New Britain herald., 1916-05-04

new members, all of whom joined of
 their own accord, but we have 1 doubled our members during the
 past winter from 250 to 475 indi
 vidual girls coming to the association
 every week. Surely 475 girls of this
 city making the Y. w. c. A. their own, and taking active part in it's
 doings ought to speak for itself. It is interesting to note that almost
 entirely older girls, that is,-girls i over eighteen years of age. are the
 ones who have been active in gyn1na- 1 sium and swimming classes. and have
 used the swimming pool most.
 1 This does not mean, however, that 1 the younger girls have been neglect 1 ed, nor that our work for adolescent
 girls has been less successful than in the previous years. Strange as it may seem, our younger girls have stuck to their regular club work with
 a tenacity that has been surprising. for we did expect that no one would
 want to know how to cook or do anything but swim and swing clubs.
 I;1 '~ we were most pleasantly dis
 app d, and the outcome was that there have been twelve clubs with a
 total mem bership of 120 girls be-
 tween the ages of twelve and eighteen
 each club under the leadership of a
 capable worker. each worker being a
 volunteer, and giving her time,
 strength, ingenuity and sympathy
 most freely to her girls. These clubs
 meet weekly and have four or six
 weeks courses in cooking and table
 setting. in sewing, embroidering, cro-
 cheting, stenciling, basketry, first
 aid and home nursing, folk dancing,
 reading and bible study. And now
 that we have such a splendid stage
 and auditorium nearly all the clubs
 have been seized with the desire to appear behind the footlights, and this, with similarly strong desire to go camping this summer has brought about courses in dramatics, and two plays are to be given very soon with the hope of increasing the camping fund. Then there are the council meeting,-times for gathering around the council fire to receive honors for hard things accomplished, and to make plans for sharing some of the good things received. This spirit of sharing was especially large and beautiful at Christmas time when two clubs gave a party to some for eign children. and another club pro- 1 Wded trees for two poor families and ! still another club, the Kolaha, boun- tifully played Santa Claus for a large Italian family. The Girl Pioneers, our youngest girls. also had share in the Christmas cheer by making scrap books for the children in the hospital.
 It might be we'll to mention again that these clubs are almost entirely and can do wonderful things with their club dues, such as furnishing supper for twelve girls for six meals for $3.91. The meals, of course were very simple, but and taught the lesson of l economy in housekeeping.
 One of our clubs, as one of the club leaders expressed 1t. had a 'soupy' evening, making several kinds of soup, and also a stew, eli for sixty cents. These lessons in cooking are generally converted into supper parties, the table being dec orated, and macaroni and cheese. such dishes being the menus for these banqueting occasions.
 Occasionally the cake is put into the broiler instead of into the oven, or baking soda used instead of baking powder, but who would want to learn without the thrill and pleasure oe foolish mistakes.
 The out of doors. too. has many at fractions for us all, and short walk ing trips for studying flowers and birds as well as for the fun of a meal over a camp fire, are very popular.
 We could not forget the Altamont and Silver Bay clubs, the Christian league and the boarding home. These groups have their happy times, too, and frequent matrimonial showers The boarding home lost not only two of it's secretaries in this way last year, but several of the family, and the Silver Bay club is rapidly mar rying off it's mem bers.
 Our work is by no means confined to lunch room, boarding home, phy- sical or other departments, nor en- tirely to New Britain. There are times when we are called upon to reach out beyond New Britain. and such is the case when we are called upon to give Travellers Aid assistance, by meeting young girls or women who come to our city alone; and also by keeping others, about to leave our city. One especially interesting case of the latter sort came to us in the fall A girl of about eighteen was brought to our office by an elderly woman who asked that we give the girl advice about how to reach a city in the middle northwest, without falling into danger, because the girl knew so little about life and had never travelled alone. She was to start in a few hours. and looked much bewildered with the thought of her two days journey alone. She was a girl of little education and no ex- perience and answered broad "yes to every thing. She had to