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HISTORY
The Club, Chartered in May 1950, meets in the Carnegie Conference Centre. Over the years the Club has been proud to have had 5 Presidents of District Union / Scotland South Region, and Honorary Membership has been conferred on 6 members. The Club has Friendship Links with other Clubs world wide.
Special Events
Marking the 21st anniversary of our charter a floral display of the Soroptimist badge was planted in Pittencrieff Park. Marking The Year of the Tree, in 1973 a Norwegian maple tree was planted in the same park. In International Women's Year, to commemorate the life and work of our Founder President, Dr Jane MacDonald, a seat was given to the town and placed in the grounds of Dunfermline Abbey. For our 50th anniversary we raised funds and took a group of mothers and children living in Women's Aid refuges for a holiday in the Borders.
In its infancy, the Club funded an annual holiday for mothers and children, provided an outdoor Christmas Tree for the town and collected toys and gifts for needy children. For many years we ran a Christmas Card and Gift Fair where local charities sold their cards and gifts. During Civic Week each summer we had a stall to raise money for our charities.
Awareness, Advocacy, and Action
In 1995 we received a legacy from, Miss Anna Cruickshank, an honorary member. We use this to give grants to help people from abroad to pay for education in this country or to those going to third world countries to undertake work in education.
Past Presidents Charities have included Pestallozi Children’s Village, Various Cancer Charities, RNLI, Hospices, Story Aid, Help the Aged, Riding for the Disabled, Amnesty International, and Alzheimer Scotland.
We have raised awareness, lobbied, corresponded, petitioned, studied, beach cleaned, knitted, surveyed, collected, supported and we have done this by dressing in funny costumes, eating strange food, walking over hill and dale, guddling in ponds, riding toy horses, having fun!
Our Club has always enthusiastically supported the Soroptimist International Quadrennial Projects.
The world has changed since 1950 when our country was still recovering from war and we were receiving food parcels from our Friendship Link in Canada. Now we try to help those in countries whose lives are blighted from famine, war and natural disasters. Throughout all these years some things have not changed, our spirit of friendship and service, with these we look forward to the future.
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