Marianna Woman’s Club invites community to 90th anniversary celebration

The Marianna Woman’s Club will celebrate its 90th anniversary from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8, at the clubhouse, located at the corner of Caledonia and Clinton streets. The public is encouraged to attend. A highlight of the event will be a skit at 2:30 p.m. Written by supporter Frances Stone, it will be acted by some of the members of the organization and features the history of the club.
Organized on Nov. 4, 1919, the group has accomplished numerous significant projects for the community, as the script of the humorous skit reveals.
One of its first civic endeavors was to have the dirt streets of downtown Marianna cleaned from time to time. Back in those days, no streets were paved, and “alternated between muddy or dusty,” according to a narrative, which will be read during the skit.
The club spearheaded and directed the clean-ups as needed, making sure the trash that accumulated in the commercial district was disposed of on a regular basis.
Their major project in 1920 also had to do with the beatification of downtown. That year, the club successfully pushed for the city council to create a plaza in downtown Marianna. Landscaped with palms, and other shrubbery, it was selected as the site of the Confederate Memorial Monument, which was erected the next year still stands in Confederate Park. Years later, in 1987, the club would buy the $15,000 gazebo which is now a highlight of the park.  Marianna city crews gave the gazebo a sprucing up this week, in honor of the club’s Sunday event.
As time passed and beautification efforts had met with success, the club turned its attention to even more significant problems in the city.
Health campaigns for school children were among the most important work the club has done.  The club was instrumental in helping institute an inoculation program for youngsters at school, for instance.
The club also had some public restrooms built in downtown Marianna in the 1920s.
The club also planted shrubbery at the high school in then 1920s, helped an orphan girl, gave a 4-H participant a scholarship for a summer course in Tallahassee, and kept up the Marianna High School grounds.
Other health campaigns included mosquito control and a campaign to eradicate hookworm during an outbreak.
Club members also began a project in the 1920s giving food from their own homes to feed undernourished children. Other women in town participated with the club in this endeavor.
The club also established the first library in Marianna, starting as a small room in county educational offices. It was eventually moved to the group’s clubhouse, and a mobile library was operated out of the location until the 1970s, when the current library was established on Green Street.
The club was a vital contributor during the war years, participating in Red Cross projects, USO work, running a canteen and helping establish housing for the the families of cadets at the Marianna Army Air Field. 
The skit on Sunday will feature some of these accomplishments and more.
Club members are hoping members of the community will come out and help them celebrate.