Ladies, friendship and lunch
Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, November 27, 2002
It’s not that they’re not welcoming. They’d just like to drive their own wagon, thank you.
The Bainbridge Welcome Wagon is now the Bainbridge Island Women’s Club. Its 75 members recently broke away officially from Welcome Wagon in order to form their own independent social organization.
Welcome Wagon has been a vehicle for introducing community businesses to new homeowners and renters since 1928.
But the local chapter hadn’t been officially affiliated with the California-based national organziation for several years, even though the name wasn’t changed.
No Welcome Wagon representative had been operating in this area for quite a while, said Kathy Dernbach, who serves as co-president of the club with C.J. Kidd.
“We also felt we wanted to be more inclusive to people who have lived here all their lives, and not necessarily just new people,” Dernbach said. “We were already functioning that way, so we thought, ‘Why not?’”
The club recently completed the legal process required for independent, incorporated, tax-exempt status. That includes a new mission statement, which reads:
“To provide a friendly, structured atmosphere conducive to welcoming new members, fostering friendships, organizing social activities, and developing leadership skills while working hand in hand with the community.”
By contrast, Welcome Wagon is actually a for-profit division of Homestore Inc., which bills itself as “a leading supplier of media and technology solutions that promote and connect real estate professionals to consumers before, during and after a move.”
The split reflects difference that have been true for years. This transitional year has included reorganizing the board of directors, and more aggressively reaching out to potential members.
While officially a “social” organization, as opposed to a “service” organization, members of the Bainbridge Island Women’s Club, who range in age from 35 to the mid-90s, still manage to provide service to the community.
For example, the club handmakes and raffles off a quilt each year to benefit different causes on Bainbridge Island. The money is distributed during an annual potluck luncheon, to which representatives of the groups are invited to accept the check and talk about their group or agency.
This year, the club raised $5,000 for its “Berry Berry Bainbridge” quilt – the limit they could raise to comply with the regulations covering tax-exempt status.
This year’s recipients, as presented at a luncheon last Thursday, included the Bainbridge Committee and its Katy Warner Christmas Fund, the Senior Center, Helpline House, Battered Women’s Shelter, Progressive Animal Welfare Society, Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers and the Teen Center.
The club meets for coffee at 9:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month at Bethany Lutheran, with the meeting called to order at 10 a.m. for guest speakers on varying subjects.
The club also throws a popular Christmas party, this year planned for Kiana Lodge. Other social events include bridge – both couples and just women – and “dine-in/dine-out” events, progressive dinners, a croquet tournament and a Christmas cookie exchange.
Excursions include taking over an entire restaurant in Seattle, a trip to the Seattle Design Center, wholesale Christmas shopping events, and a trip to Molbak’s Nursery in Seattle for holiday poinsettias.
“Whatever creative ideas we can come up with, we do,” Dernbach said. “All our members work on projects.”
Dernbach has lived on Bainbridge for 18 months, where she and her husband plan to retire after moving 17 times in 35 years of marriage. Throughout this nomadic life, she came to depend on Welcome Wagon organizations in new communities.
“It helped to get my family established, especially socially,” she said. “It was really a godsend to me. When I saw an ad in the paper when we moved here, I went right away.
“That’s the nice thing about our club here. It’s such a nice mixture of people and a nice way to acclimate, to get the history of the island.”
