BEAVER CREEK - At a 60th-anniversary celebration Wednesday for Girls Inc. of Washington County at Beaver Creek Country Club, past and present organization officials noted how much the club's focus has changed while celebrating a larger mission that remains much the same.
"When we started, it was all about being a homemaker and a mother," said Marjorie Grumbacher, 88, a former president who helped found the Washington County club in 1948. "Now, we want them to be strong, smart and bold."
In fact, Grumbacher served on the national committee that helped formulate Girls Inc.'s "strong, smart and bold" mission about 10 years ago, said Maureen Grove, Girls Inc. of Washington County's executive director. Grumbacher was one of six people honored Wednesday for their service to the organization over the years.
In the club's early years, most of the classes offered were in cooking, sewing and knitting, Grove said. Today, Girls Inc. of Washington County still offers some of those classes, but it also teaches financial stability, science, math, leadership, self-protection and how to get high-paying jobs and enter nontraditional career fields, she said.