Welcomed eight new members to our Club. At the start of our 2007-2008 program year, we have a total membership of 85, including 13 honorary members.
Awarded a $1,000 Scholarship to a deserving high school graduate to help with college education.
Scholarship donations were made in memory of Deborah Gates’ husband Clayton, and Club Member Deborah O’Shea.
Jointly organized with Nahant SWIM Inc. a Beach CleanUp/
EarthFest on June 9-10. A total of 300 volunteers (including two busloads of children from Girls Inc. in Lynn) helped with the CleanUp; another 200 participated in a wide range of EarthFest activities. Financial and other support was received from The Town of Nahant, and many other generous donors. Students at the Johnson Elementary School took an active part in the t-shirt/poster/flyer slogan contest.
Our theme for the year was: “Empowering and Empowered Women.” We kicked off the year with two very empowered ladies: NWC Member Cay Cusack, a lawyer by profession, described her profession as an Examiner of Questioned Documents. Pat Driscoll, Executive Director of Girls Inc. in Lynn talked about the things that they are doing to empower young children and women. In October, new member Linda Tanfani gave a talk on her journey to empowerment and her work as a holistic counselor and jewelry designer.
Each year, our Club tries to address a medical issue that confronts women. This year, we focused on Depression with a presentation by Julie Rowe, a Psychiatric Nurse Clinical Specialist with North Shore Medical Center Psychiatry Center.
We rang in the holiday season with a luncheon at the Johnson Elementary School, featuring famed Alex Moccia, pianist Tom Bold, the Nahant Hand Bell Choir, and 4th graders at the school. It marked the restart of a Woman’s Club tradition of celebrating the holidays with youngsters in our town. Donations were made to the Daily Item Santa and many hats, mittens and scarves were brought by members for needy adults and children. Items were brought to the North Shore Medical Center.
Peter Davis, Executive Chef of Henrietta’s Table at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, presided over a cooking class in February packaged with useful tips and great recipes—a truly special and memorable event.
In March, Library Director Dan deStefano gave a 50-minute tour of some 7 billion years of the planet Earth’s history, and touched on Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor and gifted lecturer, who is considered the father of glacial theory and the ice age. The Radcliffe Women of Nahant presented the story of his wife, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, who was determined to have women taught by Harvard professors—and who succeeded with the establishment of Radcliffe College. She is known as “the Woman Who Got Women into Harvard.” The timing of this event seemed perfect since Harvard had just appointed its first female president, Drew Gilpin Faust, a former Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Another story of empowerment.
At the April annual meeting, we were honored with a presentation by the Rev. Dr. Kathryn Titus on English bas relief jugs of the 1800s.
In November, we participated in the Nahant Holiday Fair and received the proceeds of table rentals and a Silent Auction—a very welcome boost to our Club’s finances. We acknowledge with gratitude the two organizers of the Fair-NWC 1st VP Linda Jenkins and NWC Member Linda Tanfani. Our bake sale raised $474 for our scholarship fund.
We joined the Nahant Garden Club in late September for plantings at the Sears Pavilion at Bailey’s Hill Park, named in honor of Past President Calantha Sears.