Author Archive: soropadmin

25th Anniversary and Awards Night

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This year, Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough (SIDAF) celebrates its 25th anniversary, having been chartered in May 1987. We are women at their best helping other women achieve their best, and we have been doing so locally for a quarter of a century!

Soroptimist International is a worldwide organization for women in management and professions, working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women. With almost 90,000 members in over 125 countries and territories, it is the world’s largest classified service organization for executive and professional women. It was our great pleasure to welcome our newest member, Christine, at our anniversary dinner.

Soroptimists work together with groups and individuals to help women and girls in our local communities of Dundas, Ancaster & Flamborough, and throughout the world. Together, we focus on issues such as domestic violence, poverty, lack of adequate child care, sexual harassment, inequities in the workplace, and other challenges unique to today’s women. Through our major fundraisers such as our Christmas Loonie Toonie Auction in November, our service work with local organizations such as Wesley Urban Ministries, the YWCA, and Drummond House, our support of initiatives such as Christmas hampers through the Salvation Army and Hamilton Basketeers, and participating in the Ancaster Food Drive and the Alzheimer Walk for Memories, we strive to raise awareness and serve the needs of women and girls.

In the attached photo are our award winners, from left to right: Crystal Dainard, Samantha Pirrera, Tambu Kahari, Jasmin Goldstein; Club President Shirley Eden, Cathy Braden


This year our anniversary celebration was held jointly with our annual Awards Night at Copetown Woods Golf & Country Club. Our amazing award-winning women are:
Ruby Award – Cathy Braden
Women’s Opportunity Award (WOA) – Samantha Pirrera
WOA Runners-up – Tambu Kahari; Crystal Dainard
Violet Richardson Award – Jasmin Goldstein

Congratulations to our winners, and to all our applicants and the wonderful women in our communities.

Free Hugs in Simcoe

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Our 80th Soroptimist International of the Americas, Eastern Canada Region, Regional Spring Conference was opened this morning with an inspirational video. It is a joyful and uplifting experience to watch. I recommend you take a few minutes:

In July 2011, volunteers and community partners in both Simcoe and Brantford Ontario Canada joined forces to host several FREE HUGS celebrations!

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Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

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Our 3rd Annual Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader: Trivia Night took place at the Waterdown Legion on April 18th. This wonderful venue hosted over 120 persons who were all there with their “Mensa” hats on to show off their trivia knowledge! The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams went away with prizes and happy egos! The 50/50 draw was popular this year, and was won by Karen Dolyniuk, a SIDAF friend. The fundraising aspect of the night was a great success, as over $6,000 was raised to go toward local programs for women and girls. The major prizes were a “Basket of Booze” (won by a YWCA staff person) and a Gourmet Chef Dinner, An Evening with Chef Guerin Sykes (won by Denise Doyle of the YWCA).

The funds raised for those prizes will be going directly to the YWCA Hamilton Encore Program, a post- breast cancer surgery exercise program. The YWCA Hamilton Encore program received seed funding from SIDAF and we continue to support it through events such as this. Thanks to everyone who attended, and our wonderful sponsors, for a fun and rewarding evening.

In the first photo, Ann Marie Collingwood is seen accepting the Gourmet Dinner prize from SIDAF President Shirley Eden on behalf of the winner Denise Doyle. In the second photo, Karen Dolyniuk is seen accepting her 50/50 prize from SIDAF president Shirley Eden. Thank you to Kim at Vitality Source Fitness for posting on FaceBook about how much the Encore participants enjoyed the event.

In the next 3 photos can be seen the top three placing teams, Team Jane Oulton (1st place), Team Watson (2nd place) and Team Unseen Academicals (3rd Place).

