Thank you Barb for hosting the ad hoc by-law committee meeting at your cottage up north. We built on the momentum of the recent President’s weekend (which Barb attended on Aug 8) and reviewed Eastern Canada Region’s strategic plan for next year and information / events they want us to consider at the club level.
Very fruitful and we look forward to presenting the proposed changes in the coming months.
The Flamborough Chamber of Commerce had its second annual Mini-Putt tournament on Wednesday August 19th at 5:30 pm at Rock Chapel Golf Centre on Highway #5, just west of Highway #6 in Flamborough. The all inclusive cost of $25.00 each included golf and a ‘party on the patio’ with pizza & appetizers at Boston Pizza in Waterdown afterwards.
SI-DAF had two teams, who were featured in the FCC publication, the Bottom Line (page 9). Congratulations again to FCC Past President, Sandy Gray of Weeks Home Hardware, as ladies champion at the second annual Great Flamborough Mini Putt Challenge. Her Soroptimist Club teammates included Elizabeth Falcone, Shirley Eden and Blanca Pena. FCC Treasurer Janet Barnard and her husband Paul were joined by Soroptimists Shirley McCoy and Alice France.
Ever thought you should clean out your jewellery box but don’t want to go to Toronto to see some guy on tv OR who would trust a mail in company? Does relaxing at a friends house, enjoying a refreshment or two, chat a bit, have an appetizer or two and when you go home, leave with more money then you came with sound better? Well now there is Gold Party Princess!
What is Gold Party Princess? You may have seen them on CTV, Global or in the newspaper, Gold Party Princess is an opportunity for you to turn unwanted gold (yellow gold, white gold, rose gold & Platinum) into CASH! That is right, you are invited to come to a fun social evening where you won’t have to buy anything and you will be selling your unwanted gold items.
Sandy & Brooke are co-hosting the event on July 31 and we will have a qualified rep from Gold Party Princess who will evaluate & weigh your gold and offer you money on the spot! You can bring broken chains, single earrings, stuff from your ex-boyfriend, dented jewellery or even gold teeth; jewellery with stones can also be evaluated and stones can sometimes be removed on the spot.
A prize will be awarded for the gaudiest piece of jewellery, weirdest item or the best story. Valid government issued identification (like a drivers license) will be necessary to sell your gold as this is a requirement when dealing with second hand goods.
Refreshments will be served! You may bring a friend, but you must RSVP as soon as possible as space is limited.
This is a community service event by Soroptimist International of Dundas, Ancaster Flamborough and Gold Party Princess will also make a contribution to our club! If you can not make this event but would have liked to, we plan to host one again in January.
When the Waterdown Rotary Club offered ‘grants’ to local individuals or service clubs with interesting ideas of how they could put a sum of money to work, Sandy at SI-DAF jumped at the opportunity to receive a portion of this funding. We were all the more grateful when they announced us as one of the winners!
Our plan is to use the funding to help women who are moving on after their stay at Drummond House in Flamborough (a local organization offering temporary housing with practical assistance and compassionate care) by providing them with a little extra financial assistance in their next step of their personal independence. The club’s goal is to take the $500.00 granted to them by the Waterdown Rotary Club and add to it via personal contributions from not only club members, but also from people: right here in our community who also would like to help make a difference.
The goal it to first double or triple the initial amount before the club’s members will then approach local area businesses to purchase gift cards for the ladies. At that time they are hoping the merchants will further contribute to this by providing additional contributions of even more gift cards.
If you would like to contribute to this endeavour, cash or cheques (payable to SI DAF) may be dropped off at Weeks Hardware to Sandy’s attention: income tax receipts can be made available.
SI-DAF President, Barb McCoy, spoke about the Soroptimist organization to the Retired Women’s Teachers of Ontario. Barb did an excellent job of speaking at their Breakfast by the Bay meeting at Geraldo’s at La Salle Park on May 13th. Following the meeting, a donation was collected and shared between Soroptimist and a local women’s shelter. We’d like to thank them for their generous donation of $255.70.
Retired Women’s Teachers of Ontario (RWTO: Hamilton- Wentworth branch) organization continues to “extend a helping hand to organizations and charities that are assisting women and children” as well as providing a strong communication network and opportunities for interaction among retired women teachers.
We would like to thank the Lions Club of Waterdown for inviting our Chair of Public Relations, Brooke Gordon, to speak at their May dinner meeting.
Brooke shared information about the programs SI-DAF support including joint projects with other Lions Clubs, and the benefit of Soroptimists to our community. The Lion’s were kind enough to invite many guests to the evening, including our handout in their minutes to share with their whole membership, and also for Lion Jeannette’s donation of clothing in support of the YWCA Friends for Success program.
If you would like to learn more about local women’s projects in the Dundas-Ancaster-Flamborough community, we welcome you to contact us »
You are invited to take the June 2009 Soroptimist Snapshot online survey. Look for the link in your email this week.
