Celebrating In Style!

Foreground L-R: Bamberlee Barnes, MaryJo McInerney, Kim Vance, Elly Wilson Background L-R: Mary Hemmer, Marilyn Karpicke, RaeAnn Krauss

  The Saginaw Branch of the WNF&GA had a tea on the 31st of August this year celebrating the 80th Anniversary of this Branch! The tea was held at the historical Castle Museum here in Saginaw. The Castle Museum was at one time Saginaw’s stately post office in downtown Saginaw. It is a beautiful building with its majestic turrets and marbled halls designed after a French Chateau. The castle was completed in 1898 and was saved twice through the years from demolition. Just visiting the castle is a pleasure in itself. Walking through the castle is so much of Saginaw’s past. You can almost imagine yourself standing there in the past at those places all but forgotten by the people of the here and now. It was such a fitting place to hold our anniversary tea.

     We were pleased to have two guests from outside our branch attend our tea, Carroll Thomson (the Michigan Division WNF&GA president) and Claudia Scioly, who gave us a very remarkable and interesting recount of her Frysinger Exchange to Iceland at a lunch we held last year. It was so nice to have guests from the Division!! I think the tea topped everyone’s expectations of an old-fashioned tea. Each table was decorated by a different member of our Branch. Some were very fancy while others reflected a simpler tea you might have at home with your best friend. Each table had its own individual centerpieces, table settings, and teapots, provided by the table hostess. Finger foods were provided by members and their own recipes for the most part. They were amazingly good! Everyone had their best dresses on, some of us with hats and gloves. What a site to see! I think the ladies who founded our Branch would have been so proud of us!