OUR HISTORY ALTRUSA INTERNATIONAL is an association of business executives and professional people who volunteer their engergies and expertise to projects dedicated to comunity betterment. Currently there is a membership of 13,493 world-wide. THE ALTRUSA CLUB OF EVANSVILLE, INDIANA was organized by the Muncie, Indiana Club, with the help of Dorthy (Mrs. Sam) Harmon and Sara Whitfield, both of Evansville. With their knowledge of Evansville's women, Dorthy and Sara invited those whom they thought would be interested and eligible. Many pre-organization meetings were held at the Evansville YMCA. When 25 women had expressed interest, they applied to Altrusa International for the authorization to organize a club. This permission was granted on December 4, 1969. BEFORE a charter could be granted, there needed to be a service project. To fulfill this requirement, having no money in the treasury, the women formed a Language Bank by contacting people who spoke English and at least one other language. Their locations and specialities were kept on file so they could be called upon to serve as interpreters in whatever emergencies might arise in the community at hospitals, jails, schools, etc. An additional project involved members visiting patients in retirement and nursing homes who had no local family contacs. This was known as the Adopt-A-Friend project. WHEN International approved these projects, and our charter was granted, we became the Altrusa Club of Evansville, Indiana and we were included in District Six which is made up of clubs in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, with a total membership of 1,475. At that time the Evansville Club was 31 members strong. WE held our Charter Banquet at the Union Hall of Evansville College (now University of Evansville). Many of the Muncie Club members attended and Evansivlle's Mayor Frank McDonald, Sr. was the guest speaker at this June 1970 meeting. Bea (Mrs. James) Barrett was installed as our first President at that time. OUR club now has 35 members. We have kept the Language Bank and Adopt-A-Friend projects and added several others. The larges one is for early childhood Literacy, which is described on our Literacy Page of this site. IN order to provide scholarships to the two local universities, as well as other grants in the future, we established a Foundation, and in October 2000 we gave $10,000 to the University of Southern Indiana. OUR club is open to new members and we welcome all those who qualify and are interested in volunteering their time and talents to community service. It does take time, but we find it is time well spent, as well as personally satisfying to work together on projects which are of real benefit to this area. Written by Charter Members: Marirose Pierre and Dorthy Harmon. June 5, 2001 |
