The Dublin Woman’s Thursday Club met Saturday, Sept. 28 for its inaugural 2024-2026 study cycle. The event with which the club initiated its new 2-year study cycle on The Ecoregions of Texas, was the President’s Luncheon, held at the Little Church on Grafton event center. Sixteen ladies were present, including the General Federation of Women’s Club (GFWC) Texas Pioneer District President Angela Short, and the GFWC Texas First Vice President Kathy Horak Smith.
The Little Church was tastefully decorated in the Club color of purple, and the decorations included the Club flower, [African] Violets. Participants enjoyed a meal catered by La Perla Tapatia Mexican restaurant. Pan dulce desserts were enjoyed from Carniceria Cara Blanca Market.
District President Angela Short shared her passion for communities to recognize the need for Child Advocacy, to protect the legal interests of the youngest residents in court systems. Many are abused or neglected, and deserve protection from adults who do not have their best interests in mind. Her personal interests range from country living to community gardens.
State Vice President Kathy Horak Smith, shared her passion to support local communities through food pantry programs. Kathy lives in Stephenville, and has identified no less than six pantries in the county which distributes both staples and fresh vegetables to residents. Dublin's club chose to collect food for local pantries at the President's luncheon, to participate in the nationwide GFWC National Day of Service.
The Dublin Woman's Thursday Club's new Chapter President Judith Robbins-Lemons identified her Special Project for the upcoming 2-year cycle as the Dublin Historical Museum Research and Organization project.
As a long-time Dublin resident, and perhaps one of the only members of the Thursday Club whose own mother was also a member, she has a mission to save local history. She has been scouring back issues of The Dublin Citizen newspaper for Museum Matters articles, which identify artifacts donated to the museum.
The more information club members can identify and label in the museum, the better-preserved history will be. She likens it to a scavenger hunt. She appealed to club members to share any backissues of The Dublin Citizen (and before that, The Dublin Progress) as a resource for identifying artifacts and history. She also encouraged members to stop by the museum, whether or not you already volunteer to be a docent for the museum, and participate by highlighting artifacts in the newspaper articles, at a minimum, or actually finding artifacts mentioned in the articles, as a bonus.
As emcee for the President’s Luncheon, DJ Klutts summarized the club's busy summer. Officially, the Dublin Woman’s Thursday Club had the summer off. Unofficially, they met several times over the summer to help the library with its summer reading program, and also with its Back-to-School Fair. Over 200 backpacks were procured and stuffed by Thursday Club members.
New program books and folders were distributed, as well as a custom bookmark featuring the Club President’s Vision Statement: “Museums are not simply repositories for purposeless objects. Each inanimate resident waits with its story in hand. It is up to us to discover and set free these stories by sharing them with our visitors, and in doing so, we preserve the history of our ancestors and community.”
The new folders will hold time and donation logs, handouts from each of the club meetings, and includes a report of the history of each of the items in the Little Church on Grafton.
Little did we know that the City Historian, and Thursday Club member, Mary Yantis, had so little time left with us. Shortly before her death, she was weak, but went through the Little Church and dictated to her daughter the history of each item housed within its walls. What a valuable treasure that was imparted to us. The club looks forward to continuing club activities, and will also continue with civic engagement.
Following the luncheon, several club member's headed to James and Leta Sage’s 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration at the United First Methodist Church!