First International Friendship Day

Here’s some ideas for What friendship means:

• Photo of a Group Hug – A picture showing close friends embracing, symbolizing support and togetherness.
• Artwork of Interlocked Hands – A drawing or painting showing different hands intertwined, representing unity and diversity in friendship.
• Quote on Friendship – A beautifully designed image with a famous quote about friendship, such as “Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world” (John Evelyn).
• Nature Symbolism – A photo of intertwined trees, branches, or flowers growing together, symbolizing how friendships grow and strengthen over time.
• Written Reflection – A short paragraph or poem describing how friendship has impacted your life, or what qualities you value in a friend (trust, loyalty, joy, etc.).
• Cultural Symbol of Friendship – An image of a traditional symbol that represents friendship in your culture (e.g., friendship bracelets, a peace dove, etc.).
• Collage of Memories – A small collage of photos with friends at different stages of life, representing the lasting impact of those relationships.
• Friendship Recipe – A fun idea where someone creates an image of a recipe for “Friendship” with ingredients like love, laughter, and loyalty.
• Sunset or Sunrise Image – A beautiful photo of a sunrise or sunset, with a caption like “Friendship is a sunrise that brightens our days.”
• Hearts in Hands – A photo of someone holding a heart shape in their hands, representing care and affection in friendship.

Each participant also shared a favorite recipe of hers. Together, they compiled the recipes into a shared digital cookbook.

Letter from Kim Hainsworth, President or SISEAP Sisters Online (Empowering Women and Girls)
Soroptimist International South East Asia Pacific

Hi everyone,

Thank you to those who attended our International Friendship Day event on 2/3 October. (Let’s make this an annual event!) It was lovely to see so many beautiful faces.

Thank you also for your friendship images and quotes for the attached quilt. I just wanted to quickly highlight a few pictures from the quilt:

Suzanne Heron, I love your photo with your arms open wide-such emotion.

Barbara (Canada West Online President), representing Canada in a hot air balloon competition in Switzerland during the winter. In this particular flight, Barb actually crashed into the forest.

Chyler, who couldn’t attend, sent a beautiful picture overlooking a valley.

And, of course, there’s a screenshot of us at our Friendship catch-up.

Thanks as well for the recipes everyone submitted. We’ve now turned them into an e-recipe book, which is also attached.

It was great to meet our sisters from Canada West Online and celebrate our formal friendship link. Our club looks forward to sharing ideas, building friendships, and hopefully collaborating on some projects together. The power of online connections!

Junko, thank you for joining us, and we hope to hear from you more. Paula, good luck with all the hard work you will be doing in Germany. We’d love to have you as a guest speaker to talk about the gut biome. I hope this event gave you a glimpse into Soroptimist International. You would be joining a group of passionate women dedicated to making a difference in the lives of women and girls.

Please find attached the recipe book-we hope you enjoy it. You’ll also find our digital quilt, filled with memories from our special day, celebrating the power of friendship.

Feel free to reply to all if you’d like to continue the conversation. We will aim to host more friendship events throughout the year, any ideas we would love to hear them.

Oh, and Suzanne, regarding sultanas and raisins:

Raisins: Typically made from dark grapes and dried naturally in the sun, giving them a darker colour and chewier texture.

Sultanas: Made from white or golden grapes. They’re often treated with a solution (such as sulphur dioxide) to retain their lighter colour and are dried more quickly, resulting in a plumper, juicier texture.

So, sultanas are lighter and juicier, while raisins are darker and chewier. Not sure how I feel about the sulphur dioxide in sultanas though!

Finally, here’s a snippet about the founding member we mentioned when discussing the relevance of International Friendship Day.

I look forward to progressing our friendships.

In sisterhood

Kim Hainsworth
President
SISEAP Sisters Online (Empowering Women and Girls)
Soroptimist International South East Asia Pacific