Young Women’s Club commences holiday season

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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter

A group of 45 women living in Westwood greet the community with a mission of enriching the town through the Westwood Young Women’s Club (WYWC). Through fundraising events, the WYWC turns all of its profits back to the community in the form of high school scholarships, donations to the library and Early Childhood Council, and funding for local playgrounds and the Summer Concert Series.

Last year, the WYWC raised $15 thousand through community events to be donated back into town groups and fundraisers. One of their largest fundraising events each year that helps them achieve such success is Winterfest at Westwood High School.

This year’s Winterfest, held on December 2 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., invited families to Westwood High to enjoy crafts, caricatures, a music class, balloon animals, and a festive dance performance in the auditorium.

“It’s just something we do for the community to get everyone into the holiday spirit,” said WYWC Secretary Marta McManus, who was helping to run the Polar Express ride. “It’s really geared towards the younger kids, but they have a lot of fun with it.”

Along with the train ride that took children and their caregivers around the high school, Winterfest participants could have a picture taken with Santa Claus and write Santa letters. Alongside the letter-writing station was an arts and crafts table, where children decorated blue foam frames with a variety of foam snowflakes.

The WYWC even provided a solution to the crafters’ empty frames: in the cafeteria, volunteers set up a wintry backdrop and invited children to have their photos taken with friends and family members using a variety of props and accessories.

Westwood Children’s Librarian, Lizzy McGovern, also came to Winterfest to read an assortment of holiday stories to the children in attendance, including the hilarious “How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas?”

Throughout the hallways, a group of girls from the Tri-M Music Honor Society inspired holiday cheer with Christmas carols.

Members of the WYWC estimate that they have been hosting Winterfest for almost a decade now, and they are confident it will remain as one of their most successful winter events in years to come.