Fourteen members of the Searchlight Club women’s group met Oct. 18 for their monthly meeting in Rumford to share what they enjoy about being a club member. Seated from left: Cheryl Gallant, Gail Parent, Anita Theriault, Judy Wiseman, Wanda Orino, Donna Bucher. Standing from left: Jeanne Cushing, Leslie Skibitsky, Mary Pulsifer, Pat Hopkins, Carolyn Kennard, Sally Carey, Linda Kuras, and Anne Morin. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — This year the Searchlight Club, a women’s group that discusses and hosts events about cultural and educational topics, is celebrating its 120th anniversary. During its October meeting, 14 members gathered to share about the club and what they enjoy about being a club member. 

Member Pat Hopkins, 90, estimates she’s been a member for 25 years. She researched the launched of the club through the Rumford Area Historical Society’s archives and found that the club’s start coincided with the Oxford Paper Company mill’s opening in Rumford.

“Many of these (mill) men were engineers and professionals … and along with them came their wives, and their wives probably had a higher education than most people (at that time),” Hopkins said. To stay together as a group and to meet socially, the wives formed “this type of study club,” the Searchlight Club, she said.

Searchlight Club member Jeanne Cushing, third from left, talks about her experiences as a member of the club as the women met in her home for their October meeting. The club celebrated its 120th anniversary this year. From left are Carolyn Kennard, Mary Pulsifer, Cushing, and Anne Morin. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

“And in some of the descriptions, the ladies would come all dressed in their (finest) summer dresses, and their gloves and hats, and of course, the silverware came out, and you were judged on how everything was set up,” Hopkins explained.

Currently, the group enjoys lunches when they gather for their monthly meetings, and the formalities of dress and table settings are much more casual than they were years ago.

Every month a member picks a cultural or educational topic for a presentation to the group while another member hosts the group in their home. They also have a business meeting and lunch provided by the members.

Hopkins joined the group when she retired because she thought how she’d “love to join” the group and she also knew most of the members. She also felt that the members of the group were interesting women in the community and that their activities brought culture to the area. “And it just looked like a fun thing to do; but fun didn’t mean an ‘easy ride,’” Hopkins said.

One of the group’s most impressive events took place in 1979, Hopkins said, when they combined forces with the Portland Museum of Art and the (at the time) Boise Cascade paper mill in Rumford to hold a two-day art show on the upper floor of the Rumford Power Company, which was located on the corners of Exchange and Congress streets, Hopkins said.

“It was lovely; they had some very beautiful art pieces here,” Hopkins remembered.

Another aspect of the group that the club members appreciate is that it is not a fundraising group, yet it donates yearly to its local libraries in Rumford, Dixfield, Hanover and Mexico.

Linda Kuras, the club president recently elected in June, has been a member of the club for two years. She and Leslie Skibitsky are the two youngest members of the group — both are 69 years old.

“I’ve given one presentation so far, and it was on the Blue Zones in the world, where people live to be very old just from their lifestyle and what they’re eating. I thought that would be a good subject to share with the group; apparently, I did too good a job,” Kuras said.

Kuras added that she was honored for the opportunity to be the group’s president. “And I really appreciate the sisterhood of this group of women. I think that we support each other, and to me, it’s a fun group to get together and learn a new subject each month,” she said.

The group also has “certain things” they do in August, when they go to member Carolyn Kennard’s camp in Rangeley for a cookout. In December, they get together for a Christmas gathering. They also go out to eat together once a year, which Kuras says she enjoys “very much.”

Gail Parent, 86, a member of “at least 60 years,” said, “One thing I often remember (from a past club meeting) is a lady brought her horse to the meeting in the house. She wanted us to see her horse so, (she brought it into the house).”

Searchlight Club member Anita Theriault, center, shares what she enjoys about being a member of the women’s group dedicated to learning and sharing knowledge at member Jeanne Cushing’s home in Rumford. From left are club president Linda Kuras, Gail Parent, Theriault, Wanda Orino, and Carolyn Kennard. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

Parent said, “But anyway, I’ve been here a long, long time. I have always enjoyed it, even when (the club membership) was all mill people (the wives of the Boise Cascade mill executives).

“And I have to say, I was a little intimidated because they were all mill people; you know, mostly, and I felt like I was a mere teacher. So, at first, I was a little intimidated.”

Anita Theriault, the club’s oldest member at age 95, said that she came to Rumford newly married, in the 1960s and didn’t know anyone. Her neighbor Jane Swallow invited her to join the club, “and it was wonderful, because I finally got to meet people,” Theriault said.

“We really worked hard on our programs, and we had great discussions; never arguments. I mean, we could argue, but friendly arguments, and this is a group that doesn’t gossip,” Theriault said.

Wanda Orino, 92, joined in 1987 because Theriault encouraged her to join and she knew a lot of the women who were already in the club, she said.

“One year, Anita and I got together and we did a program on the dictators in the world; all the different dictators, and their backgrounds. That was very interesting and a lot of work,” Orino said.

Mary Pulsifer, 82, estimates she’s been with the club for 10 years. When it’s her turn to prepare a program for the group, she often finds friends who can speak about interesting subjects, such as when she asked Carolyn Kennard to speak to the group about her experience hiking half of the Appalachian Trail. Kennard later became a member of the group after her talk about the AT.

Pulsifer also mentioned that she was impressed by the women who were on a list of past Searchlight Club members. She thought: “I can be in the group that includes all of these (interesting) people.” And aside from appreciating spending time with interesting people, she enjoys the camaraderie of being a group member, she said.