Welcome to the Moultonborough Women's Club

“The club was started in 1950 with 27 charter members and was founded by Elizabeth Lamprey.  The mission that these original members put forth was to improve the social development of its members and, through unity, to become a power for good in the community.

I think it’s safe to say that if those original members could see us today, they would be so proud.  Proud of the friendships that have flourished over the years, the countless ways we have supported our town, the organizations we’ve strengthened, the students we have supported and the impact we’ve made to local children. We’ve done a lot!

Today, we are a club of over 170 members — a strong, active, and social group that continues to be a "power for good."  A club can only last for 75 years with the hard work, talent, creativity, and heart of its members. Each one of our members — past and present — has helped shape the club we are today. 

Here’s to 75 years of friendship, service, and community — and to many more to come!

Our History:  The Moultonborough Women’s Club has had a rich and exciting history, growing and evolving over the past 75 years.  The Club was started in 1950 by Elizabeth Lamprey with just 27 members. The following year, we joined the New Hampshire Federation of Women’s Clubs and remained part of that organization for over 30 years. In 1983, we decided to leave the Federation to focus our efforts entirely on supporting the local community. Around that time, we also began welcoming members from neighboring towns that didn’t have a women’s club.

Within our first couple of years, the Club sponsored both a Girl Scout and a Brownie troop, with members serving as troop leaders and committee members. In 1953, the Club’s total budget was $55.55—and we donated $19.45 to support these 2 troops.

The 1950s were a lively time! The Club hosted fashion shows, a waltz night, tasting luncheons, and even a “Come as You Are” breakfast. If you arrived already dressed for the day, you were fined a dollar! Can you imagine what we’d look like if we tried that today?

In 1960, the Club presented the Moultonborough Central school a 50 star American flag (remember – Hawaii became a state in 1959) and also a New Hampshire state flag.  In 1963, a flagpole was erected at the intersection of Routes 109 and 25 and the flag flew there until 2000.  In honor of the Club’s 50th anniversary in 2000, we dedicated a new flagpole – it’s near the library and town hall.  The Club still donates new flags to the town when they need to be replaced.

Also In 1960, the Club awarded its first scholarship - it was a $50 loan that had to be paid back – since then we’ve awarded $237K in scholarships to Moultonborough students.  Later this month we will award 5 $3000 scholarships.  Think of how many students we have helped over the years and the impact that we have made.

While today the club is non-political and non-religious, it hasn’t always been that way.  Back in the 1960’s and 70’s, the Women’s Club played an active role in town governance and improvement.  The Club was instrumental in establishing a Conservation Commission in the town, petitioned the Board of Selectmen to reactivate the Planning Board, organized a number of “Get Out to Vote” campaigns and even met with the State Traffic Engineering Department to fix some dangerous traffic areas in town.  And they petitioned the state to bring back prayer in the schools!  It must have been a group of incredibly strong and determined women!

Beautification of the town has always been important to the Club and still is today.  As most of you know, we have our Adopt-a-Spot group led by Barb Koehler that maintains the area near town hall.  Back in the 60’s, Club members planted a flower garden near the flagpole and over the years has maintained gardens and planted lilac bushes around town. We even had a campaign to fix up the old dump, remove unsightly billboards, and clear junk cars off the sides of the roads. Apparently they even had a car crusher available to smash the cars!  They received recognition from the federation through the Community Improvement Program!! It looks like MWC has always been movers and shakers to make life better in our town!

The heart of our Club has always been service—to be a power for good in our community. Over the decades, we have donated to causes ranging from car seats for children, equipment for sports teams, a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica for the school, student trips, books for the school and library, and aid for families displaced by fires, just to name a few. And in the 70’s the club published a cookbook and all of the proceeds went to fund playground equipment.

But, not only have we donated money, we have also given our time and energy in so many ways -  we have taken children to fluoride treatments, helped police with a children’s finger printing program, sponsored a children’s bicycle rodeo, supported block parties, parades and so much more.   

Our tradition of giving has evolved over the years:  

·        It was in 1986 that we started raising money doing bake sales at elections; that’s almost 40 years that we have had a presence at the Election Day bake sales!

·        In 1996 we started participating in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer.  In almost 30 years, we have raised over $174,000, and we’re still going strong!

·        Also in 1996, we began our Charity of the Month which continues to support local organizations.

We have contributed in so many ways!

And, what is an organization without a logo?  Back in 1998, we held a contest to create a logo, Betty Costello was the winner.  Do you all know what the logo stands for? If not, take a look at your handbook – there is a lot of significance.

A real sense of pride for the club is the banner that we proudly hang at all of our meetings.  This was a great team effort to make this in 2013 – Dotti Simpson, Gayle Russell and former President Trish Conley were all on the committee that worked so hard to make this.

While our service work has been outstanding, we have also had a lot of fun! Over the years we’ve hosted countless fashion shows, block parties, Bunco nights, cabarets, galas, and Kentucky Derby parties, yard sales, and jewelry sales.  We’ve participated in many July 4th parades, creating award-winning floats.  Look through our scrapbooks and you’ll see Karen Wright as the Statue of Liberty, and floats featuring Gayle Bettinger, Pat Vanderhoef, Cecelia Hansen, Nancy McDonough, and many more!  And ask Carol Bamberry and Mary Whiting about the 2010 float—how many rolls of toilet paper did you go through, and what happened during construction?

We’ve adapted to meet new challenges, too.  Think back to COVID times and how we had our meetings on Zoom.  We had great speakers and it felt like Hollywood Squares.  Kudos to Amy Corston - her dedication kept our club thriving during a difficult time.

And, look where we are today.  We are a club of over 175 talented and amazing women still committed to the original mission.  We are still a power of good for the community – we give $5000 a year to local charities, we’re awarding $15K this year in Scholarships, we continue to support the Santa Fund, Waypoint, the Mitten tree and all of our monthly charities and so much more.  

And, I’d say that we are also quite social.  Between coffees, lunches, book club, classes, hiking, ice cream socials, our June Jamboree and so many other activities, we have a great time together.  A word I have heard so frequently is friendship – we all have built so many strong friendships and support each other through the good times and difficult ones.  

I feel that our club has had a strong foundation.  We have grown, evolved and stayed true to our mission – and we are well positioned to be a power of good for many years to come.  Cheers to our 75th Anniversary and to all of you who have helped make this happen!”

Libby Reichlen – President 2023-2025, speaking at the 75th Anniversary Celebration

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