Ojai Valley Woman’s Club Ojai Valley Woman’s Club marking 110 years of service Perry Van Houten | pvh@ojaivalleynews.com
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or more than 100 years, the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club has raised money for worthy causes and supported the community in times of need.
Helping deployed men and women is a Woman’s Club tradition that continues to this day.
Founded in 1915, two years before the town changed its name from Nordhoff to Ojai, the Woman’s Club is a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits. “We’re just a moving force and we love to help out. We’re active in the community and throughout Ventura County,” said longtime member and current 1st Vice President Patti Bagley.
Through the nonprofit organization For the Troops, the women donate basic necessities, goodies and games that are packed into “We Care” boxes for members of the American military. The club even gets local schoolchildren to write notes to veterans. “These deployed veterans getting these boxes sent by For the Troops love what we’re doing to help the program,” Bagley said, “and we’re continuing our good work from 80 years ago, helping veterans.”
The history of the club goes back to 1899, when the Presbyterian Church started a local chapter of the King’s Daughters, a service organization that sponsored classes for boys in carpentry and domestic training classes in schools for girls, raised money and materials for the needy, picked up litter on the streets and sidewalks, and protested roadside billboards in the valley. The group was so effective in improving the town that Josephine Pierpont Ginn decided she’d build the women a clubhouse, in memory of her husband. The clubhouse, at 441 E. Ojai Ave., was completed in 1911. The building became city of Ojai Historical Landmark No. 8 in 1992.
“We’re continuing our good work from 80 years ago, helping veterans.”
The Woman’s Club’s long record of service over the years includes activities such as calling on the sick, raising money for streetlights and even providing a cow to a large needy family. Awarding scholarships to local high school students, another Woman’s Club tradition, began in 1963. Last year, the club raised $680 to help toward college expenses for two graduating seniors.
The club stayed busy during the pandemic by gathering supplies to make backpacks to donate to young women affected by abuse. “These backpacks were filled with loving treasures,” said Bagley. They included socks, manicure sets, toiletries, notebooks and journals, and even a homemade mask.
Four years after the clubhouse was built, the King’s Daughters became the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club, and almost immediately the club’s mettle was put to the test by back-to-back crises. In 1917, the clubhouse served as a hub for distribution of supplies during a devastating wildfire, and provided housing for nurses during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918.
The group is also active in support of women’s rights and the history of suffragettes. One member, Pat Essick, marched in the 2019 Ojai Independence Day Parade dressed as a suffragette. “It’s all about empowering women,” Bagley said.
During both World Wars, the clubhouse was used to assemble relief packages for soldiers overseas.
Since the beginning, the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club has leased the clubhouse to groups wanting to hold events there, and has even donated use of the building to nonprofits. Six churches got their start there.
Marking its 110th anniversary, the King’s Daughters Clubhouse, now the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club. Photo courtesy Ojai Valley Museum
Despite COVID-19, the 54-member club has held board meetings, regular meetings and book club meetings once per month. “We’ve continued to have meetings throughout the pandemic, by Zoom, and do almost all the things we do,” said Bagley, who hoped to be back to in-clubhouse meetings in May, and definitely by September. Part of a district of 10 women’s clubs in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, including the Oak View Women’s Club, the club has never taken on a political affiliation. “One of the rules is not to talk politics, but we have hosted the League of Women Voters,” Bagley said. “We try to see both sides of everything that’s going on.” Along with more than a century of service to the Ojai Valley, the club has served as a source of friendship to newcomers. When Bagley moved to Ojai in 2000, the only person she knew here was her mother. “One of the things about joining the Woman’s Club was this circle of friends,” she said. “I have formed lasting friendships with people that I’ll know until the day I die.” For more information on the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club, visit www.ovwc.info
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