On Saturday March 2, 2013, Soroptimist International of Dundas~Ancaster~Flamborough celebrated the success of one of its members, Janet Barnard, at the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Gala, held at Flamborough Hills Golf & Country Club in Copetown. Janet, SI-DAF’s hard working treasurer, was presented with an Outstanding Business Achievement Award for her services to bookkeeping for the Flamborough Chamber over several years. Also present at the Awards celebration were the new Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, Ted McMeekin MPP, and Hamilton City Councillors Judy Partridge and Robert Pasuta . Janet and the other Soroptimist members had a chance to speak briefly with Premier Wynne, and though the Premier had not heard of Soroptimist International prior to that night, she expressed interest in our organization and promised to find out more about us. What a wonderful evening, and a special honour for Janet!

Pictured in the photo from left to right are Ted McMeekin MPP, SI-DAF members Christine Aarlaht, Pauline Hardcastle, Shirley Eden, Premier Kathleen Wynne, SI-DAF member and award winner Janet Barnard.

From left to right, SI-DAF members Christine Aarlaht and Pauline Hardcastle, Hamilton City Councillors Robert Pasuta and Judi Partidge (both valued supporters of SI-DAF), and SI-DAF members Maria Demkowich, Shirley Eden and Janet Barnard.

Soroptimist International of Dundas Ancaster Flamborough has been serving our community for over 25 years. We are inviting the community to join us on March 27th, 6-9 pm at Amica on Dundas.

We delighted to be joined by Denise Doyle from the YWCA who will share with us about the Encore program and women’s health. We are also looking forward to hearing from Karen DeSilva, a past winner of the Women’s Opportunity Award and co-founder of WISDOM: Women, Inspiring, Strength, Determination, Optimism, and Motivation to women in addictions and need. We look forward to hearing how her education has positively impacted her life.

We are also honoured to introduce Jennifer Lucking representing Walk With Me who will be speaking on Education and Awareness of Human Trafficking. It is also hoped that one of her Board Directors, Lepa Jankovic of the RCMP, will also be in attendance. You will hear Jennifer tell us how Timea Nagy, herself a survivor of trafficking , started the organisation and is now considered to be a leading authority on human trafficking. So much so that she was awarded The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her services to victims and the authorities. Human trafficking or trafficking in persons is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, often described as a modern day form of slavery. It happens right here in the Hamilton area! Walk With Me Canada Victim Services is a survivor led organization dedicated to raising awareness and providing education on issues of slavery, delivering and coordinating services supporting “victims to become survivors,” and advocating action for change.

This is a free event. All are welcome. Light refreshments will be provided.
RSVP online: http://soroptimistdaf-awareness.eventbrite.ca/

We are pleased to announce our club’s 2nd Annual “Are You Smarter that a 5th Grader: Trivia Night” that will take place at St. Joseph’s Villa in Dundas on Wednesday April 20, 2011. Tickets are $25 and includes the games, a light dinner, munchies and tons of fun! Tickets are available from any Soroptimist member.

The evening features four rounds of trivia questions which to challenge the knowledge base of teams of 6 players. There will be prizes for the team members from each round as well as Grand Prize team with the highest score. We will also be offering a raffle table of gifts to be won, a 50/50 draw and a cash bar. We will sell out at  24 teams of 6, so get your friends together and get your tickets early!

Of course we hope to have lots of fun at this event but the real reason for our fundraising is to help women and girls in our community that need a hand up. All the money we raise goes back to our women and girls in our community and throughout the world.

Have you ever wondered who The Soroptimists are and what we do in the community? Soroptimist International of Dundas, Ancaster and Flamborough invites you to an evening of fun and friendship to learn more about the club and its work in helping women and girls, both locally and internationally.

RSVP to Barb McCoy at soroptimistdaf@gmail.com

The event takes place on Thursday, Jan. 20, 7-8:30 p.m., St. James Anglican Church Parlour, 137 Melville St., Dundas.
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BIG MONEY FROM A SMALL EVENT!
The Flamborough Women’s Resource Center came up the big winner at a Ladies Night held on Thursday October 14th at Boston Pizza. The restaurant donated a portion of the evenings proceeds to the FWRC and many patrons also made personal contributions for a chance to win some great raffle prizes which had been donated by local merchants. Kittybeans Jewellery of Waterdown also donated a portion of sales from the evening and the Soroptimist International of Dundas/Ancaster/Flamborough were there with a display profiling their community work and to present a $300.00 club contribution. Nearly $1,000.00 in total was raised for the FWRC as a result of the evening.

(In Photo) Front and centre: holding the big money is Afifa Bhatti of the FWRC along with Christina Wilbur of Boston Pizza (in light pink top) Back row, left to right is Erin Hall (Kittybeans) and Soroptimist members Barb McCoy, Janet Barnard, Sandy Gray, Shirley Eden and Bonnie Treacy.

This year we were officially part of the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce’s Mini Putt Challenge as a tournament within their tournament. Not only were we eligible to win their recognition awards, SI DAF awarded the top 4-some and most honest (worst) four-some with recognition plaques!

Our club had 3 four-somes (if I remember correctly, perhaps 4) at last years FCC’s mini putt challenge and we had a blast; that is where we got the idea for having one of our own. The location of the tournament was Rock Chapel on Highway 5, west of Clappisons. It’s literally a mini green, on grass, and 18 holes.

We booked 4 four-somes with the FCC for our group. It was a bargain at $25.00 per person that included mini golf and dinner & awards after at Boston Pizza, snacks included! The top FCC team received a Canadian Cooler and $25 gc to Boston Pizza. The individual awards included two members from SI-DAF:

• FCC Lowest women’s: 72 to Sandy, owner Weeks Home Hardware (she defended her title)
• FCC Lowest mens: 61 to Ted McMckeen, MPP
• FCC Most Honest golfer – to Maria Demkovic, $25 gc plus a special trophy (see hear speak no evil)

• SI-DAF Top score at 72 avg – Barny, Janet, Alice and Shirley
• SI-DAF most honest team at 99 avg – Brooke, Kim, Elizabeth, Nancy, (Judi was in for 9 holes)