A women’s group from the Rumford area dedicated to knowledge sharing and training.

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

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

“Many of these (factory) men were engineers and professionals… and with them came their wives, and their wives probably had more education than most people (at the time),” Hopkins said. To stay together as a group and connect socially, the wives created “this type of study club,” the Spotlight Club, she said.

“And in some of the descriptions, the ladies would come in all in their (best) summer dresses and gloves and hats, and of course the silverware would come out and you would be judged on how everything was arranged,” Hopkins explained.

The group now enjoys lunches when they gather for their monthly meetings, and the formalities of dress and table setting are much more casual than many years ago.

Each month, a member chooses a cultural or educational topic to present to the group, while another member hosts the group in their home. They also have a business meeting and lunch organized by the members.

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

According to Hopkins, one of the group’s most impressive experiences occurred in 1979, when they joined forces with the Portland Art Museum and (at the time) the Boise Cascade paper mill in Rumford to host a two-day art exhibit on the top floor. Rumford Power Company, which was located at the corners of Exchange and Congress streets, Hopkins said.

“It was wonderful; they had very beautiful pieces of art here,” Hopkins recalled.

Another aspect of the group that club members appreciate is that it is not a fundraising group, but does make annual donations to its local libraries in Rumford, Dixfield, Hanover and Mexico.

Linda Kuras, the club president who was recently elected in June, has been a member for two years. She and Leslie Skibicki are the group’s two youngest members, both 69 years old.

“So far I have given one presentation on the Blue Zones of the world, where people live to a ripe old age just because of their lifestyle and what they eat. I thought it would be a good idea to share this topic with the group; Apparently I did too good a job,” Kuras said.

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

The group also has “certain things to do” in August when they go to member Carolyn Kennard’s camp in Rangeley for a picnic. They are going to a Christmas party in December. They also go out to eat together once a year, which Kuras said she “really enjoys.”

Gail Parent, 86, a member “for at least 60 years,” said: “One thing I often remember (from the last club meeting) was the woman who brought her horse into the house to the meeting. She wanted us to see her horse like this (she brought it into the house).”

Parent said, “But anyway, I’ve been here a long, long time. I always liked it, even when (the club members) were all the people from the plant (the wives of the Boise Cascade plant executives).

“And I have to say I was a little scared because they were all factory people; you know, basically, and I felt like a simple teacher. So I was a little scared at first.”

Anita Theriault, the club’s oldest member at 95, said she came to Rumford as a newly married woman 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 worked really hard on our programs and had great discussions; never argues. I mean, we could argue, but it’s a friendly debate and this group doesn’t gossip,” Theriault said.

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

“One day Anita and I got together and made a program about the dictators of the world; all the different dictators and their origins. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work,” Orino said.

Mary Pulsifer, 82, believes she has been working at the club for 10 years. When it’s her turn to prepare a program for a group, she often finds friends who can talk about interesting topics, such as when she asked Caroline Kennard to tell the group about her experience hiking half of the Appalachian Trail. Kennard later became a member of the group after her story about AT.

Pulsifer also mentioned that she was impressed by the women who were on the list of former members of the Spotlight Club. She thought, “I might end up in a group with all these (interesting) people.” In addition to appreciating spending time with interesting people, she says she enjoys the camaraderie of being part of a group.

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