24 April 2002

Soroptimists celebrate 50 years of helping others

Reprinted from Tivyside Advertiser 24 April 2002

To mark the start of their 50th anniversary year, Sarah-Jane Jones meets the lynchpins of the Cardigan branch of Soroptimist International and finds out how the club keeps going from strength to strength.

SI Cardigan members L to R, Fay Cori, Maisie Jones and President Kitty Lee
Photo: Emyr Rhys Williams, Aberteifi

With a potful of coffee and a plateful of Welsh cakes, Maisie, Kitty and Fay are on a roll.

"Hats?" barks Maisie. "My dear girl. Of course they wore hats. And gloves. Isn't it strange how hardly anyone wears gloves these days?

"I'll never forget my first Divisional Union meeting at the Dragon Hotel, Swanseathe women were positively dripping with diamonds and they'd all turned out in their furs."

"Yes," says Fay, "but Swansea has always been a very 'hatty' place, hasn't it?"

Now without wishing to sound disrespectful, when the invitation arrived to take coffee with these three lynchpins of Soroptimist International, the reaction was a mild one. Their plan was to discuss the machinations of what has become one of the largest and most influential clubs in the world - Soroptimist International - and I'd banked on being bored. But when Maisie, Kitty and Fay are one's companions, boredom never enters the equation.

"To be a Soroptimist, you knew you'd arrived," recalls Maisie who was one of around 20 local women to join the Cardigan branch of Soroptimists in 1952 and who was recently awarded Life Membership for 50 years service to Soroptimist International. "In those days it was strictly invitation only and the only women who were asked to join were the ones at the top of their profession. We had representatives from virtually every walk of life teachers, milliners, a post mistress, solicitors, GPs and women like myself who were in business."

In the early days, one of Soroptimists' chief functions was to raise funds for disadvantaged people in the community. "Every Friday morning there'd be a jumble sale in the Guildhall and you wouldn't believe the number of people who'd attend," says Maisie. "Some of the clothes were truly beautiful. One day Peggy Cox (Cardigan's former post mistress) decided to keep back the best stuff for some of her customers. It was all very discreet. She'd say, "Oh Mrs Jones, a beautiful two-piece has just come in and I'm sure it's your size. Would you be interested?"

Thanks to the stirling efforts of Miss Cox and the rest of her Soroptimist chums, the Cardigan branch raised around £150 a year for a variety of local causes such as sending deprived families on holiday, providing Christmas parcels for the elderly and treating the residents of Yr Hafod old people's home to trips to Aberporth beach.

Today however, their fund-raising efforts extend all over the world while members have had to broaden their outlook to encompass some of society's most hard-hitting social issues such as HIV and AIDS, child abuse and domestic issues. The club is currently raising money for the Wales Air Ambulance and, in conjunction with the International committee of the Red Cross, to provide rehabilitation prosthesis for landmine victims in four different countries.

First established in America in 1921, Soroptimist International remains very much a world-wide organisation giving members access to a vast friendship network extending all over the world. "Friendship is the keyword which sums up Soroptimism more than anything else," continues Fay "Being a Soroptimist puts a little stamp on you it's just extraordinary"

But hand-in-hand with friendship goes a commitment to the cause. "It isn't a club that you join today and leave tomorrow," says Fay "You tend to stay because you have a sense of commitment to uphold everything that the movement stands for - the status of women, human rights and the effort to change and improve things for the socially deprived."

And club president Kitty Lee agrees. "This is what makes Soroptimist stand out from other organisations. All our members are extremely busy professional women, some of whom are juggling a career with raising a family. Women have always wanted equality, to be part of a matching pair, but this comes at a price. If you're a working wife you still have to do the washing, the cleaning, the ironing and the cooking unless you're blessed with a very domesticated partner. As a result, the desire to help others is very much less than it was."

But despite the social pressures, Soroptimist International continues to go from strength to strength. "There've been times in the past when I thought it would fall flat on its face," concludes Maisie. "But new members continue to come to the fore and I'm confident that the club is as strong today as ever"

If you would like to find out more about the work of the Cardigan branch of Soroptimist International, contact secretary Phil Rees on 01239 613363.

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