Soroptimists so right

It promises be a fun evening with food, drink, music and great company but the hope of the Soroptimists is to provide money for the charity to continue the work it does ensuring that disabled clients can get out of their homes and enjoy a social life.

The supper will be held at St Peter's Community centre from 7pm and will feature a "huge" raffle with prizes donated by local businesses and individuals as well as entertainment from the Bohemian Ukelele Band amongst others.

The decision to fundraise for ESDA came from chairman Megan Traice who chose this as the branch's charity of the year because of the valuable work done to help the disabled get out to social events such as lunches and trips and make sure they have social contact with others.

Member Hilary McCorry said: "It is to raise money not just to help with transport but to enable them to continue with these services because without extra funding there are going to be a lot of disabled people disappointed because they can't go out on a regular basis. This might be their only chance to get out if no-one else will take them."

Soroptimist International Hastings and District branch has 16 members and is an organisation set up for professional and business women to meet each other and work towards local, national and international goals such as improving human rights and advancing opportunities for women.

Members have two meetings a month, on the second and fourth Mondays, at

St Michael's Hospice and apart from getting to know each other, enjoy a wide range of speakers covering topics as diverse as the history of Bexhill Museum to life as a baker, and also take part in events such as Step Back In Time.

Retired teacher Rita Macdonald joined more than 20 years ago and commented: "Basically I wanted to broaden my knowledge in other aspects of life and meet other women who were members of other professions, and in business, and to become involved in a positive organisation whose members give service in order to help others."

Now that Rita has given up teaching she has more time to devote to volunteering at Citizens Advice Bureau with which there are longterm national links.

Soroptimist International has 3,000 clubs in 124 countries and a benefit of being a member is that wherever they find themselves in the world, they can contact local branches and hook up immediately with new friends, in much the same way Rotary members do.

On a more serious note, the Soroptimists work on an international level on vital issues such as human trafficking, cluster bombing, Limbs for Life, and female survivors of war. On a national level the focus is currently on matters such as dignity in hospital, while locally groups work towards their own goals such as fundraising for ESDA or St Michael's Hospice.

Hilary meanwhile is a new member who joined because she wanted to make friends outside work.

She commented: "I suppose I joined because I found I was working at Radio Kent and then my life revolved totally around work. I looked around and decided I would rather join a group which was all women...socially we are all very supportive of each other. The social side of Soroptimists can be very girl sometimes '“ for instance we had someone who came and did massages, and meditation, and I did think guys would not be very interested in that.

"I just felt I need to find an interest outside work and I did some research and had spoken to someone who was a Soroptimist through work, and it sounded interesting. And it is.

"But we do need more members '“ new members, younger people and more dynamic sort of people too '“ because sometimes when we get involved with projects like the supper, a lot of our people are not available because they are busy, or at work."

Anyone wishing to join in the fun tonight can contact Hilary McCorry on 01424 846026, or questions about joining as a member should go to membership secretary Brenda Blythe on 01424 426283.