Warsaw has a new club for girls ages 10 to 20 called Job’s Daughters, which had its first meeting Thursday.
Job’s Daughters is an international organization started by Ethel T. Wead in 1920 in Nebraska. It now has members in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Philippines and Brazil.
Lori Roe, the group’s adviser, said that Brazil has the most members out of any country. She said the organization is Masonic affiliated, although the girls don’t have to have a Masonic affiliation.
“It’s a place where girls can go to become themselves and just grow in their leadership skills and have a safe environment to have fellowship with other girls and have fun,” said Keely Roe, honor queen of Warsaw’s club. “It’s a very personal experience, too. It’s not like everyone’s experience is the same … it’s a growing organization that will continue to develop and grow.”
“We’re set up almost as a fraternal organization,” Lori said. “We have formal meetings and we have charitable philanthropic projects.”
The organization raises money for the Hearing Impaired Kids Endowment each year, which gives money to provide children with hearing aids and other equipment, according to a pamphlet provided by the organization. Over $5 million has been raised for HIKE, donating more than 2,250 hearing devices to children.
Warsaw’s group is the first in the area, the closest being in Fort Wayne. Other clubs are in Crown Point, Chesterton, Daleville with one possibly opening in Bristol. Lori said she put in the paperwork to start the club about a month ago.
“There are very few organizations that are just for girls in leadership and I wanted to provide another option to that,” Lori said, saying that while Girl Scouts also has girls in leadership, the two organizations are not in competition with each other.
To graduate high school, “you either have work-based experience, service-based experience or project-based experience and technically Job’s gives you both project- and service-based learning and the skills you get from that and you have to have that,” Keely said.
Lori said you have to prove that you have those skills, allowing students to say they held a certain office in the organization.
Lori talked about the offices the organization offers. The adults all serve as advisers. Then for the girls, there is president of the chapter, which is called the honor queen. And then there’s two princesses.
“And those three (the queen and the princesses) represent Job’s daughters,” Lori said. They run the meetings. Other officers include marshal and guide.
All the mentioned offices are elected anonymously, lasting six months, Keely said. It’s a progressive line, allowing girls to go from guide to queen. A person can be in the same office twice, but not twice in a row.
Keely said the club follows Robert’s Rules of Order, where the meetings go over old business, new business and the treasurer’s report.
Lori said there’s always something to do because there are local groups, a state organization and an international organization. She said members could be doing projects on the local level, learning their parts and leadership skills, doing statewide projects, raising money for HIKE, among other things.
Lori talked about the biblical meaning behind the organization’s name. “Job had three daughters in the Book of Job, so all of our ceremonies then focus on the lessons you learn from reading the Book of Job,” Lori said.
Meetings are at 6 p.m. at Warsaw Lodge, No. 73, 1620 W. Center St., on the first and third Thursdays of the month. New members are welcome. Call Lori at 574-527-2760 for more information.
