Women’s Fellowship Celebrates 100 Years
A large banner is posted on the United Church of Christ in Keene to acknowledge and celebrate the 100 years that the Women’s Fellowship has been part of the Keene community.
It seemed fitting to share this milestone with the Keene community, because “community” is included in our mission statement—to promote Christian Fellowship and to unite the women of the Church in effective work for the Church, the community, and the world.
We’ll be hearing more about this 100th anniversary in 2025, but here is short introduction, relative to our community ties. The organization was established in 1925 when three women’s groups within the Church—the Home Circle, the Foreign Missionary Society, and the Every Day Club—joined together and formed the Women’s Society. Then, in 1957, it was renamed the Women’s Fellowship.
In the 1940s, the group sent letters, packages, and local newspapers to those serving in uniform. Today, our group prepares over a hundred hygiene and school kits annually for distribution to areas of greatest need in this country and around the world. Those kits will be assembled at the end of April this year.
In the 1950s, the Women’s Fellowship sent hymnals, packages of food, and financial aid to missionaries, such as Elsie Priest, who was serving in Formosa. Today, the group gives support to our Youth Group for their annual mission trips, like the one they will undertake later this month to Puerto Rico.
In addition, Women’s Fellowship supports the upkeep of the Elsie Priest Park, named in honor of that former educational missionary. The park is a fenced-in, safe playground on Church property, open to the community for children of all ages and their families.
Each year, the Women’s Fellowship hosts two rummage sales where goods from within our Church family are recycled to the needs of the whole community. That sale took place yesterday.
And the organization commits a portion of its annual budget, earned at the rummage sales and our Christmas Fair, to 14 local non-profits, such as the Keene Community Kitchen and Rise for Baby and Family, and to national and international organizations, such as Ryder Memorial Hospital in Puerto Rico and UNICEF for the children of Ukraine. In addition, the Women’s Fellowship donates to local disaster relief, as in its recent contribution to the residents of Tanglewood Estates for weather damage to their homes.
You know what the Women’s Fellowship does within these walls—from flowers to receptions to programs about gems. But, it is a special joy to have the permission of the City of Keene to recognize this 100-year tradition of service beyond the walls of the United Church of Christ and into the community of Keene.
And, with hygiene kits, a rummage sale, and the Youth Mission trip, April looks like a good time to start the celebration. And why is the banner purple? Well, that’s the color of a 100th anniversary.