Soroptimist in the 1930s*

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The 30's ushered in the "depression" years which were hard on Soroptimists as well as the public at large. Soroptimists turned their efforts to providing clothing, medical supplies, dental and shoe funds, milk lines for children and food for the needy at home and abroad.

It was during this time that Hitler was named chancellor and was busy creating a formidable machine which was ultimately to affect the living people all over the world. Even with war clouds hanging overhead, and despite the depression, Soroptimists were rendering service to their communities to make them better places in which to live. Throughout the region, scholarships, camperships and student loan funds were initiated. Napa club gave "packages for patients" in the Napa County Infirmary- it was so successful that it has continued into the '70s. San Jose had a project "Say It With Roses", and planted a plot in the City Rose Garden with a rose from every State in the Union. It grows today.

Other history-making projects were:

• Berkeley sponsored a "Women's Driving School" and was a force in having a center-line painted on highways;
• Eureka assisted the W.P.A. in locating employment for women,
• Richmond assisted the physically and mentally handicapped;
• Marysville-Yuba City provided a Christmas pageant with music, carols and scenes of camels and wisemen on an island in the city lake;
• Fresno provided funds for needy college girls;
• Modesto furnished lunches for school children;
• Visalia supplied clothes for high school seniors; and
• Monterey spent time restoring dolls and distributing them to needy children.

* reprinted from Southwestern Region's history book entitled "Out Where It All Began" written and compiled for a celebration of Soroptimist's 50th anniversary in 1971 and updated and reprinted in 1996 for the celebration of Soroptimist's 75th anniversary, prepared by the Founder Region 75th Anniversary Committee and entitled Founder Region "The Way It Was".