Woman's Club in Cocoa Village celebrates 100th years, and everyone's invited to the party
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In an age when civility seems to have been chucked out the window, when concern for others takes a back seat to what’s-in-it-for-me, it is refreshing to chat with the ladies of the Community Woman’s Club.
Dedicated to, as their motto attests, “living the volunteer spirit,” CWC members are a sisterhood who look out for their community and each other.
2022 is a banner year, literally, for the organization, for a banner at Magnolia Hall, the picturesque old building that is Club Central, proclaims the group’s century of achievement. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15, the doors of the Palladian-style building that once housed a church at 5 Rosa Jones Drive in Cocoa Village will fling open for the community to party with the members.
The free 100th anniversary event will feature singers, dancers, antique cars and fire truck, food trucks, demonstrations and exhibits and the bookmobile. Bookmobile? Well, if you realize that — among the many projects the club undertakes — literacy advocacy rates high, then a bookmobile at a party makes perfect sense.
In 1923, CWC members, as trustees for Cocoa Library, signed a lease that marked the creation of this depository of literacy. Since then, CWC has supported projects that foster education.
During WWII, club members collected books for soldiers stationed at Banana River Naval Air Station. Today’s initiatives continue the theme.
“CWC adopted Cambridge Elementary School (in Cocoa), purchasing new books for the library, trees, cement tables, benches and art supplies,” said president Suzanne Bennitt.
The club also provides an annual scholarship for graduating high school girls to enter post-secondary education. This year’s scholarship recipient, Sophia Teller, is from Rockledge High.
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“I will use this money to improve my education and hopefully return to become a member of the club later on,” Teller said.
CWC provides books for the Title I reading program at Golfview Elementary School in Rockledge and Saturn Elementary School in Cocoa. The club also has participated in Project Graduation activities at Cocoa High School and Rockledge High School.
Oh, one more thing.
“We have placed a free little library on our clubhouse grounds, and it is very popular,” said Bennitt.
A member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, CWC has been dedicated to promoting the charitable and educational interests of Brevard County since a group of prominent ladies from the area founded the nonprofit in 1922. They came from Cocoa, Rockledge and Merritt Island, as well as from towns now only footnotes in Brevard’s history, places like Courtenay, Indianola, Orsino and City Point.
These days, the ladies also hail from hither and yon. Bennitt lives in Viera, while other members travel from as far as Satellite Beach and Merritt Island. Unlike their sisters back in the '20s, current members are faced with a membership that could use a generous infusion of new blood, such as aforementioned scholarship winner Sophia Teller.
When the Club launched, 99 members were in the roster. Today it stands at 16, with an average age of 75.
“It is a challenge, and we always welcome new members,” said Bennitt. “We tend to get a few new members and then lose a few.”
She hopes the 100th anniversary celebration will pique interest, but the reality is that, across the nation, these worthy organizations are all struggling with dwindling membership as prospective members are too busy multi-tasking with jobs and family to make a commitment to join.
Unlike many other women’s clubs, CWC does not face financial challenges, thanks to the late and extremely thoughtful Gertrude Alford, a member who, with no heirs, willed her estate to the club. Her gift enabled CWC to break the surly bonds of a mortgage on the clubhouse and still provide interest income to fund club projects without the need for a constant stream of fashion shows and bake sales. Venue rentals for weddings, parties and the like pay for the constant upkeep of a building listed in the Brevard Register of Historic Buildings.
“It has been very well managed,” said Bennitt.
The club’s history of philanthropy includes fundraising for the start of the hospital that is now Rockledge Regional Medical Center; working with the Red Cross during World War II; supporting organizations such as Brevard Community College Planetarium, Cocoa Library, Hacienda Girls' Ranch, Salvation Army Domestic Violence/Spouse Abuse programs, Central Brevard Art Association, Space Coast Pops, Central Brevard Sharing Center and many more.
Members donated mone to purchase shoes and clothing for needy students and contributed to Rockledge and Cocoa Trash Bashes, and even helped purchase a a lifesaving vest for canine officer Jack of the Rockledge Police Department.
Habitat for Humanity, Palace Retirement Home and Alzheimer’s facilities were also on the receiving end, as was Hacienda Girls' Ranch. An annual supply drive provides school supplies for students from homeless families.
“We donate Christmas gifts annually to the nearby Palace retirement facility and collect non-perishable food and personal hygiene supplies for the Central Brevard Sharing Center at our monthly meetings,” said Bennitt.
“We donate to local civic organizations such as Camp Boggy Creek, St. Francis Reflections Foundation, New Life Mission, Life Recaptured, Habitat for Humanity, Marine Resources Council, Green Gables, along with Heifer International and Central Asia Institute.”
However, membership is more than just engaging in altruistic endeavors. It is becoming part of a community of women who genuinely care for each other.
A friend suggested Nancy Reese join CWC in 2008. Now current first vice president, the Cocoa resident and Ohio snowbird found an instant circle of friends in CWC when she needed it.
“I didn’t know anybody at the time,” she said.
Two years ago, Gayle Cicerrella joined after her husband passed away and she retired from job as a nurse.
“They have been so welcoming,” she said.
Corresponding secretary Anne White, one of the newest members, describes the soul of the club.
“It is all about philanthropy and great comradeship,” she said.
Join the celebration
The Community Woman’s Club will celebrate its 100th anniversary from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15, at Magnolia Hall, 5 Rosa Jones Drive, Cocoa Village.
For more information, call 321-639-4193 or visit communitywomansclub.com
During the 100th. anniversary bash, CWC member Sue Berry plans to do cooking demos with recipes club members have shared during the club’s long history.
The demos will be a sample of “Peace and Prosperity,” the club’s compilation of vintage recipes members submitted through the club’s 100-year-history.
“It’s an old-fashioned cookbook,” said Berry, of Rockledge, who believes that at $10, the volume would make a nice holiday stocking stuffer for the chefs in the family.
The book will be for sale at the event, as well as at the clubhouse the rest of the year.
Sonnenberg is a Melbourne-based lifestyles and travel writer.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Community Woman's Club in Cocoa Village was founded in 1922
