The Lord Baltimore Women’s Club presented a check to Sue Keefe, director of the South Coastal Library, for their library building fund on Friday, April 18.
The South Coastal Library expansion has started and Friends of the South Coastal Library (FOSCL) has received about $2 million of its $2.5 million goal for fundraising for the project. Library staff expect to be up and running next summer according to Joan Thomas, co-chair of the FOSCL Capital Campaign.
“The Lord Baltimore Women’s Club is not that big an organization, so working and earning $500 is a lot of money to us,” said Women’s Club President Anne Parler.
The Lord Baltimore Women’s Club was started in 1934.
“Most people think that we are connected to the elementary school,” explained Parler. “But we are not. Historically, Delaware was divided into 100-acre plots and all the original members lived in the Lord Baltimore plot. It started in homes, and in 1990 it went to restaurants where we have meetings and always have a speaker.”
Parler said the Lord Baltimore Women’s Club has about 58 members and they are a totally philanthropic organization. They have a fashion show in October, a bake sale and a cookbook that they sell. They knit scarves for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and have just started knitting lap robes for patients at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
“Everything that we do goes right into education and community service projects,” said Parler. “We love it.”