There are just 7 quick questions and should only take about 5 minutes of your time. The intent of this survey is to gauge interest and satsifaction in their quarterly publication of the Best for Women magazine. Some of the questions are multiple choice with an opportunity to write what you’d like see improved in future editions. I find the most helpful section is the Renaissance Campaign tips/tricks. They are very helpful for SOLT and generate new ideas for the committee chairs.
For more information on the results, visit the Soroptimist International of the America’s membership section in the members area (scroll to the very bottom: Soroptimist Snapshot Survey Reports and open the MSWord docs).
There are also polls in the general members area that you can participate in (see the right side panel). One example is: Would your club pay a nominal fee for customized services from headquarters (e.g., personalized ads and brochures, meeting planning)? As of today there have been 596 votes: Yes 47% | No 53%. What’s your opinion?
Wonderful news from S.I. Eastern Canada Region – we have a new club to charter in York Region and the best news yet is our numbers now register over 300! FYI for our newer members, we needed to get our numbers up to maintain a separate Region. If we stayed below 300 members there was the possibility of having to join with Western Canada or even part of the northern States!
Thanks to all of our members for the wonderful job of recruiting. Soroptimist is growing and it is a privilege to tell other women about the wonderful work we do and give them the opportunity to share in the sense of community and support we share with other women and girls. Yes we really do rock!
Barb
The members of Soroptimist International of Dundas-Ancaster-Flamborough were very excited to hand out $2,500 in bursaries to women in our community.
Debra Tigchelaar, Executive Director of Drummond House was recognized for Making a Difference
Our awards ceremoney was held on Thursday, May 7 at the Dundas Golf & Curling Club where the Making a Difference for Women Award was given to Debra Tigchelaar for her contribution and dedication to Drummond House in Flamborough.
Congratualtions to our Violet Richardson award winner, Elizabeth
The Violet Richardson Award is given to honour young women age 14 -17 engaged in volunteer action within their communities or schools. This year’s award was given to Elizabeth Austerberry from Parkside High in Dundas who volunteers with the Junior Civitan Club and answers letters to Santa for Canada Post. She recieved $300 and a further $200 was donated to the Civitans in her honour.
Congratulations Edith, our Womens Opportunity Award winner
The Women’s Opportunity Award is given to a female heads of households who need additional skills, training and education to enable them to upgrade their employment status to re-enter the workforce so they can provide adequately for themselves and their families. This is a signature award for Soroptimist International, which has provided over $17M to 25,000 women since it’s inception in 1972. This year’s bursary for $2,000 went to Edith Kaggwa, a mother of four who has been accepted to the Mo-Mac nursing program.
Two of our members were honoured for 20 years of service: Nancy Davidson and Shirley McCoy; Jane Oulton is a charter member of our club from 1984
We were also delighted to honour three of our club members: Jane Oulton who is a charter member from the original club that started in 1987 with 22 members; Nancy Davidson and Shirley McCoy have served with us for 20 years. A Soroptimist is a leader in her community. She believes that by joining with other women and engaging in awareness, advocacy and action in the service of her community and society, she can make the world a better place for humankind.
Pick up any women’s magazine and you’ll see a model or celebrity on the cover with smooth and flawless skin, polished teeth and perfect curves. It’s hard not to look at those images and become discouraged because you feel like you’ll never “look like that”. How much worse could you feel if you were a teenager undergoing body changes and trying to “look good” for boys?
Kim Kardashian posted the before and after shots on her Web site.
These models have been literally modified by the magic of “Photoshopping,” and one celebrity spoke out about what she really looks like. Kim Kardashian did a photo shoot for the April/May cover of Complex magazine. When the original picture leaked onto the Internet, she decided to post that picture on her blog next to the retouched version that was intended for the magazine. The differences are pretty significant – they took inches off of Kim’s legs (removing all cellulite), made her waist smaller (look at her arm) and brightened her skin. She writes “I’m proud of my body and my curves and this picture coming out is probably helpful for everyone to see that just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn’t mean I’m perfect.”
To draw attention to the issue of photoshopping, Dove released this video. While we all understand the magic of makeup, the modifications to her neck and eyes really speaks to the gap between perception and body image, especially among young girls:
Sadly, that message starts even earlier. Bratz Dolls are designed for girls ages 6 and up. They have an interactive website with bios for each girl (Cloe’s pose is particularly offensive »). The narrow waist, long skinny legs and oversized eyes and lips all create a distorted perception of how your body should look.
Bratz Fashion Dolls and Barbie - who looks like that?
By comparison, a year ago SI-DAF was one of the sponsors for the Beautiful Women Project, created by Cheryl-Ann Webster, which is a teaching and healing tool for women and girls, men and boys. The project is a touring art exhibition of 120 clay torsos of real women, aged nineteen to ninety-one.
Image courtesy of Cheryl-Ann Webster, creator of the Beautiful Women Project
Their mission is to raise awareness about the link between self-worth, self-identity and physical appearance. Webster’s artwork is accompanied by motivational and educational presentations, workshops and resource materials suitable for a broad range of participants.
