[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Walpole’s Jean St. George remembers pieces of her childhood being spent at the Italian American Club. She recalls the times her grandfather and father spent hanging out at the club, and can name plenty of family members, including her son, who had become members. In fact, St. George even had her wedding reception at the Italian American Club.
But she had never been able to join herself.
“The club never had women as members. I changed that one,” said St. George, laughing. “I had asked my father years and years ago if I could become a member, and he said he’d bring it up in a meeting, but the men just wouldn’t go for it. Now, it wasn’t a rule that you couldn’t have women, but they just let it go.”
For many years, the club had let it go. But when she received a newsletter in the mail that stated the Italian American Club was at risk of closing, St. George decided to try again to become a member.
“I had not been attending the meetings,” admitted Dan Cence, who joined around 2005. Cence also felt the need to visit the club once again, too, after hearing of its possible closure.
“I came to the meeting and Jean was there. I remember someone asked her why she was there, and she said something like, ‘I’m representing my father, and I’d like to become a member.’ And board just looked at her and said, ‘Well, we don’t accept women here.’”
A handful in attendance disagreed with such a statement. Selectmen David Salvatore voiced that he was interested in joining, but wouldn’t consider it if the club did not allow women. Using his background in law, Salvatore reviewed the bylaws and found no evidence that women were barred from becoming members.
After being proved wrong, the board allowed St. George to sign a request to join, thinking that nobody would raise their hand to sponsor her. Cence was the first to put his hand up, and several others joined in him in support of St. George.
“Before that, the group was getting sleepy,” said Cence. “They were having trouble getting volunteers and getting members on the board.”
“It was at a point where you had to move forward, and the club couldn’t stay all men if they wanted to get volunteers,” said St. George, who brought several more women to the club. “Women like to volunteer, they like to get things organized, and they want to do it now. They don’t want to do it three months from now.”
At her second meeting, the board announced that they needed a new president, and St. George stepped up. In just a couple of months, she had become the first woman to join Walpole’s Italian American Club and the first woman to become its president.
She also inspired Cence to join the board, and he has revamped the website and has taken charge of handling memberships as the financial secretary.
“It needed a boost,” said St. Geroge. “I think the guys got to a point where they just went on, but they need something different to get them to do something, because they wanted to save the place, so a lot of them have volunteered. I tried to do it as a team effort, not as one person’s effort. We’re all involved in this. Even if you volunteer for 15 minutes, that’s helping out.”
With the Italian American Club looking to change its image and become a community center for all – not just those of Italian descent – Jean St. George and the club’s efforts are welcomed and applauded by Walpole.
