SI Chelmsford

 

The Chelmsford club was formed in 1951. It meets on the fourth Thursday of the month in the Council Chamber of Springfield Parish Centre, Chelmsford.

Margaret Hyde is embarking on her second year in office as the club's President.

 

Club Breaking News...

Club member, Yvonne Jaques toured the Region in her Messerschmitt. Leaving from Chelmsford, she travelled to Braintree, Halstead, Colchester, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich, King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth, Southend, East London and Enfield. The trip had been devised to raise money for the International project - Project SIerra - a four-year partnership between Soroptimist International and Hope and Homes for Children which aims to raise over £1 million to transform the lives of some of the most deprived women and children in the world.

The idea was to try to guess the mileage that the 200cc engined car would complete. There was a £1 charge to enter the competition and a £10 prize for the person who correctly quessed that the total mileage was 462.

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Other Projects

The club is working on a number of Programme Action projects. Programme Action officer, Marie-Louise Dudley reports:

• At a local level, we raised sponsorship for a walk round Maldon and Heybridge, raising £730 for our President’s charity, Women’s Aid.

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  We continue to try to ban the free issue of plastic carrier bags. MPs have been lobbied, as have the major supermarkets. This issue has been gathering momentum over the last few years and radical changes are now being introduced nationally.

• Further lobbying was made on the Sustainable Communities Bill

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  We supported a motion to the Federation conference at Harrogate last October on the issue of raising the age of consent to 18 for the use of sun beds. We lobbied our MPs and received responses that they were also in favour of this.

       

We took part in a number of international campaigns.

• A quiz was devised and sheets sold for £1 each. A total of £235 was raised and sent on to Project SIerra.

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  The Club took part in the Samaritan's Purse - Operation Christmas Child. A total of 12 shoe boxes were filled and sent out to Belarus for distribution to young girls.

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  An ongoing project is Knitting for Africa. We heard that blankets are in short supply in Africa and it is often the children who go without. We responded to a request for child-size blankets to be knitted from squares. To date, we have completed enough squares for two blankets, which are in the process of being made up. In addition, we were given a ready made crotchet blanket so will be able to forward three blankets to the knitting4charity project.

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  We also aim to raise the profile of the club and illustrate the type of work we are doing to schoolchildren in a fund-raising venture. We heard about a Brazilian village who are trying to replace lost beehives and set up a sustainable enterprise selling honey. This is currently in the planning phase but the idea is to demonstrate the beekeeping project to local schools. This will meet educational targets in both science and environmental studies. In exchange, it is hoped that the pupils will be willing to donate a good quality toy that we can then sell at a table top sale. Funds raised will be sent on to the Brazilian venture.

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  On a more personal level, a number of us have revisited the home energy project that was rolled out in Chelmsford a few years ago. This project is a personal appraisal of energy output from our homes. It is designed to remind us of our carbon footprint and to try and reduce our output and save funds at the same time. Other clubs in the Region have agreed to take part as well.

        Other projects we have been involved with:

• We contributed to the recycling of old and broken jewellery which has been forwarded to Wales South Region in support of their Licking Lassa Fever campaign.

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  Breast cancer pink walk which we did around the Serpentine last September in conjunction with London Chilterns Region.

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  The Pyramid of Shoes

  Our club participated in the Pyramid of Shoes at Harrogate Conference to support Handicap International. It was in 2004 that we were awarded the Federation's Good Practice Award for our work on the Pyramid of Shoes in Trafalgar Square with Handicap International.
  

There are a number of things planned throughout the summer, including the annual garden party in July and a visit by 15 members of our new Friendship Link club, Bad Oeynhausen, in Germany in September.

 

Further information on SI Chelmsford will be available on their website shortly.