Child Welfare Club continues its mission as it approaches century mark

Most events of the Child Welfare Club are fundraisers organized around their mission of helping children.

This past Thursday, they held an event for themselves — a Christmas party at Corbie and the Jockey Club in Ashland, Kentucky.

Welfare Club president Jane Davis said this event was about fellowship.

“It’s about fellowship and the friendships we have,” she said. “It is really important that when you are working together for causes, if you have that bond, everyone is more enthusiastic.”

The Child Welfare Club has several fundraisers throughout the year, including a chicken salad sale, a salad supper and a talent auction.

“Those went very well this year,” Davis said.

The Child Welfare Club was founded in 1918 and times were tough in Ironton. The club started as a way to make sure that every child in Ironton had basics like milk. Over the years it has expanded to do more, but is still geared to helping children.

“Children are our main concern and we give to the community as well, which benefits the children,” Davis said. “And we have a lot of educational things, we give a lot of scholarships like to Ohio University Southern, Collins Career Technical Center. And one of the biggest things we do is the Eddy Test and banquet, where we honor the children that earn an Eddy.”

Among the other things the club donates to is Backpack Buddies to make sure kids can eat on the weekends, Tools 4 Schools, to the City Mission and Lawrence County Domestic Violence Shelter as well as giving to Christmas and Thanksgiving projects. The club even recently bought the AED heart defibrillator.

Davis said the members are looking forward to celebrating their 100th year with a birthday on Feb. 14.

“We are going to celebrate, big time,” she said. “We are going to look back at our history and probably have a bigger deal with it at our salad luncheon. We don’t have it all worked out yet.”