Lifetime Achievement Award and OBA Nominees

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On February 25th, the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce honoured Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough (SIDAF) at their Outstanding Business Achievement (OBA) Awards Gala in several ways. SIDAF member Sandy Gray and her husband Steve (recently retired as owners of Weeks Home Hardware in Waterdown) were recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award, two other SIDAF members were nominated for OBA awards (Maria Demkowich of JDJ Trailers and Shirley Eden, President of SIDAF), and SIDAF itself was recognized with a special Community Recognition Award.

Sandy Gray and Steve, along with Sandy’s brother Dave Smith, bought Weeks Home Hardware from their parents George & June Smith in January 1987. According to Arend Kersten, Executive Director of the FCC, “Over the past 24 years, Weeks Home Hardware has helped define the very soul of our incredible ‘community of communities’ with outstanding generosity and community involvement.” When asked why she chose to become a member of Soroptimist International and SIDAF in addition to all of her other interests, Sandy credited her passionate desire to help others through both her business and personal connections, especially women facing barriers to achieving their goals.


This photo was taken at the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Achievement Awards (OBA) Gala, from left to right: SIDAF members Nancy Davidson, Shirley McCoy, Janet Barnard, Sandy Gray (winner, Lifetime Achievement Award), Pauline Hardcastle, Shirley Eden (OBA Nominee) and Maria Demkowich (OBA Nominee). Thank you also to the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce for featuring our club in the Bottom Line, March 2012.

Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough is proud of Sandy, Maria and Shirley, and grateful to the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce for their Community Recognition Award.

International Women’s Day

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March 8, celebrates International Women’s Day. The UN Theme will be prominent at this year’s Caucus on the Status of Women: Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty. The Canadian federal agency, Status of Women, is closely aligned in its theme by highlighting some of the issues that we still face as a country: Strong Women, Strong Canada – Women in Rural, Remote and Northern Communities: Key to Canada’s Economic Prosperity:

In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on member states to proclaim a day for women’s rights and international peace. Following the United Nations’ lead, Canada chose March 8 as International Women’s Day.

Each year at this time, Canadians celebrate progress toward equality for women and their full participation, reflect on the challenges and barriers that remain, and consider future steps to achieving equality for all women, in all aspects of their lives.

(Reference March 8, 2012: http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/iwd-jif/index-eng.html)

In celebration of this day, Soroptimist International of the Americas announced and congratulates all the participants of the Soroptimist Live Your Dream Art Contest, and to those winners! View them online:

http://www.soroptimist.org/LiveYourDream/art_contest/winners.html

Outstanding Business Achievement Awards

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On February 25th, the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce honoured Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough (SIDAF) at their Outstanding Business Achievement (OBA) Awards Gala in several ways.  SIDAF member Sandy Gray and her husband Steve (recently retired as owners of Weeks Home Hardware in Waterdown) were recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award, two other SIDAF members were nominated for OBA awards (Maria Demkowich of JDJ Trailers and Shirley Eden, President of SIDAF), and SIDAF itself was recognized with a special Community Recognition Award.

Sandy Gray and Steve, along with Sandy’s brother Dave Smith, bought Weeks Home Hardware from their parents George & June Smith in January 1987. According to Arend Kersten, Executive Director of the FCC, “Over the past 24 years, Weeks Home Hardware has helped define the very soul of our incredible ‘community of communities’ with outstanding generosity and community involvement.” When asked why she chose to become a member of Soroptimist International and SIDAF in addition to all of her other interests, Sandy credited her passionate desire to help others through both her business and personal connections, especially women facing barriers to achieving their goals.


Photo taken at the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Achievement Awards (OBA) Gala, from left to right:  SIDAF members Nancy Davidson, Shirley McCoy, Janet Barnard, Sandy Gray (winner, Lifetime Achievement Award), Pauline Hardcastle, Shirley Eden (OBA Nominee) and Maria Demkowich (OBA Nominee).

Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough (SIDAF) is a volunteer organization of business and professional women.  A Soroptimist 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. With almost 90,000 members in over 125 countries and territories, it is the world’s largest classified service organization for executive and professional women. Our website is www.soroptimistdaf.ca

Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough is proud of Sandy, Maria and Shirley, and grateful to the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce for their Community Recognition Award.

