Category: Volunteers in Action

At the GFWC Illinois State Convention in May, clubs and individual members entered filled purses for the GFWC Illinois Purse Contest. They were displayed on tables in the convention meeting room by the categories: “Pamper Yourself,” “Personal Care,” “Collections,” “In the Kitchen,” “Crafts,” “Celebrations,” “Small, but Special,” “It’s an Original,” and “Other.” Some of the purses were used as centerpieces at the Opening Luncheon. When club members registered, they received 5 tickets to vote for their favorite purses. Handmade ribbons were presented to the winning purses in each category. A “People’s Choice Award” silver ribbon was presented for the purse receiving the most votes overall.  The Northwest Suburban Woman’s Club received this award for their purse entry “Let’s Go Out for a Treat!” The seventy-six filled purses were then donated to domestic violence shelters throughout Illinois. This project was suggested by the GFWC Signature Project Committee and will benefit many women and children who are survivors of domestic violence living in shelters.

The Woman’s Club of Point Pleasant (New Jersey) is excited to embark on a new project of creating “Operation Cuddly Comfort” Therapy Dolls for patients with memory loss. One way to calm and soothe agitated seniors with Alzheimer’s or dementia is to give them a soft, lifelike baby doll to cuddle. For many women and men, the dolls can bring back happy memories of early parenthood. Some even adopt the baby as their own and make caring for it a part of their daily routine, helping reduce feelings of isolation. The program is funded through donations, so patients will receive them at no cost. Club members are making clothing, blankets, and hats to send with the babies. Recently, the Woman’s Club of Point Pleasant had their first ‘Delivery Day’ at Leisure Park. Eleven ‘babies’ were delivered. Each ‘new mother’ received a doll in a unique outfit, a hand crocheted blanket and hat, an extra outfit for pajamas, a pacifier, and a birth certificate. Each mother named her baby and the names were inscribed on the certificate. Club members found it heartwarming to see these women cuddle, kiss, rock, and sing to their babies.

Committee Member Sharon Hattenbach dresses a Comfort Doll.

The GFWC Woman’s Citizenship Club (Colorado) distributing donor boxes and over a period of four and a half months, collected and shipped 573 pairs of shoes to Soles4Souls as part of GFWC’s Seven Grand Initiatives. They are proud of their community for donating such a large number of shoes to help improve lives!

One hundred and thirty local women’s club affiliated with GFWC New Jersey sponsored delegates for the Girls’ Career Institute (GCI). It’s an opportunity for students completing their junior year of high school to experience college life by attending lectures and networking with other young women at Rutgers University. The delegates were grateful for everything they experienced, from the opportunity to learn about different career paths to the service project where they prepared kits for Days for Girls, which distributes menstrual products to girls around the world who would otherwise have to stay home during their monthly periods instead of pursuing their education.

The GFWC Women’s Club of Indian River (Delaware) had a luncheon to celebrate both their year-end and having donated 231 pairs of shoes for Soles 4 Souls as part of GFWC’s Seven Grand Initiatives.

Vice Pres. Muriel Pfeiffer, Linda Kurpjuweit, Corr. Sec., Michele Smith, sitting Alyce Amussen, Sally Ledger, Christy Swiger,
Pres. Henrietta Belcher Stack and Secretary Linda Kutay, Second Row: Diane Pfahl, Treas. Shelby Weilepp, Jackie Riemenschneider, Millie Garcia and Mindy Goss.

Members from the GFWC High Springs New Century Woman’s Club (Florida) visited Partnership for Strong Families to present them with 22 “Birthday Bags” to distribute to children in foster care and families that are receiving support from the organization. The bags contained everything for a birthday party: hats, balloons, table decorations, toys, prizes, cake mixes, icing, and candles. Sometimes the birthday bags are used by caseworkers to encourage families to spend quality time with their children.

