This year our club returned to the Dundas Golf and Country Club for our annual awards dinner. It was with great excitment that we met our recipients:

Ruby Award: Leanne Kilby, Executive Director, Elizabeth Fry Society, Hamilton Branch. This newly named award, formally titled Making a Difference for Women, is in recognition of professional service that impacts the community.

The Elizabeth Fry Society works with and for women and girls in the justice system, particularly those who are, or may be, criminalized; based in the community, the Elizabeth Fry Society is committed to seeking out and organizing community resources to give humane assistance to women in contact with the legal system; assisting them in making positive choices in their lives; and monitoring the judicial and corrections systems to promote improvements when and where possible.

Violet Richardson Award: This award is presented to a young lady between the ages of 14 and 17 years – who has undertaken exemplary voluntary work within the community or their school and applications this year were received from schools in the Dundas, Ancaster and Flamborough area.

This year our winner has given much of her time to her school’s Girls Athletic Association – but more than that, through the Association she has learned to recognise that not all girls have the kind of athletic ability the Association would generally attract. So she set about helping the Association to encourage those lesser athletic girls to participate in non competitive and competitive but healthy activities like yoga, and team sports at their level.  By doing this she hopes that a more diverse selection of girls will participate in sport, which in turn will help build confidence and improve leadership skills.

The winner of the Violet Richardson Award this year is Colleen Wilson of Ancaster High School who will receive a cheque for $300. A second cheque for $200 is given to the charity of Colleen’s choice and, understandably, she has chosen the Ancaster High School Girls Athletic Association. This cheque will be accepted by Jessica Ross, Executive Member, on behalf of the Association.

Women’s Opportunity Award: This award is given to financially help a woman who is the head of her household (providing primary financial support for the family) and who is undertaking an educational course or has been accepted on an educational course, which once completed should help increase her employment prospects. This is a signature award for Soroptimist International, and honours women throughout the world.

This year our winner, Sarah Rutherford, is currently taking a course to qualify as a Personal Support Worker. Over a number of years she has managed to overcome many extremely difficult personal obstacles, whilst at the same time admirably bringing up her two children (both of whom joined us for dinner). Her perseverance to overcome her problems one at a time should be an inspiration to all women and we wish her and her girls well for the future.

Our club would like to extend a special word of thanks to the volunteer judges for the Women’s Opportunity Award, Dr. Heather Sheardown, McMaster University, Judith Johnson, United Church of Canada, and Deborah Martin, Interval House. In addition, we’d like to recognize the tireless work of the award standing committee who advertised the competition by hand delivering notices to all the local schools, colleges and universities, followed up with potential applicants and judged the Violet Richardson award: Pauline Hardcastle (Chair), Kim Gordon, Lynda Switzer and Janet Barnard.

This year, we’re trying something new – Thursday May 20th is Trivia Night! Come join us to see if your Team can get all the answers & Win! We’ll be grouping you up in teams of eight (8) or BYOT (bring your own team). No previous experience required.

Your $25 ticket price includes all your Game Cards, Munchies, and Prizes!  There will also be a cash bar, raffles and 50:50 draw.

See you at the Royal Canadian Legion in Dundas. Doors open at 6pm with the games to start at 7. Find out more about Trivia-Night through our flyer »

SI Hamilton-Burlington, one of our sister clubs, partnered with the Hamilton Public Library to sell off recent discards. This gigantic semi-annual book sale has bargain prices of 25c to $5. The tables were restocked continually and divided into fiction, paperbacks, children and teen books, music, hobbies, health, biographies, wide print and many more categories to root through.

Your generous funds are shared between Soroptimist and the Hamilton library to help defray their operation costs. This Spring, the sale raised over $20,000 – thank you to everyone who participated. For more information about the next sale, visit www.hpl.ca »

This year’s YWCA celebration will be held on Tuesday May 4th, 5:30 pm at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Award recipients, as well as all nominees, will be honoured for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the community. Tickets are $75, or $750 for a table. Call for reservations »

We were delighted to have program co-ordinator, Kim Thompson and Dianne Chesebrough, a graduate of the Encore program, as our guests. With careless abandon of our chairs, we were up and performing Zoomba dance moves, stretches and draining the lymph from our upper body.

The lymphatic system is a complex network of vessels and ducts that move fluid throughout the body and is responsible for moving toxins away from healthy cells and carrying white blood cells to areas of the body under attack by viruses. Though fluid moves through the lymphatic system, it does not have its own pumping mechanism but instead uses the motion of your muscles. Lymphedema, also known as lymphatic obstruction, is a condition of localized fluid retention and tissue swelling caused by a compromised lymphatic system; it is a common source of discomfort for those who have undergone breast cancer surgery.

The free Encore program is designed specifically to help recover from post-surgery breast cancer treatments. It entails 2 hours per week over a 9-week period. It begins with an hour seminar and nutritious snack, followed by 30 minutes of exercises on land and then another half hour in the pool. Our commitment will help the YWCA to meet their goal of offering 4 to 6 sessions per year at the downtown Hamilton centre. For more information, visit their website »

Soroptimist member Blanca Pena was recently featured in the Flamborough Review:

When Blanca Pena learned that a group of local nurses was going on a medical mission to Kenya this spring, she couldn’t wait to sign on as a volunteer.

“This is something I’ve been waiting for all my life,” said the owner of Blanca’s Aesthetics on Mill Street South. Although she isn’t a nurse, she has considerable experience in the medical field, having volunteered for five years on the surgical ward of a hospital in her native Colombia. Pena, who noted she has doctors in her family, said she once had aspirations to be a doctor but “never had a chance.” But her volunteer work included taking blood from patients and handing instruments to doctors during surgery.

“I’m not attracted to building schools; I wanted to do something in the medical field,” she said during a recent interview.

