History of Scholarship Fund
After going through some rough financial times the club was starting to bank some reserve funds. In 2001 they started talking about giving scholarships to local high school students. Yvonne Wulff, Kate Brown and Janice Gerdeman were appointed by president Florence Whitney to be the Scholarship Committee. They were asked to gather details and refine a process. It was decided to work with the Lincoln County Foundation, a non-profit who already coordinated scholarships with the Waldport High School.
In 2002 the members were ready to accept applications from any Waldport girl graduate who planned to go into teaching or medicine. Home-schooled and those who completed their GED could also apply. $500 from the spring rummage sale and $500 from the Christmas Tour of Homes fundraiser were used for the first scholarship.
In 2003 member Esther Clarke and her daughter, Eileen Diehl, donated a beautiful red and white quilt to the club. A raffle was set up and tickets sold with the drawing for the winner at the Christmas Bazaar. The Scholarship Committee recommended proceeds from the raffle go towards future scholarships.
Thus began the tradition of members making a quilt each spring for a raffle with the funds all going to the scholarship fund. In recent years we have started to also have a dinner in the fall with all proceeds going to the scholarship fund and we have been happy to welcome current recipients as workers and guests at the dinners.
For a few years, the applicant pool was very small so the club established a relationship with Oregon Coast Community College and they transferred the money in the Lincoln County Foundation to OCCC Foundation. Anyone enrolled in the nursing or medical assisting program at OCCC is eligible to apply.
From 2002 – 2005 3 scholarships totaling $4,000 were given through the Lincoln County Foundation. From 2009 – 2018 18 scholarships totaling $25,000 have been given through the OCCC Foundation.
Pie Social History
In 1999 then member Florence Whitney got an idea for a new fundraiser. She suggested the club hold a Pie and Ice Cream Social on the 4th of July. Yachats already had a day’s worth of events and attracted a large crowd with the annual La De Da parade and the evening fireworks so they figured a few people might stop by the club for pie. The ladies dressed in fancy hats gathered signs and marched in the parade handing out plastic wrapped cookies that had a slip of paper on the bottom that said: “come to the Ladies Club for Pie and Ice Cream”. They baked 20 pies that year. They left 3 people at the club and the rest marched in the parade. The cookies worked, by the time the ladies got back to the club the line was out the door and the three left working were swamped and chaos reigned in the clubhouse. All the pies were sold out quickly.
A new event was born and the process of baking, cutting and serving pies improved each year. The members quit marching in the parade in 2007, they were all needed at the club to work.
With the success of the 4th of July event in 1999, it was decided to add similar activities on the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends starting in 2000 and continuing through 2019.
We no longer have the resources to host a pie and ice cream social but instead hold several craft bazaars throughout the year at the club house featuring a variety of delicious baked goods and quality craft items all made by the ladies of the Ladies Club.
The proceeds from these events are contributed to local social service organizations, an annual scholarship fund, and are used to maintain the club’s facility and support the club’s functions. A list of 2024 donations can be found on the We Support page of this website.
Dedication
We dedicate this book to the memory of those who started this club 90 years ago and to all the members that have worked over the years to make this club the success it is today. The Yachats Ladies Club has become known for their pies and annual Pie and Ice Cream Socials. We thank all the pie makers and kitchen helpers for sustaining this noteworthy reputation.
The club published cookbooks in 1986 and 2007. This is the first cookbook dedicated to pies only. Several recipes from past cookbooks have been incorporated into this book. A new cookbook will be published for our 100th year celebration.
