Photograph by Jacquline Ramseyer
Women Leaders: Members of the board of directors of the Country Woman's Club, including president Barbara Campbell (left center), work hard to maintain their high ideals. The club is a service organization that focuses on scholarships and community service in Campbell.
The Country Woman's Club has fostered goodwill for 97 years
Club promotes service, education and fellowship
By Moryt Milo
For more than 97 years the Country Woman's Club of Campbell has been quietly and seamlessly working behind the scenes to enhance the community's culture, foster goodwill, and preserve the city's history.
The club's mission is to promote education and the arts, preserve the town's history and encourage women to become involved in humanitarian and social interests.
Its original purpose was born out of one woman's vision to build a town library where free speech and higher learning were available to anyone, without regard to gender, race or economic status. That was in 1905.
Under the leadership of its founder and first president Ida Price, a small group of women raised enough money to purchase a piece of land on the corner of E. Campbell Avenue and First Street.
Two years later, the group had enough funds, through donations and various social events, to build a small building and open Campbell's first public library.
But the group's dream building wasn't completed until 1923--a multipurpose facility that housed the library, the club's community room, and later, when Campbell was incorporated, in 1952, the city council chambers.
Since those hard-earned beginnings, more than 90 years ago, the library has outgrown its space several times, and today it's located at 77 Harrison Ave.
The founding of the library is one of the club's many success stories. Another was its establishment of the Campbell Historical Museum in 1964.
From early on, preserving the city's heritage and remembering its roots was one of the club's cornerstone beliefs. These efforts are still continuing today through the work of many club members who volunteer their time as docents in the historical museum and the Ainsley House. It is also why the club pledged $25,000 toward the renovation of the Heritage Theatre, located in the Campbell Community Center.
"What makes us who we are is community involvement," Country Woman's Club President Barbara Campbell says. "If you live in a city, you owe something to [it]."
It's this altruistic mindset that's been the backbone of the club for almost a century.
It is also the reason its major fundraiser, the club's annual Crab and Pasta Feed, was a big success this year, raising more than $8,000 at the February event.
"This year the majority of the funds were donated to the Heritage Theatre project," Campbell says.
Club member Debbie Bennett, who has helped feed the crowd for the past three years, says, "It was successful because local businesses and community members are willing to help out. Almost everything is donated except the crab."
The club has also established an endowment fund for educational scholarships.
"Club members raised $120,000," Campbell says. "Unfortunately the money is not earning as much as we hoped with interest rates so low."
But the fund is a significant part of the group's educational work.
For more than 20 years, the club has focused on three different scholarship programs, which help students in the Campbell Union High School District. The club offers an annual $5,000 academic scholarship, a $1,000 art scholarship and a $1,250 music scholarship.
"We want to recognize [student ability] beyond academics," club music chairwoman Roberta Howe says. "We see music as an important part of the process and we want to acknowledge it."
The art and music scholarships are awarded through competitions.
Teachers from the CUHSD submit art from the high schools, Mary Parks Washington, this year's chairwoman for the competition, says. The art is prejudged, and the final works, which are selected from a variety of mediums--painting, sculpture and ceramics--are displayed at the Congregational United Church of Christ, 400 W. Campbell Ave.
For the music scholarships, three judges from the music community listen to students perform. This year, the club sent two student tapes from the local competition to the Country Woman's Club state competition in Sacramento, Howe says.
Although the scholarship amounts are not great, Campbell says, they help students buy books and other supplies.
The club, with its grassroots beginnings, is one of many that sprang up nationwide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The groups became part of a national organization--the General Federation of Women's Clubs, headquartered in Washington, D.C.--whose members espouse the same philosophy as the local Campbell group. It's a philosophy that "stresses civic involvement and healthy lifestyles."
The Campbell Club has 118 members, who have joined because they enjoy the club's camaraderie, appreciate its past efforts and believe in its commitment to community service and education.
Toni Williamson, who joined the club two years ago, says, "I love being part of Campbell. The group is very comfortable. Everyone cares about each other."
Another member, Nance Danner Rocha, says, "What I love about [the club] is meeting all the interesting people and talking to people who are part of the city's history."
It's this blend of longtime and young members that gives the club its special character and its unique connectivity to Campbell's past and future.
"I see the integrating of the [younger members] as vital to our future success," Campbell says.
Campbell, California
