Page 1 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 124 - September 2024 - COMPLETED

E-news

Edition 124– September 2024

Dear members,

The summer has been a busy time, one for family and friends, and indeed those that
have become friends. Dr Anastacia Lewis, the BPW President of the Freeport Grand Baha-
mas Club, visited me at the end of July. This is one of the newest BPW Clubs and they want-
ed to understand much more about BPW from one of the founding Federations, BPW UK. I
had connected with Anastacia as I sent her a good luck message from us all, when we were
told of this new club and members. It has been a great opportunity to learn from each oth-
er, as the world is a much smaller place when we are BPW members.

I had the opportunity of taking Dr Lewis to meet the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Councillor
Andrew Varney at our beautiful City Hall in the centre of our city. Cllr Varney was very inter-
ested in our organisation, our Public Speaking project and the “Van for Chernihiv” humani-
tarian project. Indeed, he was very supportive of our idea to investigate a BPW Twinning be-
tween our members, based on the BPW Green Tourism guidelines, approved by BPW Euro-
pean Presidents at the last meeting in Rome earlier this year. Indeed, he has kindly offered
any further help which may be needed for future visits, as Bristol is a multicultural city with
187 countries represented, over 45 religions and 91 main languages spoken. Dr Lewis and I
met with the Bahamas High Commissioner in London, His Excellency Paul Andrew Gomez,
where we talked of BPW International and the important links it gives to us as members. His
Excellency was keen to tell us about the educational links we have between our two nations,
as members of the Commonwealth. PIP Sylvia Perry talked to Dr Anastacia about her two
BPW books, and graciously signed two copies for her to take back to the BPW Bahamas
members to read. Finally, as a part of Dr Lewis’s five-day trip to the UK we held a Garden
Party at my home in Bristol, hastily organised as we had been filling her diary with visits to
our officials and a tour of Buckingham Palace. We look forward to looking more closely at
the opportunities a BPW Twinning may bring to all our members, and meeting again at Con-
gress in November.

In August I went to Bristol City Hall with SEW Public speaking co-ordinator Isobel
Chivers for a meeting with Councillor Christine Townsend who is the Cabinet Member for Ed-
ucation in the city. We discussed the opportunities to build on the Public Speaking Competi-
tion successes by introducing more schools to the competition. Cllr Townsend was interested
to hear more about this IFBPW registered BPW UK project and how we can work together to
share the benefits of taking part. We look forward to hearing more from Cllr Townsend, and
we will of course let you know more in due course.

th
The Ukrainian Independence Day Celebrations on 24 August 2024 was celebrated
this year whilst PNP of BPW St Kitts Ionie Knight and her husband Dennis “Freddie” Knight
were visiting Jeremy and me in Bristol. Some of you may recognise the surname……as she is
the Mum of our YBPW Yasmin Knight. It was a wonderful opportunity to show our support to
the members of BPW Chernihiv, our BPW UK Twinned Club. We took the flag that had been
sent to me from BPW Chernihiv to show our support, and we joined in a “circle of unity” be-
fore being invited as guests of the deputy Lord Mayor of Bristol Cllr Paul Goggin into City
Hall to hear traditional Ukrainian music and sample the beautiful foods.
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wjv54pxnko