Soroptimist International of Vacaville
Empowering Women and Girls since 1960
Soroptimist International of the Americas is a global organization founded in 1921. Soroptimist International of Vacaville is part of SIA and is located in Founder Region.
President Clara Oakes
President Mary Dickey
Rose Mary and Donna
Catch up with us!
OCTOBER 1 Two sets of Soroptimists teamed up to offer their report on "6 Degress of Sharing." First up, longtime member Donna Fox and new member Rose Mary Forehand came with detailed notes on their long history of friendship, including babies that were born during the same year, and watching those babies grow up and go through the sames schools together. Donna and Rose Mary were both Brownie leaders at the same time, watched their husbands play softball on the same teams and shared many other adventures. Their conclusion: We're still friends! Next up were Robin Miller and Jackie De Vries -- a little less detailed, but they still had many things in common, including growing up in California and attending a junior college. They both love small dogs both drove red VW Beatles at one time. An update of the upcoming Rocktoberfest revelaed that tickets are nearly sold out! There have been 194 sold, and a sell-out is 200, although we may be able to add a few more to the venue... More items are needed for the silent auction, life auction and dessert auction. Katie Colvin said she is confident she will hit her goal of 60 bottles for the wine pull. Bottom line: Get your tickets now, and turn in any auction items as soon as you can!
Jackie and Robin
SEPTEMBER 17 SI Vacaville welcomed Desiree Aragon, inspirational speaker, talent strategist, doctor of spiritual studies and mental wellness advocate who shared a powerful message of empowerment! Now that we are truly in "The Age of Aquarius," we can enjoy a time of expanded consciousness, and a shift of humanity as we move from "me" to "we." And as Soroptimists, "We" embrace that "We" are understanding, compassionate, generous, giving, dedicated, thoughtful, inspirational, loving, dynamic and united -- to share just a few of the affirmations "We" shared today! Other things we did? We talked about our upcoming Rocktoberfest -- Oct. 26 is coming fast so get your tickets today! Some fabulous auction items are coming together. Watch our social media to see some of the highlights soon. We welcomed District II Fellowship Director Kay Kelly, who presented our own Rose Mary Forehand with a Fellowship pin. Rose Mary donated $1,000 to the Fellowship program, which sponsors women in the final year of their doctoral programs. Way to go, Rose Mary! We received an update from the District II roundtable. We also shared results from a lunch and snack sur
SEPTEMBER 3 We kicked off September with an inspirational message from our own past President Jackie De Vries, who also happens to be Governor-elect for the Founder Region! She shared how Soroptimist International makes the world a place for women and girls. We do this by presenting more Live Your Dream awards (to women who are the head of their households and wish to pursue education and training); helping more Dream It, Be It girls (mentoring young women), and supporting SIA's Big Goal: To invest in the dreams of half a million women and girls through accelerator projects by 2031. (More on those in a future post.) Since work started toward the Big Goal in 2021, we've collectively touched the lives of 93,085 women and girls through various projects, just shy of 20 percent of our goal. Much more work must be done! Did you know that Soroptimist International has General Consultative Status with the United Nations? Every four years SI submits a report documenting our work in the UN Centers throughout the world, featuring our international projects. This year, the Live Your Dream Program was featured in that report! Jackie, a retired school teacher, has always been about empowering women and girls through education, so she steps up at the perfect time! Thank you, Jackie, for sharing your knowledge, enthusiasm and encouragement to keep on our path of making the world a better place for women and girls!
AUGUST 27 Today we celebrated the 64th anniversary of our club's charter with music, trivia and birthday cake! Check out the video on our LinkedIn page. It's great to be part of a club so steeped in history. If you want to know more about our history, check out our "Her-story." under the "Who We Are" tab. We had a great report from our "social butterfly" Sharon Marcacci. She keeps us on our toes about events happening around the community. We try to engage as often as we can to represent Soroptimist. We also had reminders to work on getting items for gift baskets for our live and silent auctions, which will take place at our Roctkoberfest fundraiser on Oct. 26. You'll find a link to purchase tickets on our home page.
AUGUST 20, 2024 SI Vacaville welcomed Vacaville City Councilwoman Sarah Chapman as our speaker. Sarah shared the story of her many successes: She served as longtime trustee for the Vacaville Unified School District and the Solano Community College Governing Board; her academic degrees (master's and Ph.d); her career as an internal machinist; her experiences as a foster parent; and her current role on the City Council. We were happy to welcome guest and potential new member Sarah Dahling, whose maiden name was Chapman! She actually remembers receiving her diploma from our speaker when she graduated high school. Fun coincidence! We continue to welcome new members. If interested, contact Linda Johnson to schedule a visit to our club. No obligation, just come and have fun and decide if you might want to join us.
AUGUST 11, 2024 Welcome to our new blog for Soroptimist International of Vacaville. We are teaming up to serve as co-presidents this year, from August 2024 to June 2025. Soroptimist International of Vacaville is 64 years old this year – chartered in 1960. Clara joined the organization in 1998 and Mary joined in 2018. Both of us have served as president in the past: Mary for 2020-21 and Clara twice, in 2002-03 and 2012-13. We’re stepping up as a team to lead this tremendous organization that makes our community – and the world – a better place for woman and girls, by empowering them through education and support. In fact, our theme this year is “Putting Our Hearts into Empowering Women and Girls.” We’ll use this blog to keep everyone up to date on what we’re doing to accomplish our goals. We always welcome new members, so if you’d like to know more, please reach out! Here’s more information on our website: https://www.vacavillesoroptimist.org/membership. Or come to a meeting and learn more about us. We meet almost every Tuesday at Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Vacaville. We invite you to come on the first, third or fourth Tuesday of any month to see what we’re all about. (The second Tuesday is our business meeting.) We’d also love your help with our upcoming fundraiser, “Rocktoberfest,” Oct. 26 at the Ulatis Community Center. Join now and be part of the team! Mary & Clara