children absorbed for three hours. He began with telling them how he started writing and then gave them the bones of a story for them to write. ‘Ten thousand pounds.’(Two children, the narrator and a friend find a scratch card after dealing with a gang of bullies. The children then have the moral dilemma of whether or not to keep the card, having hidden it while they decide.) Alan broke the rest of the session into ten minute chunks, giving the children ideas on how to develop each situation, emphasising that the children needed to imagine how their character was feeling about the situation in which they found themselves. The children worked on their own, in pairs or in groups. At the end of the sessions Alan Gibbons taught the children some ‘scouse’ – he is from Liverpool, and told them the ‘official’ scouse version of Snow White. The children were ‘eating out of his hand’
The children will finish/polish the stories at school. Teachers will choose the best four from their school. Alan Gibbons will decide which of the stories is the overall winner and SI Grange over Sands will publish all of the short listed short stories in a booklet. Possibly with illustrations: Alan suggested that the children might like to develop the ideas in their stories by designing a film poster
Pictures from the session and examples of the work from the 5 schools will be displayed in the local library.
Children, teachers and helpers learnt a great deal from this three hour session. And everyone was entertained.
Aquabox
Aquabox containers can be bought via Rotary and then filled, ready to be sent to anywhere in the world where they are needed in a crisis
Aqua Boxes cost £50 to buy and about £120 to fill with a variety of emergency equipment. Once the box is emptied it becomes a water filter. Clean water is obviously vital for survival after any major catastrophe. Each Aquabox is given a number and its progress can be followed via the website.
This is the second Aquabox the club has sent
Sensory Garden
Several years ago Grange SI was involved with the planting of a Millennium garden in Grange Park.
The garden has been completely redesigned and several club members arranged to go along on March 16 to do all the planting. March 16 proved to be a bad choice with a heavy covering of snow obliterating everything. However the following week the planting was successfully carried out in glorious sunshine.
Friendship Links
SI Prague celebrated the club’s 10th anniversary in September 2005.
We have had a strong friendship link for the past nine years and six of us, President Jane, Sheila Phizacklea, Carol Edwards, Grete and Trevor Hughes and Mollie Bell set off on the train to Manchester Airport on Thursday 22nd September looking forward to what was a return visit for most of us to Prague. Collecting our luggage we were pleased to see that Kaija, a Soroptimist friend from Finland, and her husband Ese, had also arrived at the airport. A minibus took us to the Cloister Inn and we checked in. We had arranged to see Kaija and Esa for a meal on the first night. Going out to the hotel where Kaija and Ese were staying, we got hopelessly lost, but eventually found it. We had a very good meal in what looked like an undersea cavern
The next day we met Milada, President of SI Prague, in Wenceslas Square and she showed us some of the hidden parts of the city. We also travelled on the metro and visited the cemetery where many famous Czech people are buried, including Smetana, and Dvorak
In the evening we were taken by Vera and Katya to meet other guests from Italy, Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Slovakia and Finland. We were all going on a dinner cruise on the river Vltava. It was very exciting to see groups of Soroptimists from various parts of Europe came from different areas of Prague to converge at the meeting place by the river. It was a very pleasant evening with good company.
On Saturday we met our friends again and went on a guided tour of St Vitus Cathedral and other parts of the city. Later we went to an organ recital at a very old church, St. Martin by the Wall
In the evening there was a Gala Dinner at the Savoy Hotel with over 100 guests from many clubs in S.I. Europe. We were the only representatives from S.I.G.B.I. The evening started with a video presentation of club projects and important occasions in their ten year history. The presentation included many photographs from their visits to Grange. Candles were then lit by Milada, the outgoing President of SI Prague; Jana, the new President; Carol, on behalf of SI.G.B.I., and Suzana, as the founder President. After a delicious meal there was a raffle. There was also a stall of cards and gifts made by children with a variety of disabilities. There were some speeches, which Irena translated into English. At the end, several Presidents from the various countries gave greetings including President Jane. President Jane presented a cloth to President Milada. The cloth had been embroidered with the names of the two clubs, the Grange oystercatcher, and the names of the members of Grange club.
On Sunday we travelled by tram to meet Jana and the Luxemburg visitors and were taken to the castle. Later in the afternoon we spent time in the city shopping and going to other places of interest. In the evening we had an excellent meal at a nearby restaurant before walking to the Rudolfinum Concert Hall where we experienced a wonderful programme by the Russian Symphony Orchestra. This was part of the Prague Autumn Festival. There were several encores and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the lively performance.
Monday saw us out and about again, but going our separate ways this time. We all met up for lunch, then more shopping and a short rest before we went to the same restaurant as the night before, but this time Milada, Suzana, Jana and Irena joined us. It was a fitting end to our stay in this lovely city - to share a meal with our very good friends.
It was a memorable and happy occasion and we hope to repeat it in the not too distant future.
School in a box
Each box, put together by UNICEF, is used to set up a temporary school for up to 80 children in an emergency
A very successful New to You clothes sale held on January 26 2007 raised enough money to buy 2 Schools in Boxes. There was enough money left over to put towards President Sue’s Send a Cow Project.
Club News
Water, Wine and Wisdom
SI Grange celebrated World Water Day by taking up one of the ideas suggested in the Wateraid pack. There was wine, a Jacob’s join and three water-related quizzes. The first quiz was light-hearted, the second music related, with some fairly tenuous /entertaining links with water and the third was the meat of the evening with some thought-provoking statistics about water poverty in so many parts of the world. There was also a raffle to raise money for Wateraid. The evening was very enjoyable and informative.
Last updated
About our Club
We are a thriving club with nearly 50 members from a wide range of professions with diverse interests and skills allowing us to further the objects of Soroptimism through a variety of initiatives and events.
President’s message
Club Projects
Water, Wine and Wisdom