Women celebrate the advancement of women for half century
Our local Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Chapter S celebrated a big milestone last week when the group got together with other local chapters, as well as representatives from Winnipeg to celebrate its 50th anniversary in our community.
PEO is a philanthropic organization where women celebrate the advancement of women; provide educational scholarships, grants, awards, loans and stewardship of Cottey College; and motivate women to achieve their highest aspirations.
It was founded in 1869 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa and the first Selkirk Chapter started in 1926. Since then, 13 more chapters have opened in our province and four of them are from Selkirk.
“It’s a women’s club that supports women receiving education. All of our work is directed towards finding women who need our help, whether they be high school students or women returning to work so they can help support their families or foreign students who are going to finish their degrees and go back to their countries. That’s our mission,” said Brooke Kell one of the founding members of Chapter S.
Chapter S was brought together by another local PEO Chapter, Chapter P. They felt that there were some women in our community who might be interested in participating in PEO but, because PEO works best in small groups, and there were quite a few members who they wanted to join, the other chapter felt it was best to start a new group.
On March 20, 1975, fifty years to the day from the 50th anniversary event, that group of 15 new members plus two women who moved over from the existing group got together for the first time.
The group hit the ground running.
“We realized that we had to fundraise because that’s our purpose. And so, we did some strange things in the beginning, because a lot of us knew nothing about PEO when we joined,” said Kell.
Jan Begg, another founding member of Chapter S explained that they had every kind of sale that you can think of from book sales to plant sales as well as Horse Races, an Irish Pub Night and more.
Kell spoke about a fun fundraising event they hosted called Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner where someone would host a dinner and they didn’t know who would be their guests until they showed up on their doorstep.
All of this fundraising went to a good cause with funds going to grants that have helped many people achieve their education goals. In fact, over the past 50 years, Chapter S alone has sponsored applicants who’ve received in total just shy of $90,000.
Begg explained that they continue to fundraise.
“For the past 15 years or (so), we’ve had a fashion show here at the golf course. It’s our big fundraiser, and we have committees that work on it, and the whole chapter actually is very involved in it, and it’s very successful,” she said.
Diane Banash, a long-time member of PEO’s Chapter S said it’s not all fundraising and giving back, the members themselves also benefit from being involved.
“It’s not just fundraising and focusing on the scholarships and grants, it also focuses on us and our continued development and growth. One thing that all PEO (members) do is we have programs after our chapter meetings, not all the time, but often, and we’ll bring in speakers, or maybe we’ll have an activity. I particularly like that,” she said.
The members said that it has created friendships that will last a lifetime.
“You go through phases in your life, and I’ve seen women in our Chapter take a break because life has done different things. They’ve moved and they’ve come back, and that’s okay,” said Banash.
Kell spoke about an experience where her family moved out of the country for a couple of years and her PEO sisters got together Christmas decorations and sent them to her to cheer her up. This was a time before international calling was really an option so receiving that parcel was very meaningful to her and she put those decorations up even though she didn’t get them until March.
These friendships have continued to last since the group’s founding as eight of the original 17 members are still active members in PEO Chapter S.
To learn more about our local PEO Chapters as well as to find out more about the scholarship opportunities that residents can apply for visit peo-mb-nwo.org.
