Mackinaw Woman's Club Hosts Strawberry Social Saturday

The Mackinaw Woman's Club will host its eighth annual Old Fashioned Strawberry Social Saturday, July 4, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the marina lawn in Mackinaw City. The Strawberry Social offers a dish of ice cream and strawberries served over a freshly made biscuit for $4.

This is the first of the club's two major annual fundraisers. The second, the 40th Annual Antique Show and Sale, will be Tuesday, August 4, at the Mackinaw City High School.

Proceeds from fundraising events have gone into supporting a variety of programs in the community over the years. The club worked to establish a library for Mackinaw City in 1915, when the original members used a push cart to collect and distribute books to various meeting places. The club co-sponsored the writing and publication of the book "Memories of Mackinaw," a collaboration of club historian Nancy Campbell and librarian Judy Ranville. It sponsored the landscaping of a block on North Huron Boulevard, memorializing deceased members of the club; supported Heritage Day during the Bicentennial Celebration; contributed to the Ambulance Fund and working at the annual Tag Day for Cheboygan's Community Memorial Hospital. The club has also provided funding for some of the amenities in Old School Park; supporting elementary school trips to The Opera House in Cheboygan; providing scholarships for graduating seniors; supporting the Diane Peppler Resource Center in Sault Ste. Marie, which offers assistance to victims of domestic violence, and sponsoring and staffing four American Red Cross Blood Drives per year.

The club was founded in 1914 to create an organized center of action among women for literary, educational, and philanthropic work, and for the general culture and the promotion of practical interest in science, art, literature, and music, all for the betterment of the Mackinaw community.

The Mackinaw Woman's Club currently has a membership of approximately 60 women who live in Mackinaw City, Cheboygan, Carp Lake, and Levering.