SI ROTORUA
Est. 1994
Chartered 19 November 1994 | 2024 - Celebrating 30 Years of Soroptimist in Rotorua.
We are a small, but active and vibrant club based in Rotorua, New Zealand. Our membership includes young women through to retirees, with service to Soroptimist ranging from a couple of years to 30 years!
Soroptimist International Rotorua Club Members proudly use their combined skills, life experiences and energies to give service to others in their community and further afield. Our members work collaboratively together in the spirit of friendship and fun to help make the world a better place, especially for women and girls.
Members are encouraged to be involved and active in local and global issues, to strive to
inspire action and to create opportunities to help transform the lives of themselves and other women and girls through projects, activities, advocacy, leadership and personal
development.
You can find information here about the activities and projects we have recently undertaken - but there is more to our club than that. We also love to get together for meals, celebrations, Mid Winter Christmas Dinners, Christmas in the Park for example.
We love to be included in wider Soroptimist events and activities. We currently have one member serving at Federation level and one as a dual member with the newly formed SISEAP Sisters Online Club. In 2024, we were proud to host the SIANZ Conference of Clubs.
Our members support and encourage one another to give what we can, where we can, but we understand that sometimes we all need a helping hand.
Club Details:
Rotorua based club -
sirotorua@siseap.org
Meeting Details:
We meet at a Club Members house, with a Zoom link provided for those unable to join in person, on the 1st Thursday of each month.
Contact us for details.
Some of Our Projects / Activities
High Tea Fundraisers for Ovarian Cancer (National Project)
In 2023 and 2024 we invited past members and our ‘Friends of Soroptimist’ to join our Club Members for High Tea at the Rotorua Distinction Hotel as a fundraiser activity for the
National Project. We came together for a fun afternoon, connecting socially and nurturing the bonds of Sisterhood in Soroptimism.
It was a Tiffin High Tea event, and we sold tickets to participants to raise funds. There was opportunity throughout to raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer.
These two events raised $239 in total.
Annual Winter Pyjama Drive
Each year in May and June, we organise and co-ordinate a Winter Pyjama Drive, collecting new or excellent quality women’s and children’s pyjamas, enlisting support from local schools and the community. These pyjamas are donated to the Rotorua Women’s Refuge to pass onto women and children who are escaping from domestic violence who are in need of night attire.
We collected over 50 pairs of pyjamas in 2024, 65 in 2023 and over 100 in 2022.
Provision of Toiletry Bags for Hospital Patients
On an ongoing basis, Club Members and our ‘Friends of Soroptimist’ collect items suitable for toilet bags to be given to those patients who are bought into hospital in emergency situations or from backgrounds of financial hardship.
These items are then placed into reusable material bags, either purchased or handmade by our members and donated to the Rotorua Hospital, usually leading up to Christmas each year.
We donate approx. 24 bags per year in total. The bags contain essential hygiene / toiletry items, along with a notepad and pen and pack of cards, with extra colouring supplies or activities for children. These bags are always very well received.
Advocacy Seminar for Rotorua Rangers (GirlGuiding NZ)
In mid-2021, we collaboratively developed and delivered a seminar to engage the local GirlGuiding Ranger group (15 girls) in a range of activities designed to teach them the fundamental purposes, skills and partnerships required that combine to make for effective advocacy that can bring about change.
We produced a resource pamphlet to provide a reference tool for future advocacy projects. After the seminar, the girls advocated for a clean up of a local park. They wrote to the local
school and the council requesting a permanent rubbish bin with regular empties.
They achieved this goal with much excitement and a newfound belief in their abilities to advocate for environmental change.
Literacy Day Online Quiz Fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer (National Project)
To acknowledge World Literacy Day, we ran an Online Quiz on 8 September 2023 to raise funds for the National Ovarian Cancer Project.
This online forum was inclusive at a National and International Level with all Soroptimists from the SISEAP Federation invited to extend our fundraising capacity and to build community across Soroptimist Clubs. The quiz was formulated and presented by 2 members of our Club and the contentquestions related to literature with a section on Ovarian Cancer awareness.
21 participants from 4 different clubs within 3 different countries took part in the evening and we raised $226.06.
International Women’s Day (2022 and 2023) -
Letters to My Sister
This was an online joint advocacy project between our club and The Microvolunteering Collective, where we spent an hour online to write messages of support, hope and solidarity
to women survivors of war.
This was done through an online platform where the letters are later translated and delivered directly to woman through the Woman to Woman programme.
This was an activity to promote global peace and international goodwill.
Ukraine Fundraising Quiz
On the 1 April 2022, we organised and ran an Online Quiz to raise funds for the Disaster Fund for Soroptimist WarZone Projects in Ukraine.
This online forum was inclusive at a National and International Level with all Soroptimists from the SISEAP Federation invited with the hopes of extending our fundraising capacity and to build community across Soroptimist Clubs.
The quiz was formulated, presented and run by 2 members of our Club and $169.94 was raised and a fun evening was held by all those who attended.
International Women’s Day (2021) Breakfast supporting the “Love Grace” Campaign
We held a breakfast at Capers Café in Rotorua on 8 March 2021, recognising International Women’s Day, learning about up and coming issues on the road to equity for young women in New Zealand, whilst supporting the “Love Grace NZ Handbag Appeal”. “Love Grace” is a charitable campaign originally set up in the UK by Grace’s family (Grace was violently murdered in NZ after a date) to combine her love of handbags with a legacy in
her name to help end violence towards women.
Our Guest Speaker was Nikau Grace, an articulate local 15-year-old young woman who addressed us on her thoughts regarding the journey to equity for young women in NZ.
We collected and filled 12 handbags with essential and luxury items that would help women in need get to a safer future. Club Members and guests were deeply moved to contribute to this and to hear a youth perspective. The significance of positive interactions between generations was highlighted.
Karen Trautman Memorial Scholarship
Soroptimist International Rotorua proudly awards an annual scholarship each year to support a local student demonstrating outstanding citizenship through community service. We do this to acknowledge the value of service in young people and to encourage commitment to voluntary community service.
The scholarship of up to $1000 is awarded to a Year 12 or 13 student in the Rotorua area who wishes to pursue tertiary education. The application criteria seek out outstanding young people with strong values and is not awarded purely for scholastic achievement, but rather for the applicant’s demonstrated commitment to improving the quality of life for others.
The Scholarship was set up as a memorial to honour a highly valued past member of our club - Karen Trautman who exemplified community service. Soroptimist Rotorua greatly appreciates the continued ongoing support from Karen’s family to enable us to continue to award this scholarship.
