This week’s blog comes from SIHQ Programme Director, Reilly Dempsey.  She shares how she, though not technically a Soroptimist, is Soroptimism!  Read on and you’ll understand….Click HERE to join the Facebook discussion on what Soroptimism means to you.

 

Okay, so technically
I’m not a Soroptimist, but hey, this whole SoroptiVoice blog thing was my idea
so I think I’m entitled to bend the rules just a little.  😉

But it brings up an interesting point – why aren’t I a
Soroptimist?  I will be honest, before I
interviewed for this job in December 2009 I had not heard of Soroptimist
International.  This baffled me as it
seemed like I would be the perfect ‘target’ for membership, given my background,
values, and interests.  Well, my journey
over the past year and a half has shown me that actually Soroptimism does find its way into the lives of
women and girls who share our dreams of making the world a better place. 

I didn’t tell anyone about my interviews for this job (well,
except for my husband.  And our cat, but
she’s really good at keeping secrets).  I
didn’t want to jinx anything.  So when I
received the email from Executive Director Rosie Coutts making me an offer,
there was a flurry of phone calls to family members to share the good
news.  And low and behold, it turns out my
mother in law was a Soroptimist!  She was
a member of SIGBI when my husband was little. 
He had not remembered this until we told her about the job; I guess he
had blocked out those childhood memories of the nights when Mum went out for
her ‘women’ stuff while Dad tried to get some sort of dinner on the table with
varying degrees of success.  It then
turns out that my husband’s family doctor was also a Soroptimist – Dr.
Elizabeth Harrison – a SIGBI Past President (1999-2000)!  I always knew I really liked my mother in law
and was marrying into a wonderful family. 
Soroptimism had apparently started creeping into my life well before I
was aware…

Flash forward a year or so later, and I’m visiting with
friends and family in Philadelphia after CSW 55.  One of my dearest friends from high school
had recently moved back to the Philadelphia area after living in Lake Tahoe,
California, for several years.  It was
the first time I’d seen her in ages and we were having a girly catch up.  She asked about my job, and I explained the ‘what’
of it before getting to the ‘who’.  And
when I said ‘the organisation is called Soroptimist International’ my friend
immediate said “Oh, I know the Soroptimists!” 
My friend is a music therapist, and it turns out that her local SI club
in California had sponsored her to work with a at risk teenage girls.  That therapy, carried out by my friend and
sponsored by Soroptimists, changed the lives of those girls.  Again, little bits of Soroptimism cropping up
in very unexpected but perhaps unsurprising places…

And now to the present, about two weeks ago.  My husband and I were ‘adopted’ by a local
stray cat.  So much so that, one morning,
it decided it could come in our house and help itself to the cheese out of my
husband’s packed lunch.  No one messes
with my husband’s cheese.  We decided we
should take him to a no-kill rescue centre (the cat, not my husband) where he
would have his three squares a day (though probably no more cheese), vet care,
and the chance of finding a new home (since we are already at our kitty limit).  Actually, if anyone is in the market for a
really sweet cat, please visit Venture Farm (http://www.venturefarm.co.uk/)!  Anyway, back to the main story – before doing
anything we wanted to make sure he was a stray, so I went around to speak to a
few of our neighbours.  We have really,
really lovely neighbours and I am extremely happy living where we live right now.  Well, after a bit of enjoyable conversation
with one such neighbour, I discovered that she, too, is a former Soroptimist!

So, let’s add this all together – my mother-in-law was a
Soroptimist, one of my dearest friends from school has done loads of work with
Soroptimists, and now I live in a wonderful community with another
Soroptimist! 

What’s my point in all of this?  Soroptimism comes in many forms and finds its
way into our lives through many different channels.  I may not be a member of an SI club (now I’m
not allowed as I’m employed by SI), but I have clearly gravitated towards women
with similar hopes, visions, and dreams. 
Women who believe in everything that Soroptimist International
embodies.  So though I’m not technically
a Soroptimist, I think I certainly am Soroptimism.

We make choices in our lives that define who we are and what
we believe – choices like marriage, friends, and community.  Choices that allowed Soroptimism to enter
into my life in many ways, without even really knowing it – unlike the cat that
was caught red-pawed with my husband’s cheese. 

 

Reilly as she launches the 2010 Soroptimist International Global Impact Report at Convention in Montreal.