By Evie House
WCHS student journalist
Try to imagine a potluck without a Southern mama making the potato salad, an event without a panel of ladies organizing the seating, or a community without women stepping forward whenever there is work to be done.
Women are, and have always been, the backbone of our community in a way that is irreplaceable and invaluable. But as Woodford County has changed, so have the ways its women have shown up.
Thousands of women have come through the halls of Woodford County High School or walked the streets of Versailles and gone on to achieve tremendous success.
Women have never before been so free to choose what they want their lives to look like, yet they continue to pour themselves into their communities through charity work, school events, churches, clubs and contributions that rarely make headlines.
Many of our community’s quiet change-makers can be found as members of the Woodford County Woman’s Club.
Established as the “Wednesday Club” in 1894, its members initially focused on arts, culture and literature. In 1920, the club joined the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and became more community-driven. More than a century later, that mission continues to evolve alongside Woodford County.
Club historians Judy Tinsley and Sarah McKay, JoAnn Gormley, a member for more than 50 years, and club President Debbie Sexton recently shared how the club has long impacted Woodford County. These four women have collectively dedicated decades to their community.
Today, the club has about 35 members, compared to 116 in 1920. Sexton calculated that if today’s participation were proportional to the county’s population back then, the club would have more than 600 members. At first glance, the difference seems to tell a story of women becoming less involved. But the women at that table tell a different story.
“These were ladies that did not work outside the home,” Sexton explained. “It’s a challenge to be a modern woman and be involved in the community.”
The challenge is not that women care less; it is that women are carrying more.
Gormley’s work with Coats and Shoes for Kids provides children in the county with a new winter coat and a pair of shoes. This year, that means 200 students. She remembers when the project began with shoes alone and expanded to include coats. Supporting it eventually meant learning to write grants and navigate the process of becoming an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
“I can remember summers,” she said, recalling the hours spent writing grants while her daughter took tennis lessons. “You might put in 40 hours a week.”
The work may have changed, but the willingness to do it has not.
Today, the organizations the club supports include GreenHouse17, Natalie’s Sisters and it is developing campus safety kits containing personal alarms, door alarms, whistles and drink covers.
“The world’s harsher,” Sexton said. “And there are a lot more challenges.”
Perhaps that explains why the club has survived for more than a century: it preserves its purpose while changing with the world around it.
However, the club’s impact extends beyond the people receiving coats, shoes or safety kits. There is another kind of work happening, and it may be the easiest to overlook.
McKay moved to Woodford County from Florida about a year ago, knowing almost no one. Then someone invited her to the Woman’s Club.
“I’ve been welcomed with open arms,” she said. “Now I’m Sarah with lots of friends.”
For McKay, joining the club meant more than finding a volunteer opportunity. It meant finding somewhere to belong.
Gormley, too, once felt like a wallflower at Woodford County gatherings because her husband knew everyone and she knew no one. Her response was not to shrink, but to become involved. Sexton moved across the country and did the same. Perhaps that is the work women have always done here: building community by helping build it for someone else.
Gormley said she could call any woman in the club, even at three in the morning, and that woman would be willing to listen and become involved in a project.
“It’s a sisterhood,” McKay added.
Maybe that is what the Woodford County Woman’s Club reveals about the community itself. It is not defined by one profession, one generation or one way of getting involved. Its members are teachers and mothers, retirees and newcomers, women who write grants at children’s tennis lessons and women who show up when someone needs to be heard.
Their lives, responsibilities and community’s challenges have changed.
But they keep showing up.
Women were once noticed for what they accomplished, but perhaps they should also be noticed for what they make possible: the child with a warm coat, the newcomer who finds a friend or the community with someone willing to answer the phone at three in the morning.
Because maybe being the backbone of a community isn’t about standing at the center of it.
Maybe it’s about being the person who keeps showing up.
Editor’s Note: This story is the product of the school system’s “Portrait of a Learner” partnership between the Sun and WCHS teacher Renee Boss’ journalism class, in which the Sun works with students to write and publish news stories.