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The Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club recently recognized the milestone membership anniversaries of the following ladies: Jeanne Bush, 25 years; Nancy Vance, 30; Liz Pedersen, 10; and Dottie Myers, 10 years.<\/p>\nBy LOIS KINDLE
lekindle@aol.com<\/p>\n
After 67 years of service, scholarships and sisterhood, the Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club is closing, marking the end of one of the community\u2019s longest running volunteer organizations.<\/p>\n
Once more than 150 members strong, membership has steadily dropped over the years \u2014 especially following COVID \u2014 though 76 women still remain. The<\/p>\n
issue is more than declining membership, however. It\u2019s that no one is stepping into the required leadership roles that keep the club going.<\/p>\n
The Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club recently recognized the milestone membership anniversaries of the following ladies: Jeanne Bush, 25 years; Nancy Vance, 30; Liz Pedersen, 10; and Dottie Myers, 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aged out,\u201d said Claudia Gassett, the club\u2019s president for the past three years. \u201cNo one wants to assume our board positions or committee chairs, and there doesn\u2019t seem to be an interest in participating in activities like our book club, cultural events and fundraisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn January, we had 16 board and committee openings,\u201d she continued. \u201cOnly one person showed interest in remaining on the board and two committee chairs said they would stay.\u201d
Gassett, who joined the club in 2015, has served on the board every year since \u2014 starting as secretary and serving as president twice for a total of five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sad,\u201d she said of the closing. \u201cI plan to keep all the club records for at least a year in case someone wants to pick it back up.\u201d
Jeanette Doyle, a 25-year member and current vice president of programs, shares her feelings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a shame,\u201d she said. \u201cIt seems as though we should have had a plan in place to ensure this didn\u2019t happen. We just needed younger members to step into leadership roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club has been terrific for networking, making friends and participating in projects and activities that benefit the Apollo Beach community \u2014 including scholarships and, occasionally supporting a local cause or business. I\u2019ve met so many interesting people, and I will truly miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club was founded in 1959. Members originally met in private homes, then gradually moved to larger locations, which over the years included the old Holiday Inn, Sunset Grill, Apollo\u2019s Bistro and the Ruskin Moose Lodge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never really had a home,\u201d Gassett said.
She described the 501(c) 3 charitable organization as having been \u201cprimarily a social club back in the 1960s for the ladies of Apollo Beach to meet each other and then slowly began adding programs and activities to support the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve given supplies and cash to Mary & Martha House; food items to Backpacks on a Mission; college scholarships to area high school graduates, Girls of the World and the Firehouse Cultural Center summer camp program; school supplies and annual Angel Trees for Doby and Apollo Beach elementary schools;<\/p>\n
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Apollo Beach Elementary School social worker Gabby Segura is seen here with Angel Tree Christmas gifts donated by Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club members for students in need. The annual project is but one of many community efforts members have supported, including scholarships for local, graduating high school seniors.<\/p>\n
item donations to ECHO; and more.\u201d
While 30-year member Ann Mastroianni is saddened by the club\u2019s demise, she sees matters more universally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of many things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s more than younger members not stepping up. They\u2019re still very busy working and raising children.
\u201cIt\u2019s a big loss for the community, because our members have contributed so much over the years.\u201d
Even some of the younger seniors in the club can relate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I didn\u2019t have to work,\u201d said 25-year member Jeannie Bush, of Wimauma. \u201cOtherwise, I\u2019d commit. Still, I\u2019m only one person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll miss all of our ladies and the camaraderie we\u2019ve had,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019ve been together such a long time. Some of us will continue getting together, and some will join other clubs. But it just won\u2019t be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
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COURTESY PHOTOS
Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club executive board members are preparing for the club\u2019s final meeting on May 13. From left are Sheila May, treasurer; Ann Robbins, vice president\/membership; Claudia Gassett, president; Jeanette Doyle, vice president\/programs; and Roz Hensor, secretary.<\/p>\n
The Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club has awarded $131,200 in scholarships since it began keeping records in 2018. After it disburses 21 $1,500 scholarships to graduating seniors at Lennard and East Bay high schools during the club\u2019s final meeting on May 13, any remaining funds in the club\u2019s account will be donated to several nonprofit groups selected by the board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By LOIS KINDLElekindle@aol.com After 67 years of service, scholarships and sisterhood, the Apollo Beach Woman\u2019s Club is closing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-261706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}