Madison Catholic Woman’s Club plans 100-year anniversary celebration |
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All women of the Diocese of Madison are invited to join the Madison Catholic Woman’s Club for its 100-year celebration to be held at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison, on Tuesday, May 6. A social at 9:30 a.m. will begin the day with coffee, pastries, and historical exhibits. A Rosary is scheduled at 10:40 a.m. with Mass at 11 a.m. followed by a luncheon. Bishop Robert C. Morlino will preside at the Mass, which will be a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the patroness of the club. Concelebrants will include Fr. Roger Nilles, the club’s current spiritual director, and priests who served as previous spiritual directors. Lori Lonergan will be the cantor at the Mass and Josephine Cowen will be the accompanist. A program, “A Walk down Memory Lane,” will begin at 1:15 p.m. All past spiritual directors and past Christian Achievement Award recipients are especially welcome. Paid reservations must be received by April 23. Cost is $22 per person. Make checks payable to MCWC and send to Teri Kinney, 5117 Comanche Way, Madison 53704. For more information, call 608-246-8508. Guests are welcome. The facility is barrier-free. |
Thanks to Madison Catholic Woman’s Club members Ann Furhman and Syl Kimberly for historical information provided for this article, along with an archived article by Helen Matheson Rupp published in the Catholic Herald on the occasion of the club’s 75th anniversary in 1989.
MADISON — In 1914, three women met in Madison and conceived plans to form a Madison Catholic Woman’s Club (MCWC) with a great eagerness to do good work.
Mary Adams, Mrs. E. T. Adams, and Mary O’Connor encouraged 100 women to join them at a meeting held at St. Raphael School hall in downtown Madison. Eighty-five more women joined them as charter members of the new club. Dues were $1 a year.
First service project
In 1915, the club launched its first major project: service to what was then Madison’s neglected minority, the Italian immigrant community in the Regent-Brooks-W. Washington Ave. area, which was known as the “triangle.”
This “Italian Aid” project would continue for over 40 years, until the neighborhood was bulldozed in the path of urban renewal.
Celebrating 100 years
Today as the MCWC prepares to observe its 100th anniversary with a special celebration on Tuesday, May 6, it can rejoice in a notable record of charitable work undertaken, in addition to spiritual, educational, cultural, and community activities.
Barb Kutchmarek, chairman of the club’s anniversary celebration, commented, “I am so happy to be part of this 100-year anniversary celebration. Having served as co-president for two years and working with many of the wonderful members of MCWC, I felt we could make this a remarkable event and provide many memories for the members, both old and new.
“I have learned so much about the past history of this organization and have only affirmed my gratitude for being part of it and admiration for the early founders,” said Kutchmarek, who lives in Waunakee.
“The striking thing to me is that some of the concerns of women over the past 100 years are concerns we still face today, like pornography, abortion, and providing charitable contributions for those in need. One-hundred years is truly a milestone to celebrate!”
Kutchmarek served as co-president of the club from 2010 to 2012 along with Rita Endres, also from Waunakee.
They are among 52 presidents of the club, following in the footsteps of Mary O’Connor, the first president from 1914 to 1916. Thirteen of the presidents are still alive.
Record of giving
Although the dollars have never been totalled or the hours of work never added up, the Madison Catholic Woman’s Club’s record of giving to others is impressive.
In its first year, the club helped “the Italian district” of Madison to dream of a church on S. Park St. instead of just a chapel. And then a school. And then a Sisters’ home. Within five years, all were established.
For years, the club sent $25 a month — a sizeable sum then — to St. Joseph Parish and it helped annually in many other ways.
In 1928, for example, it provided $4,000 for the school. In 1930, it paid the salary of a lay teacher. In 1945, it bought the Sisters a washing machine.
It held food and cash showers and offered other assistance to the neighborhood.
In coming full circle, the MCWC has provided assistance in the past two years to the Triangle Parish Nurse Program.
Meanwhile — in addition to regular club activities — members carried on a vigorous program of giving to other church and community needs.
The Christ Child Circles began in 1917 and still exist today. The circles have provided flowers to the sick; coal and food to those in need; clothing for the needy during the Depression and for the papal storerooms, the Indian missions, the Maryknoll Sisters in Korea, the Girls’ School in Oregon, and Catholic Charities; vestments for the chapel when Truax Field was a military base; and outfits for needy babies.
In 1977, when Holy Name Seminary in Madison appealed for help, 15 members mended 140 draperies.
How it has raised money
Over the years the club has raised money for its causes by sponsoring operettas (members’ production of Pinafore raised $945 in 1916); celebrity speakers, including Bishop Fulton J. Sheen who addressed 1,167 people at the Memorial Union in 1945; concerts; card parties; and raffles.
Today, the main fundraiser is a benefit style show held in September. Members also bring food and donations to meetings and are invited to donate money for charitable and educational projects when they pay their dues.
The club currently donates over $16,000 a year to such organizations as the Apostolate to the Handicapped, the Women’s Care Center, Camp Gray, the Catholic Multicultural Center, Edgewood High School and St. Ambrose Academy, Luke House, Elizabeth Seton House, Our Lady of Hope Clinic, Pregnancy Helpline, Rachel’s Vineyard, Relevant Radio, St. Joseph Endowment Fund for seminarians, St. Mary’s Hospital, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Members have given time and service as well as money. During World War II, they put in 4,500 hours of work with the Red Cross from 1941 to 1943, along with providing sewing, knitting, breakfasts for soldiers, help with obstet- rical units, surgical dressings, Truax Field altar linens, parties for soldiers and wives, aid in rationing, bond and stamp sales, and other work as “part of the war effort.”
In 1916, 534 women formed the Evening Department. Mrs. Frank Byrne was the first chairmen of this division of the club, which no longer exists today.
Annual award
The club began presenting an annual Christian Achievement Award to an outstanding area person or persons. The first award recipient in 1972 was Major William Dyke of Madison.
The most recent award recipient were the Cistercian Nuns of Valley of Our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac in 2013.