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In 2020, we’ll celebrate 100 years that women have had the vote. The Ojai Valley Woman’s Club (California) celebrated a little early and definitely in style! They dressed as suffragists and marched in their local 4th of July parade to celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so many decades ago.

Betty Paterson, Suki Sir, and Pat Essick (1st VP Ojai Valley Woman’s Club)

The GFWC Women’s Club of Odessa (Delaware) enjoyed an English Tea to remember the accomplishments of last year: donating over 100 pairs of shoes for Soles For Souls; distributing over 60 books to children’s libraries; writing letters to their legislators through the Legislative Action Center; providing an animal shelter with towels and blankets; collecting and distributing blankets to the homeless for MLK Day of Service, with one member cleaning a bench even while on vacation; and creating candy boxes to be distributed to patients in a veteran’s hospital on Valentine’s Day.

The Conservation and Education committees of the Lawrenceville Woman’s Club (Georgia) joined forces to stock a Little Free (Seed) Library at the Lawrenceville Housing Authority community garden. The garden is an on-going project of the Conservation committee. For the Seed Library, Conservation provided seed packets and seed saving envelopes while Education provided laminated Planting Guides and Harvesting Schedules. Now, with the inclusion of the Little Free (Seed) Library, the residents are able to maintain their gardens in the years to come. The club will continue to support other planned community gardens with the gardens’ own Little Free (Seed) Libraries. These gardens provide area residents with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables a sense of pride knowing they are providing their families with healthier food choices. Local co-ops will benefit from donations of food the new gardens. Classes and reference materials are going to provide the gardeners with best practices on harvesting, preparing and preserving food.

The GFWC Park City Athenaeum Club (Utah) held their 1st annual Road-Clean-Up on May 7th. The club adopted a 2.1 mile stretch of Old Ranch Road, which is a well-traveled and beloved roadway in Park City.  The day was cold and rainy, but somehow the weather made it more fun, and members were just glad it didn’t snow!

The Maquoketa Woman’s Club (Iowa) continually participates in community outreach and seeks new ways to make a positive impact. After one of their club members mentioned that the chemo port that was implanted near her chest was uncomfortable when she wore her seat belt, the club sprang to action with a solution that will provide some comfort for patients. The club has now donated over 160 handmade “seat belt port protector bags.” These soft, cushioned mini-pillows can be attached to the seat belt strap and adjusted accordingly to bring comfort to patients who have ports, pacemakers, and other health-related implants. The club donate them to the University of Iowa Hospital where they’re provided for free to patients. This is an ongoing project and one that will keep us busy due to its popularity at the hospital. It’s wonderful to know that we can bring a small bit of relief to patients. On May 11, they also helped spruce up the welcome sign that greets visitors as they enter the city. The volunteers have adopted the sign area and will continually maintain the landscaping. They planted 180 brightly colored marigolds and mulched the flower beds. In addition, they’ll be re-painting the letters on the sign so it’s even more visible to passersby. Throughout the summer and fall they’ll also be on weed patrol to keep the beds clean and welcoming.

The GFWC Saxonburg District Woman’s Club (Pennsylvania) are happy to contribute to the Soles4Souls Grand Intiative. In just one month, they collected 75 pairs of gently used and some new shoes to donate. They were delivered to Larua Marks who will be taking them on a mission trip in July. She hopes to be able to take 5000 pairs of shoes with her by that time!

The GFWC- South Brunswick Islands Woman’s Club (North Carolina) participated in the March for Babies Walk in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  The club made baby blankets, 12 of which were donated at the local event, and 14 of which were donated to the national event. The club also raised $2,009.00! The club not only surpassed their 2018 collections in both dollars collected and blankets donated, but they were also recognized locally as 3rd place in donations for non-family member groups.

