The good gals all wear red hats

By Deborah RawsonPrint Story | Email Story
The Red Hat Society continues to gain in popularity, including chapters in Berkshire County
It began as simply a nice gesture from one friend to another for her 55th birthday, a gift of a poem, “Warning,” by British author Jenny Joseph and a bright red vintage fedora. The birthday gesture has blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon encompassing over 400,000 members in more than 20,000 chapters in over 20 countries around the globe – including many burgeoning chapters in Berkshire County. The Red Hat Society, a “new” women’s movement meant to change the perception of aging women in the United States and offer a large source of support for women over 50, has seen what the group calls FUNominal growth, as women around the world unite under the brims of red hats, having fun, bonding and sharing a sense of sisterhood as they journey through the aging process together. The poem that inspired the organization begins “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.” It goes on to state that aging can be filled with many frivolous and “freeing’ moments. Sue Ellen Cooper, the exalted queen mother of the society, presented the poem and a hat to her dear friend Linda Murphy in November of 1997, and by spring of 1998, the Red Hat Society was formed, with the first chapter and “hatquarters” starting up at an afternoon tea in Fullerton, Calif. The second chapter formed shortly thereafter in Florida, and since then the movement has seen a virtual explosion of numbers. The group registers approximately 500 new chapters and renews over 50 chapters on a weekly basis. Each chapter decides for itself the number of women who can join, and the events they will hold or take part in, based on their own membership needs. Although the average chapter consists of approximately 20 women, it is reported that some chapters in Berkshire County contain over 40. “We prefer the smaller groups; it’s more intimate, more personal,” said Belle O’Brien, “empress of events” for the Dalton-based Red Hat Damsels and president of the Women’s Club of the Berkshires. “We’re all very intelligent people,” added Vice Mother Elizabeth Heath, another member of one of the two registered chapters in Dalton. “We’ve all raised our families and done other things, and now we’ve decided just to have fun.” The Red Hat Damsels, which came into being in February this year, met recently at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, where five of the 15 members turned out in full regalia to enjoy lunch and relax on the porch. Each member joined for different reasons, and all met in various ways. Queen Mother Nancy Hobson said she had moved to the area from Natick and was looking for a social group to join. “At the time, there was only one chapter in Pittsfield. I e-mailed the woman but never heard back, so I clicked another button on the computer and started our own chapter,” said Hobson, who is also the hospitality chairwoman for the Women’s Club of the Berkshires. Another Red Hatter, Hobson’s sister Charlotte Martorana, said, “I came all the way here from Natick just for the food — and to see my sister, of course.” Martorana and fellow Damsel Claire Fournier, who also serves on the St. Agnes Fundraising Committee, haven’t decided on their official titles yet, but they are perfectly happy just to enjoy the company of their fellow hatters. “It’s all about fun,” O’Brien said. “We do a lot of community outreach and volunteer work through other avenues in our lives, but this group is about anything that doesn’t give you stress.” Other suggested titles and assignments for chapter members include the “hysterian,” who keeps the chapter’s scrapbook, the “sergeant-in-gloves,” who ensures proper behavior, if the group can decide what that might be, the “anti-parliamentarian,” who makes sure no one makes any rules, the “barristress’ or resident attorney and the “e-mail female,” who handles the chapter’s online communications. There are over 243 Red Hat chapters in Massachusetts alone, with more popping up every day. Other chapters and their queen mothers in Berkshire County include The Victorian Roses of Northern Berkshire, Mary Ann George; Red Hat Camellia’s, Camellia Duda; Red Hat Mama’s, Pam St. John; The Greylock Red Hatters, F. Martha Green; Alma Rose, Maria Caccaviello; Appleton Dome Dames, Kathleen Murphy; Berkshire Hattitudes, Priscilla Zuber; and The Girl’s Club, led by Julia Whitcomb and Kathleen Wicker. The official Web site, www.redhatsociety.com, is packed with information and offers the opportunity to network with woman around the world through such things as a bulletin board, the “Queen Mother Board” and a chat room, “Red Hat Chat,” where members can share ideas and information and offer each other support in large numbers. Each chapter should register on the official Web site so seekers of Red Hatters can find a chapter close to them. Chapters organize fun activities, such as luncheons and tea parties, sleepovers and pool parties. They go to movies, plays and charitable functions, always adorned in their proud red and purple colors. Cooper has a written her first book about the society, “The Red Hat Society: Fun and Friendship After Fifty,” which was published by Warner Books in April this year. The group also has a subscription-based, 16-page quarterly mini-magazine it produces, which includes columns, craft ideas and articles on “inspiring personalities.” The group’s motto is “Red Hatters Matter.” Because of the range in distance for all its members, the national Web site serves as the communication hub. Each Friday, the exalted queen mother offers a broadcast to anyone wishing to receive her weekly informational sessions, in which she discusses happenings of the hatquarters office, news from the national society and lists of upcoming events. The Red Hatters held their first national convention in Chicago in April 2002 with about 400 attending the four-day event. The second convention held in Nashville, Tenn., saw over 2,000 Red Hatters in attendance. The numbers for this year’s convention in April at Gaylord Opryland in Dallas, Texas, were not yet available, but Red Hatters have no doubt the organization continues to grow. The group consists of a wide demographic of members, including working women from a variety of careers, mothers, grandmothers, retirees and women who are married, widowed and single. The spirit of the self proclaimed “Disorganization Society” forbids that they make rules, and there are no bylaws to follow — only suggestions that are made from the founding chapter. Women must be at least 50 years old to become a Red Hatter, yet younger women are welcomed into the group as “Pink Hatters in Lusty Lavender,” trading in their lighter colors for the official purple and red at a ceremony they call “Reduation,” when a woman reaches her dignified big 5-0 and turns in her pink hat to be bestowed with a red one. Several area chapters are full and not accepting new members at this time, but suggestions for starting new chapters can be found on the Web site. Although there is only one official Red Hat retail store, Imperium, in Fullerton, Calif., red hats are becoming more and more available throughout retail shops. Other whimsical merchandise, ranging from red hats, gloves, and boas to the group’s official instrument, the kazoo, are available at the online store, www.redhatsocietystore.com, or by calling 866-FUN-AT-50. Literally thousands of articles have been published about the group in regional newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and Boston Globe, and Red Hatters have been featured in national magazines such as “Good Housekeeping” and “Women’s Day,” with the first article published in the July 2000 edition of “Romantic Homes,” all helping to launch this growing trend of ladies in fashionable, fun, colorful outfits. “We lead a self-indulgent life style because we feel at this point we’ve earned it,” Heath said. That life style and the general philosophy of the society might be best summed up in the poem by Sue Ellen Cooper, exalted queen mother and society founder: Ode to the Red Hat Society A poet put it very well. She said when she was older, She wouldn’t be so meek and mild. She threatened to get bolder. She’d put a red hat on her head, and purple on her shoulder. She’d make her life a warmer place, her golden years much golder. We read that poem, all of us, and grasped what she was saying. We do not need to sit and knit, although we all are graying. We think about what we can do. Our plans we have been laying. Instead of working all the time, we’ll be out somewhere playing. We take her colors to our hearts, and then we all go shopping. For purple clothes and hats of red, with giant brims a-flopping. We’re tired of working all the time, and staying home and mopping. We order pies and chocolate fudge, and rich desserts with topping. We crown ourselves as duchesses and countesses and queens We prove that playing dress-up isn’t just for Halloween. We drape ourselves in jewels, feathers, boas, and sateen. We see ourselves on television and in magazines. We laugh, we cry, we hug a lot. We keep each other strong. When one of us goes out for fun, the rest all go along. We gad about, we lunch and munch, in one big happy throng. We’ve found the place where we fit in, the place we all belong.
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Watch for Runners Near BCC on Thanksgiving Morning