Registered Nurse Gail Wolters (left) and Blanca Pena show off the gift basket that donors to Nurses For Africa have a chance to win. Photo by Dianne Cornish, Review

When she met longtime R.N. Gail Wolters of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington at a fundraiser last year, she was told about Nurses For Africa, a grassroots group of Canadian nurses partnering with nurses in Kenya in order to provide medical care to those in need. Wolters, who founded the organization about three years ago, said she and seven other nurses traveled to the Kakamega region in western Kenya last May to provide medical care to those living in extreme poverty.

“We saved lives, no question,” Wolters said of the trip during which clinics were set up in schools, churches and open fields. Kenyans in need of medical aid walked for many miles and stood in long lineups to see the nurses, who tended to a variety of ailments including malaria, upper respiratory illnesses, typhoid and parasitic diseases. Wolters estimated the team treated about 2,500 people during their seven-day visit.

About $12,000 was raised to purchase medical supplies and medications for the inaugural trip. Some of the donations were used to pay hospital fees for the critically ill who came to the field mission.

This year, members of the mission group want to raise about $20,000 to broaden the scope of their work. Besides purchasing medications, dressing supplies, stethoscopes and portable blood pressure cuffs, they want to provide sexual health education to help in the fight against HIV and they want to see and treat more people. “We hope to have more financial resources to treat people, especially the infants,” said Wolters.

A number of fundraisers, including a concert, dinner/ dance, silent auction and jewellery party, have already been held for the upcoming mission that will run from April 30 to May 12. But Pena, who will help out by registering patients, packaging medication and taking vital signs of those attending the clinic, has come up with another money-making venture.

With the help of Sandy Gray, co-owner of Weeks Home Hardware, Pena is offering a “Wine and Dine” gift basket valued at $200 to those who make a donation to Nurses For Africa. Everyone who makes a donation has a chance to win the basket, which contains four crystal wine glasses, a wine decanter, two bottles of fine wine, two chocolate bars, and gift certificates for The Keg, Royal Coachman and Turtle Jacks. The draw will be held Saturday, April 24.

Gray donated about 70 per cent of the basket’s contents, said Pena. She also donated a Kenyan flag to help with additional fundraising for the nurses’ group.

Donations can be dropped off at Pena’s aesthetics salon or Weeks Home Hardware on Hamilton Street North. For more information about the mission group, e-mail nursesforafrica@gmail.com or call 905-335-2157.

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to Joan Sturch and Dian Kuzyk.  They joined us this last month at the Dutch Mill & Country Market to share their adventures on the Friendship Grant in Australia. We were dazzled and amazed by the beauty of the countryside and the generosity of their guides.

Dian Kuzyk and I travelled to the Soroptimist Region of South Queensland, Australia part of Federation of Soroptimimst International of the Southwest Pacific.  Our “Grant of Friendship” saw us spend three weeks in Australia, being home hosted by members of the following clubs:  SI Brisbane South, SI Beenleigh, SI Toowoomba, SI Gold Coast, SI Bayside, SI Pine Rivers, SI Logan, SI Brisbane North.

We spent three or four days at each club and were toured around to various historic, cultural and natural sites.  Some of the places visited and activities done:  Brisbane Botanic Gardens; Mount Tamborine (scenic lookout), Rocky Point Mill – sugar cane operation; Toowoomba Festival of Flowers; Lamington National Park in the Green Mountains (nature walk); North Stradbroke Island for swimming and a “barby”; Brisbane Art Gallery; Brisbane Symphony Orchestra performance; Brisbane city tour; Australia Zoo; John Oxley Reserve nature walk and Osprey House visit, to name just a few!

We were kept very busy and were entertained so well that Dian and I started to call ourselves the “Queens of Queensland!”  Our Soroptimist host clubs and members were the nicest and most welcoming of anyone you could ever meet.

We were also entertained with potluck dinners and lunches, getting the chance to meet sister Soroptimists.  We talked about our Canadian programmes and they shared theirs with us.  The conclusion is that even though we are a “world apart” geographically, we are so much the same, as women.  Our goals are the same as sister Soroptimists too; helping to improve the lives of women and girls! – Joan Sturch

Thank you also to Sandy and her daughter Erin, who made Valentines earrings ($4-5 per pair).  All proceeds from sales will be split between the Flamborough Women’s Resource Centre and our club!  Great gift not only for yourself but your special friends, family or deserving co-workers! View more online »

To honour the women of our club on International Women’s Day, recognized annually on March 8th, at the last meeting each of our members was given a red carnation by Vice-President Shirley, after being grilled on a “did you know” cross-word about the rich history of this day. Here’s an excerpt about how it started:

100 years ago, a woman named Clara Zetkin had a dream.  She was the leader of the “Women’s Office” for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, and she was bothered by the lack of rights for women both in her country and around the world.  At that time, women in most countries did not have the right to vote.  Clara was one of many women around the world working to change that.

Clara’s dream was that in every year in every country around the world there should be a celebration on the same day—a women’s day.  It would be a day when women would gather together and advocate for their rights.  She pitched her idea at the second International Conference of Working Women being held in Copenhagen, Denmark that year.  And her suggestion was met with unanimous approval.

One year later, Clara helped organize the first International Women’s Day.  Its success exceeded all expectations—and 100 years later, we continue to celebrate it each year on March 8.  Read more on President Kathy’s blog »

This past Friday, a celebration of International Womens Day was held at McMaster University in the Student Centre atrium. This one day event was organised by female students and Soroptimist member Pauline was one of two local artists asked to display work. The day included a yoga display, a demonstration of modern dance and several singing artists.  The students also had table for donations to the YWCA which also displayed some of their many programs and projects.

How are you celebrating this year?