The Salem Area Woman’s Club (New York) worked with the Glens Falls Hospital to co-sponsor the 25th Annual Women’s Health Day “By Women For Women” at Salem Washington Academy. There was an outstanding community response to this all-day event.  The keynote talk was given by author Patricia A. Nugent.  Six workshops were offered by Dr. Krista Carle, Jill Chadwick, Elizabeth Cockey, Joyce Dattner, Jessica Roesel, and Dr. Lauren Van DeWater. Attendees  enjoyed a continental breakfast which was supported by the club and local sponsor, while local businesses contribute door prizes. Homemade baked goods were available to purchase throughout the day. Health Day Committee Chairman Lois Sheaff voiced her thanks to all involved in making this interesting and informative event such a success.

Chairman Lois Sheaff with keynote speaker Patricia A. Nugent.

The Women’s Club of Indian River (Delaware) celebrated Arbor Day with a tree planting at the Indian River Yacht Club where they hold their meetings. The tree was donated by the East Coast Garden Center, RSC Landscaping, LTD., Millsboro and planted by them through the help of new members Stephen and Michael Cordrey.

Linda Kutay, Recording Secretary; Muriel Pfeiffer, Vice-President, Shelby Weillop, Treasurer;
Cheryl Broadway, Home Life Chair; and Henrietta Belcher-Stack, President.

In 1961, the GFWC Yorba Linda Woman’s Club (California) gave their first scholarships by awarding two local students $50 each. Now they host an annual Student Awards Night. This year it took place on May 2 and the club awarded over $30,000 in scholarships, HOBY leadership awards, and art awards to 57 high school students from local area schools. The funds were raised through a combination of proceeds from their Spring and Fall Craft Fairs and their wonderful sponsors.

In attendance were the students’ families, friends, art teachers, and school principals, as well as several local dignitaries: City of Yorba Linda Mayor Tara Campbell, Mayor Pro Tem Beth Haney, Councilmember Gene Hernandez, City Manager Mark Pulone, OC Supervisor Hon. Don Wagner, Senator Ling Ling Chang, and representatives from the offices of Congressman Gil Cisneros and Assemblyman Phillip Chen. On display were the winning students’ photography, drawing, painting, mixed media and 3D art entries.

The annual awards ceremony evening is a wonderful culmination of all the outstanding work of the Yorba Linda Woman’s Club each year. The club members dedicate their time to planning, coordinating, advertising, etc. to continue these successful events so that they can continue to give back to their community and young students through scholarships and awards.

The Needham Women’s Club (Massachusetts) held their largest fundraiser, Dancing with the Needham Stars, along with the Needham Exchange Club. These two groups will donate more than $50,000 to several local programs and charities that benefit children, domestic violence survivors, homeless families, and the intellectually disabled.

Women’s club members dancing through the decades!

Peace Over Violence has run its Denim Day campaign on a Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Violence Awareness Month for the past nineteen years. The campaign was originally prompted by a ruling of the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the survivor was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the survivor. Peace Over Violence developed the Denim Day campaign in response to this case and the activism surrounding it. Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against inaccurate and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. This year’s Denim Day was April 24, 2019, also Federation Day, and the executive board of GFWC California’s Southern District showed their support by wearing jeans.

In January, Olympia Woman’s Club president Linda Wolfe, vice-president Sandra Groves, and member Pat Keith met with Senator Sam Hunt to review procedures and processes for potential funds from the Washington State Legislature for the Abigail Stuart House. The upkeep and maintenance of the house is a considerable cost to the club, and they’ve been searching for assistance. At the prompting of Senator Hunt, The Woman’s Club of Olympia prepared an application to their Washington State Legislature House and Senate representatives, Senator Hunt and Representative Beth Doglio, to apply for an appropriation of funds from the Capital Budget for upgrades and maintenance of the historic Abigail Stuart House by making it more ADA accessible, upgrading the electrical wiring system, installing a new roof, refinishing floors, painting, and overall maintaining of the House. The application made it through the offices to be included as an application to the Financial Committee. Since March 1, the club periodically checked in with Hunt and Doglio’s offices to review the progress of their application. The final vote on the Washington State Operating and Capital Budgets was held just moments before the close of the legislative session and both budgets passed with revisions. One revision that was not removed was the Abigail Stuart House and the final Capital Budget awarded an appropriation in the amount of $250,000. The Woman’s Club of Olympia is thrilled with this outcome and will be setting up a committee to set priorities for the use of the funds within the guidelines of the application.

