SI Los Banos has an active Social and Economic committee who have gathered items for care packages to distribute to victims of domestic violence. We give the care packages to our local women’s shelter, “A Woman’s Place.” Usually when a person leaves an abusive situation, she leaves without personal hygiene items; our care packets help to fill the need of these items, and hopefully will let the victims know that our Soroptimist organization truly cares about them. Our committee has taken the project a step further by gathering items for the children that are also sent to the shelter.

Recycling Days: Another new committee formed by our club this year is our Environmental Committee. Our town had no organized program for recycling, until now. Our club started recycling by bringing recyclables to our meetings and placing them in the back of our member, Sandy Lemas’ pickup truck. Several newspaper articles were written about the project and now the community is getting behind our project. We, as a service project, are now holding organized “Recycling Days” at our local parks. Our members man each park site and collect the recyclables brought to the park by our city residents. We have these drop-off days one Saturday a month, and feel that we are filling a need to help our environment. Our city has had trouble getting a curbside recycling process going, but we have proven that when you are a Soroptimist in Los Banos, you really can get things done, and help our environment in the process.

“S” Club Charter: Last, but not least, our club chartered an “S” Club at Los Banos High School. We were proud to have 45-charter members. The “S” club has been very active in service by visiting our local senior residential care facility, volunteering for “Kops for Kids,” and our local Salvation Army. It’s great to see these young people get into the true spirit of Soroptimism: Caring about and service to others, working together to make a difference for women and our community.