The Woman’s Club of Parsippany-Troy Hills (New Jersey) hosted a Salad Supper where they recognized the local students they provided with scholarships, as well as two Girls Career Institute delegates they sponsored. The students spoke gratefully about their college plans. In addition to all of the celebrations, the club was celebrating 65 years of Living the Volunteer Spirit!

The GFWC Park City Athenaeum Club (Utah) hosted their 77th annual Park City High School Girl Graduate Tea last month. The Tea, which began in 1942, celebrates that many women came to the Tea as senior girls and then returned as mothers.

Kathy Calhoun-Damon, club president of GFWC Park City Athenaeum Club, opened the 77^th annual Park City High School Girl Graduate Tea. 

Each year at the Tea, GFWC Park City Athenaeum Club honors two inspirational girls who are recognized by their peers, as well as senior girls who were sponsored by the club as sophomores to attend the Hugh O’Brian HOBY Leadership conference.

The guest speaker was Luz Lewis-Perez, Director of Development for the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho. Lewis-Perez spoke about how she found her place in the world growing up.  She stressed that the hard parts of life teach us many things, and few things in life must be done perfectly, they just must be done well. Lewis-Perez stressed to the girls that a new stage of life was opening-up as they leave high school, and there is a place for each of them in this world with their unique talents. There was music, a professional photographer taking pictures of the girls and their moms, and refreshments. The event is a great way to acknowledge the talented young women in the community.

The High Springs New Century Woman’s Club (Florida) was happy to present Deputy Chief Antoine Sheppard from the High Springs Police Department with additional care bags to keep in patrol cars for when officers encounter individuals in need, including the homeless. The bags contained donated water and ready-to-eat snacks. The bags were greatly appreciated and will be put to good use, and the club will continue this project.

The GFWC Woman’s Citizenship Club (Colorado) partnered with the First United Methodist Church to provide an ‘Autumn Blaze’ maple tree for the Alamosa Boys & Girls Club. Arbor Day comes late in Alamosa, Colorado where they are at 7,500 feet in elevation and have to wait until the weather gets warmer to plant trees!  More than twenty people participated and were grateful to the Department of Parks and Recreation crew for digging the hole ahead of time.

After learning about the importance of properly planting and taking care of trees, the boys and girls took turns preparing the hole by filling it with soil so the maple wasn’t planted too deep. Teh children then backfilled and firmed the soil by the stomping on it while someone held the tree upright. To prevent any injuries from shovels or flying soil, the eager boys and girls took turns shoveling in an orderly manner.

After the tree was planted, it was surrounded by wire mesh to prevent deer damage, was staked as it is in a windy location, and was mulched with cedar chips. The stakes will be taken off in a year since trees that are staked too long don’t develop a healthy root system and are therefore more likely to fall over. This type of maple has tender bark when young so the trunk will be wrapped in the winter with protective wrap until the diameter is 3 – 4 inches. The children affectionately named the tree, “Autumn Bob.”

Alamosa Methodist Church and GFWC Woman’s Citizenship Club members pose in front of the tree while the children finish an outdoor game and are rounded up for planting.

The Lawrenceville Woman’s Club (Georgia) partnered with the First Book Club 165 to assist in its book distribution program, which offers support for students at five Title 1 elementary schools who are at risk of failure and living at or near poverty. It provides 12 books to each student to read during the summer to help students not fall behind in their coursework. In February, during phase 1, club members helped sort the books. The book distribution began in May with the Lawrenceville Woman’s Club back in action to keep their table sections stocked and to assist students in selecting their books. The final task during the distributions was to double bag the books and provide students with a bookmark. This year the club served 3,815 students and distributed a total of 54,832 books, with the schools retaining those books not selected by their students. In addition to volunteering, the club made a monetary donation to support the purchase of chapter books.

GFWC Wyoming welcomes their newest club–the GFWC Meadowlarks, federated in May 2019 at the Wyoming State Conference! It’s a single purpose club that only meets in the summer months.  The projects already planned by the club members are to paint two rooms at the local homeless shelter, hold a garage sale, and provide lunch for the Habitat for Humanity building crew. We can’t wait to see these Volunteers in Action get started!

