Welcome to Connecticut River Valley Club

Home Page

Welcome to
Connecticut River Valley Soroptimist Club

Club Officers:

President:	Gerry Bennett
Treasurer:	Rita Adkins
Secretary:
Director:
Director:
Membership:	Ruby Mercado
Outgoing President:	Ruby Mercado

Welcome to the World!
Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

Elena Khaleesi Mercado
8 lbs 7 oz
Born August 23, 2017

Congratulations Ruby & Mario Mercado!!

Each Soroptimist club, including our CRV club, participates in the Live your Dream Award. This award is provided annually and is FREE to apply. Each year a worthy woman will be awarded money from the club to help her live her dream. She must be the head of her household and continuing her education with a financial need to qualify. See more information at http://www.liveyourdream.org/

Each year, the members of the CRV club and community Take a Stand Against Domestic Violence. Money is raised in the name of domestic violence awareness and donated to the New Horizons’ Domestic Violence Services in Middletown, CT.

The CRV club hosts an Annual Clothesline Project. Each year a great speaker shares her experiences as a survivor of domestic violence. Many triumphant and powerful escapes from very harmful relationships inspire our club to continue to raise awareness. The event ends with a very heartfelt reading from the Clothesline Project t-shirts that decorate the room.

The CRV club coordinates a Soroptimist Comfort Basket project. Very full baskets of items that many families may need when they move to a new home after a displacement are assembled and donated. Some families come from domestic violence situations, and others are recovering from homelessness or a tough time in their lives. These baskets are intended to help these families settle into their homes a little more comfortably.

Our club often collaborates with other service organizations in Middletown, namely Altrusa and Civitan, in events such as Pack the Pickup with Protein for the Food Pantry. This partnership is a win for everyone as we are able to donate about 2,000 pounds of food to the Amazing Grace food pantry each year.

The CRV club also participates in a mentorship relationship with High School aged ladies. The S-Club at the Old Saybrook High School was founded in October of 2014. The ladies from the S-Club share the Soroptimist mission and mentor the S-Club to ensure their ideas come to fruition at the High School.

Service Projects:

Our club supports the Amazing Grace Food Pantry’s Families Feeding Families Program. Our club provides 35 boxes of rice each month for the food pantry that serves the Middletown area.
Our club provides over 100 emergency care bags for the American Red Cross for their disaster relief program. The bags are filled with a washcloth, soap, shampoo and other toiletry items.
We are working with the local domestic violence program to help make the community aware of services for victims.

Awards:
Live Your Dreams Award ~
Each year our club awards a female head of household pursuing higher education to improve her employment opportunities a monetary award that she may use as she wishes while she is enrolled in school. This is a signature project of Soroptimist.

Live Your Dream Awards are cash awards that recipients may use for any expenses related to their educational pursuits. These include tuition and books, housing, child care and transportation. These awards are not scholarships. The program begins at the club level. Our local winner is then eligible for consideration of the Northeastern Region award which is $5,000. The winner of the Region award is then eligible to receive one of three $10,000 finalist awards from Soroptimist International of the Americas.

Applications are received by our club from October 1, 2016 to January 15, 2017. Applications received after this deadline will not be considered. To receive an application by mail, please email us. To download an application, please click here. You will also need to download the reference form that needs to be completed. Both forms are in PDF format.

Club #101010

Chartered May, 1949

Meeting Date:
1st Thursday
of each month, 6:00pm

Past Events:

Joint Service Dinner
March 22, 2017, Wednesday, 6:15pm
Elks Club, Lower Level, North Entrance
44 Maynard Road, Middletown, CT

April 11, 2015
Saturday, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Evening of Wine Tasting
Stonington Vineyards
523 Taugwonk Road, Stonington, CT

We invite you to step forward & declare:
I Take a Stand Against Domestic Violence
Make your tax deductible donation by October 31, 2013
Name of contributors will be listed in local newspapers on/or near November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women