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| A Message From the President |
 A Message from
President Sue Reynolds
“Doing Good at Full Gallop” “Cowgirl up” is an expression that means to rise to the occasion, not to give up and to do it all without whining or complaining.
Welcome ya’ll! Welcome, fellow Soroptimists! Welcome, fabulous friends! Welcome, guests! Welcome ya’ll! (I grew up in farm country Illinois, and lived near Nashville for a lot of years, so please for today, ignore my entire reasonably corporate background, and simply accept my cowgirl slang!)
I hope to express a tone to carry forward as we enter a new year of exciting and important work to improve the lives of women and girls, locally and around the world. I hope to provide colorful insight into how I wish to gallop forward with our Club and our community.
A number of us recently attended the regional conference for Soroptimist in Carlsbad. We watched over 40,000 hard-earned fund-raised dollars make their green way to three remarkable sets of women. We learned of a woman who gave us a tremendous example of starting an organization for the support of the arts, at this time in education when these resources are not readily available. We learned of a book being written by a woman who suffered the pain of learning that her now imprisoned husband was molesting her teen daughter in the next room. We listened to an accomplished teen from Santa Barbara who has done so much to raise awareness and services for disadvantaged populations around the world, so that I thought that we’d all just better step it up.
And then we heard amazing stories from a panel of women who have worked so very hard to wrestle themselves out of the worldly gutter. Drugs, gangs, abuse, blindness, lack of education, lack of resources… these are the conditions from which these women are fleeing. One told us of growing up in Thailand, sharing a single egg as the only protein for supper with her seven siblings, and not having her own shoes until she was ten. Another cried that she was so emboldened not just with the funds we were giving her, but the very fact that this audience of women believe in her future! We as Soroptimist sat in this crowded conference room and listened and watched. And we did good. We are part of slinging out a long rope and sliding a loop around them, to pull them up.
And thus will continue not only my portrayal of my emotional investment in Soroptimist, but my play on words matching the cowgirl lifestyle with our efforts together as Soroptimist.
Yes, there have been many incredibly important humans and animals in my life, but let’s use my ten horses for a special purpose. As I tell you of my wonderful horses, I’d like you to think of their personalities in match with the wonderful women of Soroptimist, as we step up into the saddle of another year.
Let’s count the other nine equines in my family (There have been countless others that I didn’t own, but threw a leg over. Like that riding slang?) There were comedians: Titan with the tomatoes that my grandmother fed him squirting out the sides of his mouth, and Killary doing the same with jelly donuts. Horses are really cute with powdered sugar on their snouts. Oscar and Jessica were not only beautiful, but right there to do the work, never vying to be the stars of the show, but so very, very fun and reliable. There were Sparky’s Big Boy Sam, and Rambo, always willing to show a beginner or guest around with gentle hospitality! Alright came from Argentina, so we had a little trouble communicating, at which times I landed in the mud.
Number nine was Scenic. Just like her name, she was a beautiful Thoroughbred mare. I met her in the catastrophe of her losing her foal, but she became a powerful presence in my life. She was big and gorgeous and tough.
There’s a lot of colorful cowgirl advice:
How to keep from causing trouble for yourself? Don’t squat with your spurs on!
So grab one of these fabulous horses, jump into the tack, grapple your fingers into their mane, and give a little kick… a cluck: tchk, tchk. Let’s fly forward with the wind, Soroptimist of Greater Santa Clarita Valley, and do good at full gallop!
Cowgirl Up!
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