New Britain herald., 1917-12-06

Wheel chairs, air cushions, com mode chairs and crutches. the prop- erty of the society may be borrowed upon request.
 An earnest plea was made for more helpers, for the surgical dressings department of the Red Cross on Court street.
 An invitation was extended to- all Sunshine members to be present at the meeting of the Visiting Nurses association, to be held at the WV. c. A.
 It is planned to carry out the Christmas work as in former years at the Town Home and Mrs E. B. Proudman was chosen as chairman of >this comm1tteej Stockings will be made by the various members. and also by the Girl Scouts of the South Congregational church under the leadership of Mrs. George Loo1nis These will be filled with candy and popcorn, and gifts will be there for every one at the Home. There are many calls for help, but each in turn deserves our aid and we trust all who can will try and have some little share in this work of our city, for only a lit- tie from each will ensure success for many. Aprons, tobacco and pipes are among some of the desirable articles
 Following the regular business came exercises in keeping with the celebra- ton of the sixteenth anniversary of the fn1n6inr 0f fhiS in city.
 We were fortunate in having with us Mrs. George Christ at whose home the first meeting was held sixteen years ago. Following is a brief re- view from her paper:
 Sometimes we are glad and some times sorry we started the ball roll ing.'
 In the case of Canonicus branch I am proud to feel that I began the circle in my home, which has spread to such size and is doing so much good work in our city. I had read of the l. S. S. in the Ladies' Home Jour- nal, and asked some of the girls to come to my home to talk over the forming of a branch. The day proved to be stormy and cold and the four who came deserved credit for getting out in such weather. Miss Gertrude Zimmerman, now Mrs. A. B. Griswold of Hempsted, L. l., was elected presi dent; Miss Fanny Christ now Mrs. Louis Merritt of Bridgeport, Conn.,. secretary; Miss Grace Corbin, now Spears, treasurer. and Miss Bessie Lutz, now Mrs. George Christ, vice president To quote again: Of course you cannot do much with nothing in the treasury, so we each agreed to give five cents each meeting in order to have a nest egg, and I think that nest egg has matched out with won derful results.
 Perhaps some of the present mem- bers have wondered why we chose the name. The Boys club was just com ing into prominence and we girls were quite interested in its members, so tried to find an Indian name in keep ing with their tribe name, "Seneca.' At that time there was a hotel at Fishers Island which some of us visited in the summer, which bore the name "Canonicus." It struck my fam cv and we adopted it.
 The letter received from the presi- dent general, Mrs. Alden, accepting the new society to be 8 part of the grand whole, was read and then pre- sented to the society where it will be filed.
 Mrs Louis Merritt followed, con- tinuing early remembrances.
 "One of the first things we did was to make dresses for three little girls whose mother had died. The first so- cial affair was whist at the home of Mrs. Lutz, 25 cents a person, and we had eight tables. Refreshments were donated by members. We gave several TN hall on Arch street, the tables were loaned by members and friends and we hired an expressman to gather them. To save paying an extra man one of the members always went on the wagon to help get the tables.
 Our first Thanksgiving we gave din- ners to several families. One helpful man borrowed a horse and another Sunshine friend loaned delivery wagon for this work.
 Mrs. George Christ and myself started out to deliver in a pouring rain, completing the work by the aid of a borrowed lantern at in the eve ming. We did a great deal of work at the Home for Incurables in NeWing- ton Our treasury never amounted to more than few cents. Our first large amount was made when the Seneca club gave '"The New Britainites.' Diff ferent members acted as chaperons at the rehearsals and performances. l remember my task was to make up the children's faces. painted faces as fast as I could and sent the young sters from club rooms to the Lyceum Our share of the proceeds was $10o. We used some of that money to fur nish q room at the Children's Home" Working along lines similar to the present only under greater dimculties' I've had to work hard when the so-