Woman's Club of Central Kentucky January 2024 Newsletter

Woman's Club of Central Kentucky

January 2024

At-Home Tea and Feb. 10, 2024, Meeting

Our annual January At-Home tea is underway, and everyone should have received the mailing, including a tea bag. The At-Home Tea is a fundraiser for our Annual Grant.

Speaking of the Annual Grant, you'll find a information on the member nomination form later in this newsletter. Please nominate a nonprofit that serves in Central Kentucky by Feb. 10, 2024. You may bring your completed nomination forms to our February meeting or return them via U.S. mail or email.

We'll meet in person at the The Thomas Hunt Morgan House, 210 N. Broadway, Lexington, Kentucky, from 12-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. The lunch will be chicken salad on a bed of mixed greens, water and wine. If you have special dietary needs, please email Sharon Withers, [email protected]. (No calls, please.)Your payment of $20 confirms your reservation. Mail your check, payable to WCCK, memo: Feb. 2024 meeting, to WCCK, PO Box 22216, Lexington, KY 40522-2216 for delivery by Feb. 7.

Virgil Covington Jr. (photo above) will provide a riveting performance as William Wells Brown, Lexington resident and the first published African American novelist and playwright. Brown was born to an enslaved mother. Due to inadequate record keeping for enslaved individuals, the time and place is not assured. He was likely born in 1814 or 1815 in the Mt. Sterling area or in Lexington. Brown experienced the dissolution and sale of his own family and witnessed the harsh and brutal separation of other families in the institution of slavery. After years of failed attempts to escape slavery, for which he was jailed and beaten, Brown finally escaped to a life of freedom in 1834. William Wells Brown went on to become a public advocate of the abolitionist and temperance movements. His memoir, Narrative of William Wells Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, had a direct influence on the abolitionist movement. In 1853, he published Clotel; or the President's Daughter and in 1858, a play The Escape; or a Leap for Freedom.

Mr. Covington performs through the Kentucky Humanities Chautauqua Program.

Our SpotlightSpeaker will be the Lexington Tool Library (LexTools.org). Here's information from the website: "The Lexington Tool Library’s goal is to provide access to the tools and equipment Lexington residents need to help themselves and their neighbors make their homes and communities better. The borrowing of commonly-held tools, provided to all members regardless of ability to pay, aims to reshape our relationship to ownership, community, and consumption."

Lexington Tool

Library Wishlist

This young nonprofit is building its inventory of hand- and power-tools.

You can find the current wish list here. Feel free to bring donations to the Feb. 10, 2024 meeting. Their storage is limited, so they focus on items with the highest demand. They do not accept gas-powered tools.

A survey in 2023 showed the top areas in demand are: Garden/Lawn/Landscaping,

hand tools, saws, automotive, ladders, woodworking, moving, repair, sewing machines, and cleaning/washing equipment.

Lexington Tool Library also accepts monetary donations. In addition to using donations to purchase some new items, they are raising money for a shed or shipping container to put outside their current location to store more tools for community use.

The Philanthropy Committee recently received this note from Tim Hodge, a board member of Thursday's Child:

On behalf of Kentucky’s waiting children, I would like to thank those who contributed through the Women’s Club of Central Kentucky for the donation to Thursday’s Child. The children were very excited to receive the gift cards and luggage. The older youths were also very grateful for the household items. I can’t thank you enough.

In addition, Tim noted in the report for the $500 Spotlight Grant to the agency: "The grant was utilized to assist with Thursday’s Child annual Christmas party for Kentucky’s waiting children. The children enjoyed pizza and two hours of game time at Gattitown in Lexington, KY."

President's Perspective

Happy New Year, you terrific WCCK women!

As I write to you there is a beautiful velvety snow on the ground, and I’m sipping a cup of Earl Gray Decaf mailed to me by my wonderful Woman’s Club. Thank you to Pace Cooke Emmons, second vice president, and her daughter Robin for designing the adorable teapot invitations. So cute, and in our WCCK colors! I hope you’ll be inspired to donate to our annual grant.

The New Year will bring the opportunity for new experiences in our club.

Last week I started a regular conversation with our new friends at the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (gfwc.org) about our transition into membership. The GFWC’2024 Kentucky State Convention will start on Wednesday, March 20 and end Sunday, March 24. This is our first chance to join in with our fellow Federation women from across Kentucky. The Convention this year is at the Lexington Griffin Gate Marriott. Even though most of us live in Lexington, it’s sometimes fun to book a room for a small getaway. A special rate of $159 per night is available until February 20. You can book by following this link: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1700509173414&key=GRP&app=resvlink

I’ll provide you with more details about the Convention as soon as the agenda is distributed.

Plans for our 130th Anniversary exhibit at the Lexington History Museum are coming along well. In the days ahead I will conduct an oral history with Edna Monroe, our longest term member and Terrell Kowall, past president. These oral histories will be preserved at the Louis Nunn Center on UK’s campus. They will also provide context for the exhibit, as our past leaders lend their voices to the photographs and artifacts of each exhibit.

Mandy Higgins, executive director of the Lexington History Museum, was excited to find an unexpected treasure from WCCK’s past. In early December, while working through some archival boxes, Mandy found the travel diaries of Virginia Norton Alexander, a founding member of WCCK.

“We also have her visa/passport paper (which is INCREDIBLE) and a number of postcards and photos,” Mandy said. “They’re going to be an incredible addition to the exhibit.”

That’s an understatement!