Community submission
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The ninth annual MountainOne Thankful 5K will be held on Thursday, Nov. 28, at 9 a.m. at Berkshire Community College.
 
The event will have runners and walkers completing a 5-kilometer course that will travel along West Street, thru the Berkshire Community College property out along West Street to Meadowridge and along the Woodland Drive cul-de-sac before returning to West Street and finishing in the Patterson Fieldhouse Parking Lot.
 
Residents are asked to use caution and reduced speeds when traveling along these roads between the hours of 8 and 10 a.m. on Thursday. Pittsfield Police will be along the course to ensure safe passage of all the participants.
 
The Berkshire Running Foundation hosts the annual event in which proceeds are donated to the South Community Food Pantry. The organizers also encourage participants to donate nonperishable food items that will also be brought to the pantry to help ease the challenges of food insecurity in our community.
 
In person registration and bib pick up will be Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Berkshire Running Center, 5 Cheshire Roard in the Allendale Underground, Pittsfield.
 
“We are thrilled to have a record setting number of registered participants for this year’s event," Berkshire Running Foundation Executive Director Siobbean Lemme said. "With over 600 registered walkers and runners this will be the largest Thanksgiving run in the Berkshires history.”
 
“This is becoming a family tradition and holiday favorite for our community to give back to those of our neighbors in need, on a day when many of us have more than enough.”
 
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