Ironton Child Welfare Club holds annual salad luncheon 

On Thursday, the Ironton Child Welfare Club had its annual salad luncheon and one of the highlights was music by Holly Forbes.

Club president Ann Wise welcomed club members and that said the salad luncheon began in 1962 or 1963. As is tradition, members bring two salads, which encompasses everything from lettuce to chicken salad, broccoli salad to desserts like Watergate salad.

 “We are a wonderful, caring group that has worked hard for many years to support the precept laid down at its beginning,” Wise said. 

The Child Welfare Club was founded in 1918 when times were tough in Ironton. The club started as a way to make sure that area children had basics like milk. 

Over the past 100 years, the club expanded their mission to do more, but all their works are geared toward helping children. 

Forbes, of Catlettsburg, Kentucky, has been singing locally for years before getting national exposure. 

In 2009, she was a contestant at the Colgate Country Showdown at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds. She gained national exposure when she was a contestant on season 21 of “The Voice” TV show after getting all four judges to turn their chairs around. She placed ninth overall.

She has continued to play around the region, doing shows with pop star Debbie Gibson and joining West Virginia-based jazz singer Landau Eugene Murphy, of “America’s Got Talent” fame, on a Christmas tour.

The money from the salad luncheons and other fundraisers goes toward the clubs many civic projects including the Eddy Awards, Ironton Freshie Award and the Ohio University and Collins Career Center scholarships as well as supporting Harvest for the Hungry, Backpack Buddies, Sue’s Kids and the Ironton City Mission.

Wise said that for a woman to join the Ironton Child Welfare Club, they must be nominated by a current member.

“And we read a resume on you and then we vote on becoming a member,” she said, adding dues were $15 a year. “Anyone that is interested, we would be glad to have you. We need some young, able-bodied people in the club.”