To show support for the GFWC-New York President’s Project, the Farmingdale Women’s Club held their Pinwheel Prevention Event in April and donated $150 to child abuse shelters for Lond Island children. In the fountain there are memory and tribute boards and Tina Diamond added the Floral Park Juniors to it.

One of the Seven Grand Initiatives was to plant 1,000 trees for Arbor Day, and clubs took it to heart, planting trees across the country. Here are just a few of the clubs who celebrated.

Being from Nebraska, the Seward GFWC has celebrated Arbor Day since the beginnings! They are proud to know that clubs across the country were celebrating this year too thanks to the Seven Grand Initiatives. This year, Seward GFWC joined forces with Concordia University to celebrate their 125th birthday by planting two trees. One was dedicated to the GFWC club and the second was in recognition of Concordia’s milestone. Both trees were donated by Sinclair Hille Architects of Lincoln Nebraska, who just completed a new building on Concordia’s campus.

Every year, their Arbor Day celebration includes the fourth grade classes from Seward’s public elementary school as well as St. John’s Lutheran and St. Vincent de Paul’s Catholic school’s; each class does a presentation in honor of Arbor Day. The festivities were started with a Proclamation by Seward’s Mayor, Joshua Eickmeier. Two separate trees were donated by an individual to the Seward GFWC and were planted on Arbor Day at the Seward Civic Center where the club meets. The Civic Center was built in 1955 after Jessie Langworthy passed and donated the land and money for a structure to be built to host non-profit organizations at no cost. Mrs. Langworthy’s mother-in-law was an early member of their town’s GFWC club.

For Arbor Day, the GFWC Dillsburg Woman’s Club (Pennsylvania) voted to plant a small tree in Quay Park, which the club owns. Since it is a beautiful but narrow park on the main street, they needed to plant a tree that would stay somewhat small. Thus, after speaking to one of the horticulturists, they decided on the pinky winky hydrangea tree that blooms as white flowers in mid-summer and changes into purplish pink flowers in late summer and fall.

The GFWC Woman’s Club of the Denville-Rockaway (New Jersey) joined in the festivities when the town held a’ bridge’ dedication at a local park for one of the club’s past members, Peggy Gray. She was an active volunteer in the town and the club was able to get a tree donated in her memory and planted by the bridge.

Pictured with members is the Mayor of Denville, Tom Andes.

The Sorosis Club of Lamar (Colorado) worked along side the tree board and their local 5th graders to help plant 30 trees at local ball parks. Four members were able to help the 5th graders plant trees and nine members provided 12 doz. cookies and 12 doz. bottled waters to the 105 students and adults. Everyone had a great time!

Many clubs brought together Arbor Day and Federation Day to make their mark and celebrate in a big way. One such club was the GFWC Temple Terrace Woman’s Club (Florida), who planted 2 red maple trees to celebrate GFWC’s history.

Another club who combined the celebrations was the GFWC South San Francisco Women’s Club (California). They purchased a valley oak tree that they planted at Orange Memorial Park, a local sculpture garden. A plaque indicating the type of tree, location, date of donation, and an inscription indicating it was donated by the South San Francisco Women’s Club will be posted in their SSF Municipal Services Building for the public to see.

L to R: President Sylvia Payne, Evening and Garden Chair Sharon Silvers;
2nd VP Janine Greenwald; Treasurer Olma O’Neill; and Past President Annette Davis

The Women’s League of Mt. Holly (New Jersey) celebrated Arbor Day with a tribute to two of their members. Club president Joelle Wentz conducted a ceremony to honor Mardella Woolston for 63 years and Carol Kovacs for 48 years of loyalty, generous spirits, and loving hearts. Both were presented with a certificate and became lifetime Honorary Members as they touched candles to represent the circle of light that guided their footsteps for all those years. To celebrate Arbor Day, the club purchased two books on trees and donated them to the very school Mardella retired from so many years ago. The school was delighted and asked her to read a book to the children. One of the books donated is a true story about teacher, Kate Sessions, who moved to San Diego in 1883 and began planting trees in that dry, arid terrain and how she changed the city forever. The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins was the perfect example of the strength and tenacity their two honorees have shown over a combined total of 111 years.

