Special to the Sun
After more than 100 years, the Midway Women’s Club announced it is dissolving as an independent organization and is directing its remaining funds, $90,000, to be disbursed to local groups carrying its mission of civic betterment and intellectual improvement.
The club formed on Sept. 14, 1922, when 42 women met to commit themselves to improving their town. Over the following century, its members planted thousands of trees, helped establish the Midway Free Public Library, pushed for road and infrastructure improvements, helped organize the county’s first health education program and worked to place Midway on the National Register of Historic Places. The club also funded scholarships and supported the local elementary school, the Midway Museum and community projects across the area.
When the club was founded, women had few formal channels to shape civic life. They could not yet take for granted a seat on a city board, a role in county government or a voice in the institutions that ran their town. So they organized one of their own, and through it they did the work that needed doing.
Over the next 100 years, that changed.
Women moved into elected office, onto boards, into the leadership of the library, schools, churches and civic groups that now hold up daily life in Midway. The causes the club set in motion became everyone’s work, folded into the ordinary running of the town.
That is why the membership of the club concluded its mission no longer depends on the club.
The library hosts workshops, speakers and events year-round. The Midway Ministerial Association brings local congregations together to help neighbors in need. The Midway Museum preserves the city’s history for everyone to explore. Residents gather as friends at block parties, community dinners and throughout a downtown and park the club helped care for.
With its mission in so many capable hands, the club turned to what it could still offer: its remaining resources.
“We are grateful for the charitable ambition of hundreds of Midway women over the last 100 years, who stewarded their resources so well,” said Genie Graf, co-president of the club. “It’s a privilege to be able to share so much for the betterment of our community.”
In total, the Midway Woman’s Club is donating more than $90,000 to: Midway Baptist Church food pantry, which provides groceries and food assistance to local families and individuals facing hardship; Midway Ministerial Association, supported by area churches, which maintains a fund for residents who need help with rent, utilities and other essential expenses; Midway Museum, the nonprofit that collects, preserves and displays the history of Midway for residents and visitors at its space in Midway City Hall/Visitors Center; Northside Elementary “Coats for Kids,” which provides warm winter clothing to students in need; Walter Bradley Park, toward the construction of an accessible trail so that more residents can enjoy the park; Woodford Educational Endowment Fund, which supports educational opportunities and resources for students across Woodford County; and Midway Cemetery, to continue the club’s longtime devotion to beautification of the cemetery.
“We wanted our last act as a club to be the same as our first: putting something useful into the hands of Midway. These organizations do real work for real people here, and we are glad to help them keep doing it,” said Katie Vandegrift, co-president of the Midway Woman’s Club.
The club’s name will close its chapter, but the work it began is in good hands. It is spread across the town it spent a century helping to build.