Woman’s Club of Abbeville end of year ceremony

The Woman’s Club reached the end of another fantastic year.
Its members learned the Native American Indians were in this country long before the Europeans arrived, having walked across the Bering Straits looking for food. They learned about Indian medicine and child birth.
Having listened to wonderful readings about American Indian mythology based on the animals and the world as the Indians knew it centuries ago gave greater understanding of the Native American beliefs.
The ladies studied Indians of far away, like the M’ikmaq Indians in Nova Scotia, the Cherokee Indians, the Indians of New Mexico, and the Indians of Arizona – Navajo and Hopi.
Members also learned about Indians close to home, like the Choctaw, Attakapas, and the Indians of Pecan Island and that an effigy from our local Indians is right here in Abbeville and a display of Indian artifacts are at the Kaplan library. They also learned about legendary Indian chiefs and about the law of the United States which governs the Indian nation. They learned about the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the trail of tears, and of the Code Talkers and of their contributions to the freedom of our country.
The ladies were able to hold and examine beautiful Indian pottery, dream catchers, and artifacts that our members have in their homes from the Indian nations, and learned about the symbolism in Native American art. What an outstanding year is has been.
Celebrating the end of the 2014-2015 Woman’s Club meeting year, members continued with a new tradition of recognizing the members of the club who have reached a milestone marker of their membership. Last year every club member was awarded a membership pin based on their length of membership in the Woman’s Club.
Since the General Federation of Woman’s Club only provides pins for new members, five year members, ten year members, and 25 year members, the Abbeville club will continue to use these markers for recognition. As the tradition goes, these pins will only be given out at the end of the year Annual Spring Luncheon celebration.
During the spring luncheon celebration, held at the Regatta in Lake Arthur LA., Mrs. Marleen Thompson presented several members with their pin from the past two years. Mrs. Linda Weill recieved her 25 year pin . Mrs. Elaine Dill was presented with her 10 year pin. Mrs. Brenda Landry and Mrs. Mary Watkins were presented their 5 year pins.
This year the Woman’s Club of Abbeville have several new milestone markers to look forward to.
During this past year, the ladies learned that bells have been used for ceremonial purposes since 800 BC. Let the bells continue to ring in exciting new adventures and meetings filled with interesting information as we welcome a new year theme of famous composers and their music.