And last but not least, Midge Tucker, a member of the GFWC Ludlow-Okemo Valley Woman’s Club (Vermont), showed that just one person can make a difference. She doesn’t just plant trees for Arbor Day! Midge has a lot of evergreens in her yard, and while weeding the gardens she comes across tiny inch-high seedling trees. She pulls them up and plants them in little pots, sometimes weaving two or more together for strength. The stems are sometimes as thin as a piece of thread, but will grow rapidly when put together. Some of her successes have found their way to other areas of town, usually when they reach at least a foot high and can survive transplanting into strange soil. She wants to spread the love through trees and you can too!

Clubs around the country have planted pinwheels for Child Abuse Prevention Month to symbolize healthy and happy childhoods. The GFWC Spring Station Woman’s Club (Tennessee) planted a pinwheel garden in front of Spring Hill City Hall and issued a press release to local news media to raise awareness.

Cassie Self, Willie Adler, and Tina Majors

Members of the Woman’s Club of Fredericksburg (Virginia) greeted Fredericksburg Head Start students to plant a pinwheel garden.

Cheryl Broadway, the Home Life Chair of the GFWC Women’s Club of Indian River (Delaware), joined other members to collect art supplies and diapers for Easterseals in Georgetown. The baskets were donated and decorated by member Christy Swiger. 

Pictured left to right are Shelly Waples, Easterseals Access Rep for Children’s Therapy Dept.;
Home Life Chair Cheryl Broadway; Linda Forte, Community Relations Easterseals;
Kate Antisavage, Easterseals Center Director of the Adult Day Program; Shelby Weilepp, Women’s Club of Indian River Treasurer;
Henrietta Belcher-Stack, President of Women’s Club of Indian River; and Muriel Pfeiffer, Vice President of Woman’s Club of Indian River.

The GFWC Brookings Women’s Club (South Dakota) helped pack food bags for school children. The Brookings Backpack Project is a program that assists children and youth in Brookings County by providing them with easy to prepare weekend meals and snacks throughout the year. They helped pack 450 bags of food to deliver to schools for the kids to take home for the weekend. This is a weekly project, with different community groups and volunteers taking part.

The GFWC Progress Club of Las Cruces (New Mexico) volunteered to help with the preparation of Marcher Bags for participants of the 29th Annual Bataan Memorial Death March held annually at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This March honors the more than 75,000 American and Filipino Soldiers who were surrendered to the invading Japanese force in April 1942. This year there were 8,790 marchers. The GFWC Progress Club, along with other volunteers, helped prepare 9,500 Marcher Bags in two days! Bags included shirts, brochures, dog tags, shave gel, blister pads, hydration drink and pamphlets. In a small way, they were able to honor the 10,000 people who died along the way and many more who were held in captivity. The club was honored to be part of this important event to honor the men and women who serve our country today and throughout history.

GFWC Utah made a donation to the Hill Air Force Base’s Spouses’ Belle of the Ball program. The formal and semi-formal dresses are “rented” to military personnel, their spouses and children, civilian base personnel, and anyone who has access to the base. They can rent the dresses free of charge for military balls, proms, weddings, or any event that requires a formal dress.  GFWC Utah donated 155 dresses along with shoes, purses, and jewelry. Taylor Williams (left), director of the program, accepted the dresses from Linda Kuwana (right), President of GFWC Utah.  Taylor had to come the next day with an extra car to transport everything. She was “blown away” at the generosity of the Utah membership.

Members of the GFWC Park City Athenaeum Club (Utah) were one of the clubs who joined GFWC Utah in collecting gowns to support military women. They gathered approximately 60 fabulous gowns. Members had fun “modeling” three of the gowns from the collection before packing them up for delivery.

Marilyn Boschetto (Event Chairperson), Kathy Calhoun-Damon (Club President),
and Lynette McAferty (Club Historian and Membership and Communications Coordinator).

