Womans Club Of Minneapolis

Programs: The woman's club was originated by six women who realized that they could achieve more in the community collectively than they could individually. They began meeting in 1907 and continued growing until they built the building located at 410 oak grove st. In minneapolis. They are responsible in large part for the milk program and lunch program in the minneapolis public schools, the purification of water in the city of minneapolis and had a great hand in the public health nursing program. Community outreach has always been the mission-based foundation of the woman's club of minneapolis. Since its founding, the club has donated over five million dollars to local nonprofits that help women and children in our community. Over the years, we have continued most of our traditional activities and we have also begun some new ones. The ard godfrey house, the oldest frame house in minneapolis, dating from 1849, was restored by the woman's club and opened to the public in 1979. Now owned and maintained by the minneapolis park board, the woman's club continues to care for the interior furnishings and provides guided tours on weekends throughout the summer. In addition, they host open house events each may (dandelion day) and december (holiday open house). Private tours are given upon request at other times and the house is also open for special events. Over 750 visitors toured the godfrey house in fy18. The woman's club of minneapolis currently has over 40 committees and interest groups to coordinate its charitable, educational and social activities. Some of the committees include: the writer's guild, classes and seminars, grants and scholarships, the needlework guild, various reading groups, the history committee, and the finance committee. Below are some of the accomplishments for the fy2018 fiscal year. Educational programs for the continuing education of members and the community are an important part of the mission. Every tuesday, the club sponsors an educational program for the benefit of the club's members with topics ranging from history, global and local issues, to health and wellness. In addition, each month, the great decisions discussion group hosts a guest speaker that presents information about world issues. The breakfast networking is a premier networking event for club members and community members and each month focuses on a topic relevant to today's businesswoman. New programs added last year included nextgen saturdays (for teens and young women) and the breakfast business book club. The members also participate in activities that benefit other non-profit organizations including:" every quarter, members of the club prepared sandwiches for the hennepin avenue methodist church dignity center, using ingredients provided by the woman's club. " throughout the year, members contribute personal care items such as shampoo and lotion for sharing and caring hands. " in august, the school supply drive collects school supplies for children in need, everything from calculators to rulers and pencils and in partnership with the aquatennial princess candidates, 75 backpacks full of supplies were donated to people serving people" every fall, members contribute to the children's book drive to provide books for the minnesota visiting nurse agency to give to parents of babies and young children, often the only books in the home. Over 1500 books have been donated in the past 5 years. " during the christmas season, there are two large outreach opportunities. Disadvantaged youth were part of shop with a cop which pairs woman's club members with minneapolis police to shop with children for their families. Be a santa to a senior provided the opportunity for members to fulfill 60+ christmas wishes for seniors living at augustana homes, a local nursing home. " the hat and mitten tree collected warm items valued at over $3,000, donated by members to east african women's center. " hosted a baby shower and conducted a book drive (1,500 books) to benefit mvnathis year, we held the 104th vip (visually impaired persons) luncheon, with over 100 guests in attendance. This event started when the club invited helen keller to speak to members and guests. We house a circulating library within our club, with members volunteering their time to select books and maintain the collection. Every six weeks, the club offers a meet the artist event. The gallery committee visits artist studios to select emerging artists to showcase in the dining room for members and the public. Participated in the minnesota history day competition where club members served as judges. In addition, we provided four $100 prizes in categories related to women's history and african-american women's history. Since the 1920's, the needlework guild has made thousands of new garments for those less fortunate. The club provides the guild money for fabric, yarn, trims and sewing notions as well as sewing machine repair. The guild makes the chemo caps and lap robes for the cancer patients and baby layettes for moms that cannot afford to purchase baby clothes. They also make items for the minnesota visiting nurse agency and the jones-harrison home. This year the needlework guild and other volunteer members spent approximately 3000 hours and nearly $7,000. In total, over 200 chemo caps were knit and crocheted by members and donated to hennepin county medical center. The woman's club also assists local small non-profit organizations dealing with women's and children's issues through financial grants. Grants awarded in fy18 total $1,000. $5,000 in scholarships were given to mctc students. The woman's club continues to be the longest scholarship donor to mctc. The woman's club of minneapolis scholarship is for students with good academic potential and success in their program with the goal of working with women and children. Each recipient of the woman's club of minneapolis scholarship receives $2,500. The woman's club also donates the use of its facilities to various nonprofit organizations. In addition over 15,000 of volunteer hours were donated by our membership for the fiscal year 2017/2018.