By Amber Knox
From 1903 to 1905 Mrs. W.O. Oldham served as president for the Portales Women’s Club, paving the way for the next one hundred and twenty-one years of women gathering to provide services and companionship to the community. Today after being a member for thirty-eight years, the lovely Betsy Chavez is serving her second year as president.
The club’s house is located at 309 West First Street, or you may know it as the building across from C&S. The Portales Woman’s Club is an affiliate of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. An international organization with the mission of improving their communities by fundraising and volunteer services.
This coming year the international meeting will be in Chicago. Representative members from each of the clubs are chosen to attend on behalf of their chapter. Ukraine and Mexico are among the countries who are expected to attend.
As one of the oldest service organizations in Roosevelt County they have quite the history with scrapbooks dating back to 1932. It is said that members pulled wagons around town collecting books to help our local library get started.
Locally you may see members hosting the Heritage Days Fun Run, fundraising by selling peanuts at the annual Peanut Valley Festival, providing leadership camps for girls in high school, delivering cookies to the Santa Cop event in December, collecting shoes to deliver internationally, or delivering Christmas gifts to Heartland Continuing Care Center for the residents to give their visiting family members.
In the past the Portales Woman’s Club hosted the Women’s Day Out event at Greyhound Arena. With membership low they have had to stop this event but would like to bring it back.
The club has other projects they would like to take on, such as teaching seniors to use computers or having a book club, but new projects are also halted due to membership being down.
Jessica Camacho, business office director for RGH and Treasurer for the Club, expressed her appreciation for being part of a strong group of women, women she wouldn’t have met otherwise. She said the Club has been an avenue to meet people and the opportunities it has created are very worthwhile. Jessica’s mother had been part of service organizations and she wanted to follow in her footsteps, which brought her to the Portales Women’s Club.
One way they create companionship in the community is through their monthly meetings. Members take turns hosting the lunchtime gathering and speakers from different organizations present educational awareness on various topics for those present. During the November meeting members also brought bags of dog and cat food to be donated to the animal shelter.
Some member’s families have been members for generations, but others are the first in their family. The Club is looking for service-hearted women to come make a difference with them. They are open to new ideas and moving forward.
The Portales Woman’s club is composed of women from all walks of life, but they all have in common the desire to serve others and help our community in the ways they are able. If you are unable to become a member but would like to support them and what they do, they accept donations, such as Yucca who covers their internet and Wi-Fi. They also rent out the facility as a venue to help generate funds.
To join or to receive more information you can call Betsy at 575-760-0278, message them on Facebook, or call United Way by dialing 211. The cost for new members is twenty-five dollars for the first year and then fifty dollars for returning members every year after. There is an associate member option for one hundred twenty-five dollars and the only requirement is hosting a meeting once a year.