GFWC West Side (Pennsylvania) also had supporting military women on the mind! They donated Mommy Bags to new mothers at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre.  The bags contained personal items for moms, such as: body wash, lip balm, hand sanitizer, tissues, sticky note pads, ink pens, hand lotion, chocolate bars, snacks, and a personal note of encouragement and thanks from the women of the club!

Co-chairmen of the project, Mary Seyfert and Heide Cebrick.

GFWC Virginia President Kelly Lane joined GFWC Virginia Lee District President Carol Outten and members of the Henry Clay Woman’s Club of GFWC in planting a Pinwheel garden at the Ashland Town Hall. This is the fifth year that the club has planted the garden to mark April as Child Abuse Prevention Month! They were joined by Assistant Town Manager, Matt Reynal, and other members of the town staff who were invited to participate.

At GFWC West Virginia’s state convention in March, women from all over the state brought shoes for GFWC’s Cooperative Giving Project with Soles4Souls as part of the Seven Grand Initiatives. Over 650 shoes were collected! The GFWC West Virginia Director of Junior Clubs, Dana Richardson, spoke about Soles4Souls at a luncheon during the convention. She spoke about their mission and gave two accounts of real life stories. One was about an eight year old boy, Julio, who received a new pair of shoes to replace what was left of his boots, and one about Jounise, who was part of Soles4Souls’ micro-enterprise model.  Jounise was able to open up a business and earn an income to provide food and shelter for her family. There were so many shoes that five clubwomen had to take several bags of shoes home with them because all of them couldn’t fit in one vehicle. Dana dropped off the shoes at a drop off location near her home.

The GFWC Colorado Valleys District (Colorado), with a membership of 39 ladies, decided to do a joint service project as part of their Annual Spring Convention. The members brought personal care items for women and children. They stuffed purses they had donated full of these items to take to their local domestic violence shelter, Tu Casa. In 2018, Tu Casa served 226 survivors of domestic violence with support, counseling, and temporary protective housing as they continued on their journey of dealing with a destructive relationship and going on to a new life, free of fear and retaliation. In addition to this, in 2018, Tu Casa conducted 120 forensic interviews of children as survivors of domestic violence. Many survivors come to the shelter with only the clothes on their backs. The GFWC Colorado Valleys District members thought that having a purse filled with the items with a note from the club member who filled the purse would be a bit of encouragement. The members filled 43 purses with a total in-kind value of over $800.00!

The GFWC Progress Club of Las Cruces (New Mexico) distributed white awareness bracelets with a message to never condone domestic violence to three local high schools. February was Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, so the club focused on that along with the Martin Luther King Day of Service in January. They had a former high school teacher make the connection with the schools and wrote a rationale behind the bracelets to create awareness and to gain buy in to distribute the bracelets. They distributed 500 of these bracelets which they purchased through their Domestic Violence Budget. These bracelets were readily received by the schools. Their Domestic Violence Budget is funded through three fundraisers they do each year: a Card Party, Fashion Show, and Golf Tournament. Their club also supports the local La Casa Shelter for Domestic Violence by volunteering and donating to their Christmas Bazaar, but this project was an opportunity to expand their support, as they know many teenagers have been exposed to domestic violence within their homes or in their community.

Nine members of GFWC-Battle Ground (Washington) planted a “pinwheel garden” to spread awareness of child abuse. In the midst of the garden are four “Burma Shave” type signs that all together read: “Help Kids…Grow Happily…Without Abuse…” followed by a sign with the GFWC logo. The west lawn of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church was chosen as the site of the garden because it is on a busy street and is the home of a preschool. Planting pinwheel gardens is a campaign by GFWC Partner Prevent Child Abuse America. The pinwheel symbolizes great childhoods. The display will be up through April, Child Abuse Prevention month.

            GFWC-Battle Ground members in the photo of the finished garden,
nearest to farthest: Club President Mary Lee Miller, Marla Polos, Paulette Stinson,
Gloria Walck, Wendy McDaniel, Valerie Huey, Nancy Lee and Johanna Hyatt.
Photo by project chairman, Louise Tucker.

