Email: marilynbucher@gmail.com
Description:
The Girl’s Community Club of Saugerties was founded on March 4, 1928, by 15 local young ladies. So in 2023, it is celebrating its 95th anniversary. For more on the club's history, see the "History" section immediately following.
This independent organization supports the community while providing a social environment for women to share information. The Club's original mission was to help people that were less fortunate and assist with community concerns. And the Club carries out that mission today.
Meetings are on the first Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. The locations change among different homes each month. So call if you are interested in attending and want to know the location.
For more information contact Marilyn Bucher at 845-246-1209 or Colleen Greco 845-750-1392.
History
The club was founded on March 24, 1928 by Elsie Thornton, Rose Sour (Tress), Ann McCormack and Anna Mae Johnson. They held meetings at the Saugerties Community House Hall, where they hosted their first organized event on May 2, 1928: a club dance with music by Montano’s Orchestra for an admission fee of 35 cents.
In wartime, the Girl’s Community Club sponsored a bond booth in the lobby of the Orpheum Theatre, selling an impressive $8,700 in Series E bonds for the cause. They sent care packages throughout the war years to local men and women who were deployed overseas. Each package included a note that read, “ To all of you in khaki and blue, we send this greeting warm and true; our thoughts are with you day by day, while you speed victory on its way. We hope our boxes have brought you cheer.”
Other major fundraisers were an annual Christmas party for needy girls within the Saugerties community, who received clothing and gifts. The club also sponsored an annual bus trip to New York City, a tradition still going on today. They held fundraising fashion shows, Victorian-themed tea parties, gourmet dinner raffles, cookbook creation and sales, sponsorship in walks to fight cancer, flea markets and volunteered to help other nonprofit organizations raise money.
[Excerpted from a March 25, 2014 article by Hudson Valley One - "All About the Girls Community Club".]