The keynote speaker at the Eastern Conference Region Spring Conference came to share with us an opportunity to mentor young women. Susan Gilbey from SI Westminster in California returned to her home town of Montreal to share with our Region the concepts and process to start an S Club for High School Girls or Sigma Societies for College age women.

These charters are different because there is no need to report to SIA nor dues. Instead, it is considered a service project (program focus reports). Events should be funded by the SIA Club as the sponsor and align with the SIA-overview of programs. Some ideas are: Teen-Dating & Violence as a keynote theme, Self Esteem/Self Defense, Career Day workshop with the English & Career Councillors, Leadership skills, and teaching mentorship by connecting to Girl Guides (Brownies or Sparks).

It is critical to build safety and professionalism through mentoring, particularly in parliamentary procedure and committee decorum. Being a member of the club can be tied to their Ontario requirement of 40 hours of service. There are some critical concepts to keep in mind when starting one of these venture clubs:

• Be Flexible with Expectations & Requirements (i.e. faculty advisor)
• Promote Civic Engagement, Activism, Community Involvement & Participation
• Develop Leadership Skills and Compassion
• Adapt to Local, Specific Situation (i.e. inclusion of boys in a charter to introduce them to women/gender issues)

The outcomes for sponsoring clubs, and the benefits for SI in general are:

• Source for Violet Richardson, Women’s Opportunity and Ruby Award nominees
• Increased public visibility and potential source of new members for your club
• Assistance with/increase in programs
• Diversity and fresh ideas
• Promotes volunteerism

For more information about these Venture clubs, contact your club President to get a copy of Susan’s resource guide.

Former member of Soroptimist, Blanca Pena, is still focussing on outreach. After traveling with Sandy to start a new Soroptimist Club in her native country of Columbia, she is now coordinating a small-scale relief project for flood and mudslide victims.

Pena is appealing to area residents to search through their closets and donate good, used clothing and footwear to the cause. Also needed are blankets and inflatable mattresses. All donations can be dropped off at Pena’s home at 317 Parkside Drive.

For more information, read the full article online »

The 6th World Conference on Breast Cancer began Tuesday June  7 with a silent awareness walk through the streets of Hamilton.

Most of the events will take place at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Session topics include whether self-examination can prevent breast cancer, the decision-making process around mothers with breast cancer, breast cancer in different cultures and countries, and post-cancer treatment symptoms. The YWCA held classes for attendees to introduce them to the Encore program, of which our club is the signature sponsor.

The World Conference is inspired by the vision of a world without breast cancer and moved forward by the passion of individuals determined to eradicate the disease. Through their commitment, co-operation and energy we are able to create an international forum where all aspects of breast cancer can be addressed and immediate action steps taken. The Hamilton Spectator had excellent coverage of individual’s stories »

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 »