In January we had the rare opportunity to hear the story of a woman, Svetlana Pancetovic, who had survived the war in Bosnia. You may recall the article about her in our last Soropti-Scoop. Lana shared her experiences with us at one of our morning meetings. Club members were so grateful to Lana for opening up her heart to us, that we wanted to give something back to her.

The chance to do that came with the Soroptimist SOS – Saturday of Service. The SOS idea was born in 2002 when nine clubs in the Phoenix, Arizona area decided to give a few hours of hands-on service to their local communities. The date they chose was the closest Saturday to International Women’s Day. Last year more than 100 clubs participated throughout the four Federations of Soroptimist International (SI). This year the designated Saturday was March 5, and our club decided to participate.

Lana owns a home in town that was in need of yard work. There were a lot of weeds to pull, bushes and trees to cut back. She wanted to have a pond in front and raised beds in back where she could plant vegetables and flowers.

President Sandy and her husband Jim worked together to estimate how much material we would need to do the job. Thomas Lumber, a local store, gave us a discount on the material. What a great way to show support for our community. We are grateful to them.

Over the course of the day there were about a dozen members – including three husbands (Jim Reed, Fred Manzer, Ray Bentsen) – who showed up to help. All of the men brought tools: from saws, to hammers to a backhoe that was used to dig the pond in the front.

Soropti-Misters working together.

Jim Reed digging the pond in front.

We dug and pulled, filled in holes with dirt, moved the debris by wheel barrel to a trailer in the back. The debris was going to be used to fill a ditch on the Manzer property. We put netting around the base of the trees to protect the trunks. We put in grass seed.

Nanc Smith and Colleen Blazier pull weeds.

Marilyn Hooser and Sandy Reed pruning.

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