Five members of the Woman’s Club of Hartland (Wisconsin) collected 1,219 pairs of shoes, surpassing their goal of 1,000 pairs! They set up drop-off sites around the community, collected from those sites, and packed the shoes into 88 boxes to ship. Soles4Souls will receive 1,170 pairs, and the remaining shoes will go to the NIKE Reuse-a-Shoe program. They questioned whether they’d meet their goal, but they met it within two weeks! The club is so grateful for their community’s generosity.

Barb Christensen, Donna LeVeille, Kathy Loftis, Robyn Allen, and Joy Vilter collected shoes for the club.

Clubwomen from the GFWC Pennsylvania South Central District and students from Central Pennsylvania HOBY got together and made 305 boxes for The Jared Box Project. A Jared Box is a plastic shoe-box sized storage container filled with small gifts, toys, games, and other fun activities selected for a child’s specific age and gender. The goal of the Jared Box Project is to lift the spirits of children who are being treated in hospitals. The boxes were donated to Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania for hospitalized children of all ages. They also decorated 67 decorated pillow cases for children to use instead of a garbage bag when removed from their homes. Draw strings were added to the pillow cases so they can be used to transport items.

With enthusiasm and energy to spare, students in the California Scholastic Federation at Vista High School volunteered at the Earth Day Festival at Alta Vista Botanical Gardens. Fifty-seven students made crafts for families to do, pulled weeds, sorted trash, and cleaned up after the Festival. “Farmer Jones” aka Nancy B. Jones of the Woman’s Club of Vista (California) delivered appreciation certificates to the students.

When the Grundy Woman’s Club (Virginia) celebrated GFWC’s Federation Day on April 24 by sponsoring the Women in Entrepreneurship Conference: ‘Empowering Women.’ They sent five clubwomen to participate in workshops and bring back the insight gleaned over the course of the one-day event. Held at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia, the conference was hosted by the Virginia Tech Southwest Center and featured a dozen female entrepreneurs, who spoke on success in business, as well as in life. The purpose of the event was to encourage women to engage their skills and talents to support themselves and their families, as well as to contribute to the economy of the region.

Grundy clubwomen JoBeth Wampler, Sandy Stiltner, Betty Shields, Ginger Robertson, and Diane Lynch joined 59
other women in attendance at the event, which is expected to be held again in 2020.

It’s a long-standing tradition for the GFWC Oregon City Woman’s Club (Oregon) to place their club flower, the carnation, at the graves of 27 of their past presidents in Mt. View Cemetery. It goes as far back as Jennie B. Harding, president from 1904-1906. The event is a great way to honor the club’s rich history and the women who have carried on its legacy through the years.

The club also recently donated 36 children’s quilts and 57 stuffed animals to the Children’s Center to bring hope and healing to children and families. Following a child’s assessment at the center, they get to choose one stuffed animal and one quilt to take home.

GFWC Woman’s Club of Tarpon Springs (Florida) was awarded the Non-profit Business of the Year award at the Chamber of Commerce event in their community last week. Professionals who attended the event were amazed by both their philanthropic history and the longevity of their club which began in 1892.

Board members who accepted the award (from left to right):
Dolly Vatikiotis, Barbara Michelin and president Dee Isguzar.

GFWC West Side Women’s Club (Pennsylvania) recently served a meal at St. Vincent De Paul Soup Kitchen, which serves the community by helping the homeless and those in need. They provide hot meals daily and have a clothing room and food bank.

GFWC members: Ginny Zdanowicz; Maggie Wallowak;
Chairman Karen French; Terry Ross; Eileeen Gallagher; and Pat Clinton.

The Women’s Civic League (Utah) recently donated all occasion cards to Our House Assisted Living for residents to use. When the cards were delivered, several residents selected some of the cards for immediate use!