Franklin Grove Woman’s Club celebrates 100 years

FRANKLIN GROVE – For 100 years the Franklin Grove Woman’s Club has been helping fund and organize community events. On Jan. 28, club members paid tribute to those achievements with an open house – on the exact same date the club formed in 1924.

In honor of the milestone, Franklin Grove proclaimed it to be Franklin Grove Woman’s Club Day in recognition of the involvement and dedication the club women have given to the community.

State Representative Brad Fritts, R-Dixon, presented the Illinois House of Representatives Certificate of Recognition to club members. Trisha Schafer and Diane Addante, representatives of the Illinois General Federation of Women and Kathy Johnson, GFWC District 13th president, also attended the event.

Club members have been involved in many community activities, including beautification projects, hosting community banquets and supporting local schools, the fire department and the village, said Julie J. Grendahl.

Additional activities have included providing nursing scholarships, sponsoring an art show at the library, and blood drives.

“The club made scrapbooks and many of these have been collected. The earliest are from the late 1930s. The scrapbooks capture details of the club’s projects over the years. In the 1940s, the ladies rolled bandages for the troops. They kept a record of how many inches of bandages were rolled at each meeting,” Grendahl said.

“The club has been dedicated to its main mission, community improvement projects. Their major achievement was raising funds and constructing an enclosed park shelter house at Atlasta Park in 1996. After completion, the shelter house was given to the village and is used for many events. The club still holds meetings at the shelter house.”

Anyone interested in being a member of the Franklin Grove Woman’s Club can visit the Club’s Facebook page – GFWC Franklin Grove Woman’s Club for more information.