Soroptimist celebrates Founders Day on October 3, which acknowledges the day in 1921 when the first club in Alameda County, California, called to order its first business meeting. Clubs celebrate the founding of the organization with activities to promote the organization and its early mission to “foster the ideal of service” through programs that now focus on improving the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world. The collection of “Founders Pennies”, an important Soroptimist tradition, is often linked to Founders Day. Each year, every Soroptimist is offered the opportunity to make a voluntary contribution of six pennies for each year of Soroptimist’s existence. These contributions…

Soroptimist make a difference, and you can too! Soroptimist International of Bidwell Rancho is sending donations to SI Alvin and SI Austin at this time of the disaster. Many of us want to help, but aren’t sure how. This is what we’ve heard from our club in Alvin: “Thank you so much for your heartfelt message and offer of support. This storm has been huge and heartbreaking. This morning we were working to get support for the local shelter. That shelter is now being transported to another location. Since the rain just stopped this evening we are not sure we have a true plan of (how) our club will be…

Soroptimist International of Bidwell Rancho is inviting prospective new Members to our Mixer on Tuesday, September 26th.2017 at Paneghetti’s Eatery,  1851 Esplanade, Chico, CA 95926 Learn about Soroptimist International and the work our club does. Please send RSVP with your contact information by Sept 22nd, along with any questions to sibidwellrancho@soroptimist.net

SOROPTIMIST SEPARATES FROM STUART MORROW: At the first world conference in San Francisco in June 1927, members discussed a way to separate the organization from Stuart Morrow. One of the most notable facts about the Soroptimist charter is that Morrow was the only signer. History also records that Morrow named himself as originator, founder and general manager of the Soroptimist corporation, retaining 90% of the voting power, property rights and interest in the corporation. In other words, he owned Soroptimist. This, of course, had to change. The clubs decided to pursue a complete buy out and a committee was appointed to negotiate with Morrow. The committee was instructed to try…

SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR: During and after the First World War, woman had achieved greatness. However, the Second World War was to show them at their very best. There is little doubt that in many countries it was the women who “battled on” to relieve suffering, hunger and perform tasks normally carried out by the men of their nations. In the October 1939 issue of the British Soroptimist magazine, the editor wrote, “Two things are clear to us in the midst of the bewilderment and distress of these present days. One is that as a band of women whose aim is the furthering of international understanding, we…

30 years of service! Soroptimist International of Bidwell Rancho- Chico received its Charter on June 29, 1987. Happy anniversary and congratulations on raising more than a half a million dollars and changing and improving lives of women and children in our community and around the world!