By Jaimie Julia Winters
For more than a century, three women’s organizations in Kearny have been shaping the community largely out of the spotlight. The Woman’s Club of Arlington, its Evening Membership Department, and the Junior Woman’s Club of Arlington may call themselves “the best kept secret,” but their impact — spanning more than 125 years since becoming one of the nation’s earliest chartered women’s clubs — is woven throughout the town.
A legacy
The story begins in 1894, when a group of women gathered in the Kearny home of Mathilde Crowell for book discussions. What started as a literary circle would become one of the founding clubs of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs and help establish the foundations of today’s Kearny.
“Our foremothers were interested in literature but were active in other areas of the community as well,” Patricia Sherwen, current co-president of the Woman’s Club of Arlington, said. Those early book discussions led to the creation of Kearny’s first lending library in 1895. Those first members managed it for over a decade, and helped secure the Carnegie Grant that built the town’s permanent library in 1907.
The club’s influence extended far beyond books. Members branched out to serve on hospital boards, worked with the Red Cross, fought to protect the Passaic River, and even helped preserve the Palisades from overdevelopment. When women couldn’t vote, these women found ways to shape their community through organized action.
Three clubs, one mission
As the community’s needs evolved, so did the club structure. In 1927, the Junior Woman’s Club of Arlington was formed for younger women, followed in 1946 by the Evening Membership Department to accommodate working mothers and professionals who couldn’t attend daytime meetings.
Today, these three clubs represent different approaches to the same mission: community service, civic engagement, and fellowship among women.
Now 124 years old, the Woman’s Club of Arlington continues its tradition of identifying community needs and taking action. Recent projects include coordinating Christmas gifts for Newark’s Apostle House, supporting the Kearny Community Food Pantry Network, and bringing bestselling authors to town through annual literary events.
“We continue to change our service endeavors as the needs of the community change,” Sherwen noted. Where early members focused on library services and public health, today’s members tackle food insecurity, support local schools, and provide thousands of dollars in scholarships to graduating seniors.
Junior Woman’s Club
Approaching its 97th year, the Junior Woman’s Club has expanded its membership from daughters of senior club members aged 16-30 to any woman 18 and up. This evolution has brought fresh energy and new perspectives to traditional service work.
“We are always evolving and open to new ideas as long as we are serving our community and having fun while doing it,” Holly Hilton, co-president of the Junior Woman’s Club, said. The club’s 30-40 members range from women in their 20s to their 50s, including mothers, professionals, and even some mother-daughter pairs.
Recent innovations include themed fundraising events—think Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland table decorations at trivia nights and a Taylor Swift dance party fundraiser on Valentine’s Day—alongside traditional projects like scholarship programs, holiday food drives, and the annual town cleanup that the Juniors initiated 35 years ago.
The scholarship funding, one of Hilton’s favorite endeavors by the club, falls in line with the Federation’s commitment to educate young women.
The club’s scholarship program, one of Hilton’s favorite initiatives, reflects the Federation’s mission to advance women’s education. Founded when higher education opportunities for women were limited, the Federation established the NJ College for Women (now Douglass Residential College) and still partners with it through fellowships and awards, Sherwen said. Each year, it also sponsors local high school juniors to attend the three-day Girls Career Institute on campus, where they explore careers, participate in activities, and build lasting friendships.
The club’s partnership approach has proven particularly effective. A recent blood drive, organized with the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington and the Elks, collected 45 pints—triple what any single organization might have achieved alone.
The Evening Membership
The Evening Membership Department represents one of the most forward-thinking aspects of this organization. Formed in 1946 when few women worked outside the home, it recognized that changing times required flexible solutions.
Jane Mackesy, former EMD chairperson and member for 40 years, remembers when most members worked full-time and scheduled projects around demanding work schedules. “Now since many are retired, the available hours have changed as well,” she noted, but the evening format remains essential for working members.
The EMD currently supports scholarships for three high schools—Kearny, North Arlington, and Harrison—while focusing on domestic violence prevention and food insecurity, signature causes of the broader women’s club movement.