Pathways and Barriers

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McMaster has partnered with the St. Joseph Immigrant Women’s Centre to display the Pathways and Barriers Photovoice Project. In this project, Somali peer support workers share their experiences with immigration and settlement through photographs. The exhibition is displayed in the President’s Corridor, 2nd floor of Gilmour Hall, McMaster University and will be there for the month of March, 2012.

For more information about Pathways and Barriers, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Spectator published a story in October 2011 »

4th Annual Live Your Dream Art Contest

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The fourth annual Soroptimist Live Your Dream Art Contest is open for judging. The contest calls on students to visually depict the dreams and accomplishments of women. The contest winners are revealed and celebrated on March 8th, International Women’s Day.

This year, more than 2,000 children from around the world, including Japan, Taiwan, Guam, Mexico, South Korea, and the U.S., participated in the contest. The winners will receive $100 for themselves and another $100 for their schools.

A group of professional judges was charged with the challenge of narrowing down the entries to three finalists in each category (Ages 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18). Now, it’s up to us to choose the winners …

Visit LiveYourDreamCampaign.org and vote for your favorites now! Voting is open to the public, so tell your friends.

Ancaster Food Drive

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February is a particularly hard time for the food agencies serving our community. There is a strong need in December but that need continues all year long. Over 79,000 pounds and $8,000 of food was collected last year, a record in the 19 years of running the food drive.

For the past 19 years the community has come together with many hands and have packaged over 1 Million pounds of food for those in need. The magnitude of that generosity is astounding but volunteers are needed again this year, especially to donate and collect food. On Saturday February 25th volunteers return door to door to collect donations. The collection will take about 2 – 3 hours with most “routes” producing an overflowing trunk-load of food. At St. John’s Anglican Church, Parish Hall, 37 Halson St in Ancaster there will be two shifts for sorting and packaging the donations: 9 – 12 a.m. and 12 – 3 p.m. VIEW THE MAP »

The agency urgently needs volunteers to load up the trucks on Monday Feb 27, 8 a.m. when the food goes to the local food banks. The need is great and together we can make this a successful effort. For more information, contact: Ancaster Community Services & Information 905-648-6675 or ancastercommunityfooddrive@gmail.com.

Our Soroptimist members will be there in their blue and white T-shirts to help sort and pack the generous donations!  As in past years, we will be presenting a club donation (Ladies, please be there for a Photo-Op at 9am).

UPDATE:
On Saturday, February 25, 2012, hundreds of volunteers canvassed door to door throughout the community collecting a record total of 80,500 lbs of food and $7000 in cash donations.  Over it’s 20-year history, the Ancaster Food Drive reached an amazing total of 1,120,500 pounds of food going to our food serving agencies. Thank you to the people of Ancaster for their big-heartedness and overwhelming support. – Organizing Committee Ancaster Community Food Drive

Crossing the Starting Line

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Members of Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough (SIDAF) participated in the annual “Walk For Memories” , a fundraiser by the Alzheimer Society of Hamilton & Halton, on Sunday January 29th. SIDAF enters a team every year, helping to raise both awareness and funds for the programs and services of the Alzheimer Society.

SIDAF, a women’s volunteer organization that raises money to support programs for women and girls in our local communities, knows that Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias cross all genders, cultures and economic groups, but that women are more often diagnosed, and most often face the challenges of caregiving. SIDAF is proud to support the Alzheimer Society and to “Walk for Memories”, and this year raised $1150 to help out this wonderful organization.

In the photo, SIDAF members Pauline Johnson, Jane Oulton, Sandy Gray, and Janet Barnard are seen crossing the starting line behind Emcee for the day, Connie Smith, youngest SIDAF volunteer Evelyn Hall (granddaughter of Sandy Gray), and Mary Burnett, CEO of the Alzheimer Society of Hamilton and Halton.