Please join us February 10 as we gather at the Thomas Hunt Morgan House. Thank you in advance to Sharon Withers and Nancy DeMarcus for offering to serve as hostesses.

Judy Owens, President

Birthdays may be found in the version of the newsletter sent via USPS or Constant Contact.

2024 WCCK Annual Grant

Check your email/mail box for member nomination form for WCCK Annual Grant.

Our annual grant selection process starts with your nominations of nonprofit agencies that serve Central Kentucky. Nominations are due Feb. 10, 2024.

If you have any problems with the application form, contact Philanthropy Committee member Pace Cooke Emmons, [email protected] or 601-917-7020.

News & Notes

Don't forget to check our social media and website for the latest news!

Facebook

Instagram

Woman's Club of Central Kentucky website

Examples of photos submitted for the directory. Top: Recording Secretary Amelia Wisner Bottom: Past President Gayle Hutcherson

Photos Requested for WCCK Directory

This year, we'd like to have head and shoulder photos of our members to accompany their info in our directory. (Samples above.) You can help by emailing a photo to Pace Cooke Emmons, [email protected]. Don't worry if the photo shows more your head and shoulders; Pace can crop the photo. If you don't have one available, check with Pace and when we can take a photo for you!

Historic Highlight

Early engineer and inventor WCCK Member Margaret Ingels

earned local and national honors

By Nancy L. DeMarcus, WCCK Historian

Margaret Ingels was a pioneer in the air conditioning industry. She was born October 25, 1892, in Paris, Kentucky, and died in Lexington on December 13, 1971. She was the first woman to receive a University of Kentucky (UK) Bachelor’s (1916) and Master’s (1920) engineering degree as well as the first woman in the United States to receive a mechanical engineering graduate degree.

After her undergraduate commencement, she accepted a position for a short time in the engineering department of the Chicago Telephone Company. Then she was employed at the Carrier Lyle Heating and Ventilation Corporation, New Jersey. Margaret's fiancé, Christopher “Dutch” Schrader, died in World War I and she never married. For most of her life, she had a full-time job and lived her life residing in a hotel.

After her post graduate work, Ms. Ingels was hired at the United States Bureau of Mines Laboratory in Pittsburgh. Dr. F. Paul Anderson, Dean of the UK Engineering School, was the director of the lab. Margaret's 1927 assignment included field tests for the New York Commission on School Ventilation. It was during this time that she perfected a new portable machine that determined the amount of germ-laden dust in schoolrooms and public places. Returning to Carrier in 1929, Ms. Ingels improved the sling psychrometer, which is used to read the relative humidity of the air. She worked in several departments including public relations until her retirement in 1953.

After her retirement, she returned to Lexington, was a Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky (WCCK) member, and authored a book titled Willis Haviland Carrier: Father of Air Conditioning. She was among so many WCCK members who were associated with UK.

In recognition of her achievements, both educational and occupational, Ms. Ingels was chosen, with Eleanor Roosevelt, as a recipient of the 1940 Women's Centennial Congress. The UK College of Engineering inducted Ms. Ingels into the 1993 Hall of Distinction. Since 1996, Ms. Ingels' portrait has hung in the Kentucky Capitol's west foyer among the other "Kentucky Women Remembered..." permanent exhibit.

Calendar

12-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, The Thomas Hunt Morgan House, 210 N. Broadway, Lexington, KY. Details on page 1. Your payment of $20 confirms your reservation. Mail your check, payable to WCCK, memo: Feb. 2024 meeting, to WCCK, PO Box 22216, Lexington, KY 40522-2216 for delivery by Feb. 7.

12-2 p.m. Saturday, March 9, 2024 • Thomas Hunt Morgan House, 210 N. Broadway, Lexington, KY

LaDonna Koebel will be discussing "Senior Fraud and How to Prevent It." Koebel serves as Executive Director of the Office of Senior Protection and Mediation. Koebel earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Kentucky, a master's degree in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University's College of Justice and Safety, and a bachelor's degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College, where she currently serves on the Alumni Board of Directors. Betsy Rutherford will lead the hostess team.

12-2 p.m. Saturday, April 13, 2024, Masterson Station Clubhouse, 328 Masterson Station Drive, Lexington, KY Chris Cathers, executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council (artscouncil.ky.gov), will be our featured speaker. The Kentucky Arts Council is the state arts agency and is responsible for developing and promoting support for the arts in Kentucky. WCCK Philanthropy Committtee co-chairJean Dorton, who serves on the Council’s Board of Directors will introduce Chris. Hope’s Wings (hopeswings.org), a domestic violence shelter in Richmond. Past President Terrell Kowal will lead the hostess team.

1:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11, 2024, Spindletop Hall, 3414 Iron Works Pike, Lexington, KY. We'll close our club year with our traditional tea. Announcement of Annual Grant Recipient and presentation by 2023 Annual Grant agency, Foster Care Council of Kentucky.

WCCK Officers (2023-2025)

Judy Owens, President

Barb Ellerbrook, Vice President

Pace Cooke Emmons, 2nd Vice President

Debbie Gresham, Treasurer

Ann Hamlin, Assistant Treasurer

Amelia Wisner, Recording Secretary

Nicky Burkett, Corresponding Secretary

Nancy DeMarcus, Historian

Linda House, Chaplain

Martha King, Reservations

Sharon Withers, Parliamentarian

Mailing address: P.O. Box 22216 • Lexington, KY 40522-2216