Wilton Woman's Club

Message from the President

Wilton Woman's Club President Diane Hughes, shown taking a break from a club meeting Friday, is leading the group's efforts to improve its fund-raising methods in hopes of enabling the club to continue to provide both volunteer time and money to the various causes the philanthropic wing of the organization supports. Ms. Hughes was elected to her post in May, and will serve until the spring of 2007. -- Julie Weisberg photo

Wilton Woman's Club changes fund raising approach.

BY JULIE WEISBERG -- Sept. 1, 2005, The Wilton Bulletin

Citing a need to diversify and streamline its fund-raising efforts, the Wilton Woman's Club will no longer hold its annual autumn art and craft fair, instead replacing it with several other smaller events throughout the year.

"Our job is to let the community know that there will not be an art and craft festival any longer. But you can also support the Woman's Club -- and the charitable organizations we support -- by purchasing tickets to this upcoming fund-raiser," said Diane Hughes, the Wilton Woman's Club new president, during an interview Friday at her English Drive home. According to Ms. Hughes, the organization was forced to make the change to its fund-raising approach due to the growing expense of holding the annual autumn craft festival, which had begun to cut into the amount of money the club was able to raise and then donate through its philanthropic work. The club began holding the fair as its main fundraiser in 1995.

"The Woman's Club traditionally has held in the past, every year, the Autumn Art and Craft Festival. And we have raised more than $500,000 over the past six years to give away to charitable organizations through our philanthropy committee," said Ms. Hughes, who has been a club member since 1999. "Unfortunately, however, we have to go down a new path now, as that endeavor has become too costly. It is also very labor intensive."

So, faced with dwindling financial resources, the club's leadership decided to change its fund-raising strategy. "Because we can no longer afford to spend that kind of money to raise that kind of money, we decided that we wanted to take a new path," Ms. Hughes explained.

In addition to diversifying their fund-raising efforts, Ms. Hughes said, the club's new approach to raising money will also allow the members to reach out and serve a larger portion of the Wilton community by holding a variety of events, instead of one large festival.

"In the past we have been able to reach many different members of our community, both young and old, by holding the art and craft festival," Ms. Hughes said. "But we were also bringing in other people outside of Wilton, Ridgefield and Norwalk, for example."

She added, however, that the gatherings such as the "Visit with Santa" will allow the club to also have events that specifically focused on serving the Wilton community. "And the Visit with Santa will help bring out some of our younger residents," Ms Hughes said. The Wilton Woman's Club, founded in 1966 by Wiltonian Betty Sternad as part of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, currently has more thai 150 members. According to Patti Wrobel, a club member since 1994 and a former club president, the group's objectives are "to bring women together for educational purposes, and to be of service to the community."

"Several years ago we made the decision to pull away and become an independent organization, and that has allowed us to concentrate our philanthropic and volunteer efforts more locally," Ms. Wrobel said, adding that the groups the club supports are "all organizations that either border Wilton or serve Wilton citizens." In addition to its financial support for several regional agencies, the majority of which serve women, children, and families, the club has also contributed to the Wilton Library and Wilton public schools. And members frequently volunteer at Ogden House, Elderhouse, community blood drives, and flu clinics.

And while Ms. Hughes said the club may have to scale back some of its financial support for the various organizations it supports, the group can always fall back on what has been its backbone for close to 40 years now: its dedicated and active membership pool. "We can always give back our labors of love," she said.