In February, the GFWC Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs (Colorado) held an event called, “A Fulfilling Luncheon” to educate and create awareness of the human trafficking issue their community and our country. Thirty members attended along with twenty-six guests which included women from other organizations such as the American Association of University Women, Zonta International, and Newcomers. The GFWC Colorado state and district presidents joined too. Admission to the luncheon was a $10 donation and specific items to fill backpacks for law enforcement to give to trafficked individuals when rescued. The backpacks were donated to Restore Innocence, a non-profit headquartered in Colorado Springs which provides aid to victims of human trafficking. The CEO gave an excellent presentation on the horror of human trafficking and the purpose of the backpacks. Each backpack contains a fresh change of clothes, underwear, socks, toiletries, a small blanket, and more. It takes $80-$100 to fill one backpack. The backpacks are distributed to law enforcement and the FBI locally and throughout the country to give to those rescued from  trafficking.  After lunch the women went down the assembly line and filled the backpacks. The generosity of the women resulted in thirty-eight full backpacks plus many extras for Restore Innocence. They were overwhelmed with joy to give this $3500 in-kind and $400 donation to such an important organization.

The GFWC-NH Salem Woman’s Club (New Hampshire) is a member of their local Chamber of Commerce and has formulated partnerships with several other community outreach organizations that promote and recognize their club in their newsletters and websites. The club has been publicly thanked for several projects, including the Salem Police Department, Silverthorne Adult Day Care, Bridging the Horizons, Girl Scouts, Homeland Hero’s, Palace Theater, Dollars for Scholars, and End 68 Hours of Hunger to name a few. 42 members were involved and totaled 10 volunteer hours.

This week, the Paradise Valley Junior Women’s Club (Arizona) donated 100 pairs of shoes to Soles4Souls! We’re so excited to see how many clubs have been so successful in supporting GFWC’s Cooperative Giving Project with Soles4Souls.

The Lake City Women’s Club (Michigan) may be on a winter hiatus, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still active in their community. Since March was National Reading Month and also Dr. Seuss birthday, the club celebrated by purchasing 36 new Dr. Seuss books and donated them to the Lake City Elementary School as part of GFWC’s Dr. Seuss Grand Initiative. The books were separated into 13 individually wrapped presents so each of the kindergarten, first, and second grade classes would receive one. The club also donated 25 books to the “Let’s Read Lake City” program, which distributes books to local sites to improve reading skills of young children.

At their Spring Conference, members of the GFWC Oregon Valley District assisted Three Rivers Humane Society (TRHS) by collecting items from their shelter wish list. This 501c3 organization was created to ensure a better life for the animals of Central Oregon and to help put an end to pet overpopulation in the area. Executive Director Stephen Drynan was on hand to meet with members and gather the supplies. TRHS is currently caring for between 80-90 pets per night at the Madras facility, so the pet goods and supplies are much needed.

Members of the GFWC Oregon Valley District share a
table full of donations for Three Rivers Humane Society.
Pictured with Stephen Drynan, TRHS Executive Director.

The GFWC E.S.O. Regional Readers (Indiana) answered the calls for two Grand Initiatives at their March meeting. They collected enough Dr. Seuss books to donate them to two schools! They also donated 26 pairs of shoes for the Soles4Souls campaign. Members have pledged to drop off more shoes as the weather gets warmer and closets get cleared up for new shoes.

The Reed City GFWC (Michigan) celebrated Women’s History Month by creating a display at the library of women who have made their mark on history!

Leaving grade school and coming to the middle school can be a little overwhelming, so the Munster Junior’s Club (Indiana) brought over 500 kids together to team-build, laugh, cry, and bond. They helped the kids make “Fluffy Necklaces” made of yarn with 20 red, white, and black strings attached to it. The concept is that anytime they pay a classmate a compliment, they give them a string, and so the goal is to get rid of all the strings! It’s a great icebreaker exercise to play throughout the day. The kids also had a station where they could decorate mags for Meals on Wheels, where they were asked to think of other ways they could volunteer in their life, such as by volunteering at the local animal shelter, being a volunteer tutor at school, or collecting bags for the homeless mats the club makes. At the end of the day the kids gather in the gym to celebrate their new friendships and new attitudes!