Building community
What sets these clubs apart is their understanding that community service and personal connection are inseparable. “We are a sisterhood,” Sherwen said.
Members consistently describe lifelong friendships formed through shared work.
“The Juniors are great for the community and for women to be connected outside of work and family,” Hilton said. “People forge lifelong friendships.” She points to her own relationship with co-president Denise Ganzer, which began through school volunteering and continues to flourish through club work, even as their children have grown.
Hilton has also formed a close friendship with a single member who joined in her 20s. They now spend holidays together. Because there are no age restrictions now, there a few mother and daughter members.
This social aspect addresses what many see as a growing problem in American communities: social isolation. In an era of digital connection but physical separation, these clubs provide face-to-face interaction around meaningful work.
The ripple effect
All three Kearny clubs belong to the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, part of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs—an international organization with over 60,000 members across all 50 states and several countries.
This connection amplifies local impact. When New Jersey clubs worked together, they helped establish what is now Douglass Residential College, stopped the destruction of the Palisades, and continued to influence legislation supporting families and communities.
“Power grows with numbers,” Sherwen said. Local projects gain strength from statewide coordination, while national initiatives find local expression through individual clubs.
Meeting modern challenges
These clubs face the same membership challenges affecting many civic organizations. Busy schedules, family obligations, and competing priorities make volunteer commitments difficult. But their response has been adaptation rather than rigidity.
“We don’t require you to be at every meeting or event,” Hilton emphasized. “You can do a little or a lot. You can lead or not. We are flexible.”
This flexibility, combined with meaningful work and genuine fellowship, has helped the clubs maintain relevance in 2026. Current members include the mayor of Kearny, school board members, and women who serve at elections—a far cry from the era when women couldn’t vote but found ways to influence their communities nonetheless.
The clubs are also ready to rally whenever a crisis hits the community and always in partnership with other organizations, such as the schools, The Elks, and churches.
Why it matters now
In an age of political polarization and social division, these nonpartisan organizations offer something increasingly rare: spaces where diverse women can work together on shared goals. Members learn compromise, collaboration, and leadership while addressing real community needs.
“Our members learn how to compromise and to work with other groups and with diverse people with different backgrounds and ideas,” Hilton noted. These skills, developed through volunteer work, carry over into all aspects of members’ lives.
The clubs also provide continuity in an era of constant change. Projects like the annual town cleanup, now in its 35th year, create lasting traditions that connect generations of residents to their community.
The future of service
As these three clubs look ahead, they see both challenges and opportunities. Community needs continue to evolve—from the milk safety campaigns of the 1920s to today’s focus on food insecurity and domestic violence prevention. But the fundamental approach remains constant: identify needs, organize resources, and take action.
“Together our many smaller projects have made a positive difference in the lives of the residents of Kearny one project at a time,” Sherwen said.
Perhaps most importantly, these clubs demonstrate that effective community organizing doesn’t require grand gestures or massive budgets. It requires what they’ve always had: committed people willing to show up, work together, and persist over time.
The three women’s clubs of Kearny may call themselves the “best kept secret,” but their century-plus of service speaks loudly about what’s possible when neighbors organize to care for their community. In a world that often feels fragmented and divisive, they offer a model of civic engagement that builds both community capacity and human connection—one meeting, one project, one friendship at a time.
The Woman’s Club of Arlington meets the second Tuesday of the month at 1 p.m. at the Girls Scouts Building at 635 Kearny Ave. contact Sherwen at psher331@verizon.net. The Evening Membership Department meets the Henrietta Benstead Senior Center, 60 Columbia Ave. on the second Wednesday of month at 7:30 p.m., contact Ann Papa at Papaann55@verizon.net. The Junior Woman’s Club meets on the third Friday of each month at the same location at 8 p.m., contact Hilton at HollyHilton5631@gmail.com.
Top photo: Early Federation of Women’s Clubs. Courtesy WIKIPEDIA.
