September the 2nd Formal Meeting of SI Bielsko-Biala Club, Poland
On a sunny September afternoon members of the SI Club in Bielsko-Biała met for a double celebration in the verdant setting of Kapias Gardens. 2021 marks thirty years since the founding of the Bielsko-Biała club, and at the same time, in September, the end of the two-year term of its current President. The beautiful surroundings, interesting gardens and the joy of meeting each other made the atmosphere exceptionally warm and pleasant.
The outgoing President, Ewa Sum, gave the sisters a short report on the activities during her tenure. Her two years as President coincided with the very difficult period during the pandemic. Fear of the disease contributed to the reduction of activity in many areas of social life. Due to the sanitary restrictions in force, the monthly club meetings took place online from March 2020. We could not hold the music school Christmas concert in 2020 or the Carnival Ball in 2021. The important thing, however, is that despite the limitations and difficulties associated with this, the ties of friendship between the members of the club remained very strong, which we all felt during the meeting.
The importance of the meeting was emphasised by the traditional candle-lighting ceremony. The President-Elect, Maria Skrobol, lit a candle for the success of the SI Club in Bielsko-Biała; Agnieszka Rozwadowska for the development of the Union of Polish Clubs; Władzia Czechowska lit a candle for the activities of the SI European Federation; and Natalia Sobieszczuk for actions undertaken by all Soroptimists on behalf of world peace.
On behalf of the whole club the President-Elect thanked Ewa Sum for
her work and efforts and presented her with a modest gift.
While candles were lit the insignia were formally handed over to Maria Skrobol as the new President of our club.
Maria, we congratulate you on becoming the new President, and we wish you strength in working for our organisation. We hope you find joy in our joint activities and perseverance in managing the club's affairs, as our club faces a great challenge in our latest project helping women from Ukraine and Belarus who work in our area. The project is funded by a grant we received from SI European Federation. As members of the club we will work together and fully support all your initiatives.
The 30th anniversary of the Club was a great opportunity for reminiscing aided by a ‘little corner’ set up by Anna Plater with the original charter of the club, club artifacts and thick chronicles full of old photographs which aroused great interest among the sisters. A book written and published by Beata Mikuszewska describing the beginnings of the club, was especially interesting.
During this special meeting we were accompanied by a cameraman who
recorded the most important parts of the meeting and the comments of club members relating to their club activity. A film about the work of our club will be made, which we want to submit to the
Union of Polish Clubs as documentation of our activities.
At the end of a great evening we enjoyed sparkling fireworks and a beautiful and very tasty Soroptimist cake.