Women’s Club have been helping others for 50 years

The Bayview- Athol-Belmont Women’s Club will celebrate its Golden Jubilee in July – 50 years of community service. The club’s history dates to July 24, 1956, when 15 women gathered from the communities of Bayview, Athol and Belmont to raise money for local charities.

“BAB is a nonprofit organization that benefits the surrounding communities by providing opportunities for its members to pool their judgment and experience for the improvement of the home and community life,” says club vice president Barbara Balbi.

Held together by a common history, plus ties of school, churches, clubs and of favorite gathering places, residents of Bayview, Athol and the Belmont area shared many common interests.

According to history recorded in old cookbooks that were compiled by BAB members, farming and logging in the Athol-Belmont area started in 1895 with the arrival of farmers from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Athol was named for Athol, Mass., which in turn came from James Murray, second Duke of Athol, Scotland.

The first school was built in 1907; only the gymnasium is still standing. The gym is now home to the Athol Community Center and is still used today.

Although there is no town of Belmont, the Belmont area was once a thriving lumber community. The little school building, where early meetings of BAB were held, was moved to Parks Road and is known as the “Road House” by Grange members who hold meetings there, and was once known as the Cedar Mountain School.

“The original name of the club was the BAB Fancydoers, which was organized as a Kootenai County Extension Club,” says Balbi. “Their club flower was the sweet pea, the club bird was the mountain bluebird, and the club colors were pink and blue.”

Originally, meetings were held in members’ homes. As the group grew in size, meetings were moved to the old Belmont School, then to the Bayview School, the Athol Community Center, and finally to the Bayview Community Center.

Membership now totals more than 80 women from Kootenai and Bonner counties, and their fund-raising activities are numerous.

They raise money to fund a $1,000 scholarship to North Idaho College and to support the ABC Food Bank, Athol Elementary Library, Timberlake High School Library, Hospice of North Idaho and Idaho Girls State in conjunction with the Athol American Legion.

BAB’s major fund-raisers include a Fourth of July Bazaar in conjunction with Bayview Daze, a Christmas Bazaar and an annual quilt raffle or cookbook.

Many of their members are also active community volunteers in other organizations.

“Women who were members of the BAB Women’s Club in the early years are still members,” says Barbara Wilcox, past president. “They would bring their children to the meetings and now many of those children and their children’s wives are members today.”

Edie Peck and LaVerne Rickel were BAB founding members and still are very active. Wilcox joined in 1994, has held many offices and received the distinguished “Woman of the Year” award in 1996. Balbi joined in 2000, and received the “Woman of the Year” award in 2002.

“BAB also helps families that are burned out, and who have lost a spouse,” says Balbi. “The bonds are strong and we want to be good neighbors whenever we can.”