Women's Club Legacy: 100 Years of Impact

Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad.

Good afternoon and welcome, everybody. My name is Brett Schonsenbach. I'm the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, and I'm once again your host. And today, I am fortunate to have two guests with me today. I have Kay Oh my goodness.

I practiced this five times. Gernant.

Very good.

All right. Kay Gernant and Edith Broyles. Kay is the vice president of fundraising, and Edith is a very active member, and they're both from the women's club of Carlsbadan. Yes. Yes.

Good afternoon, ladies.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining me today.

Thanks for having us. Absolutely.

You guys have some significant milestones this year. I think it's just fair that we just go right out and say it. You guys are celebrating your one hundredth anniversary.

Yes.

It's a very fun year in 2025 for you. But before we get into stuff about that, I was impressed as I've gotten to know you guys a little bit and learn about the role that women's clubs have played in our nation's history, really. Not just Carlsbad, which of course we're going to talk about and is very impressive as well. In our nation, you guys or not you guys personally, but the women's club movement has had a pretty significant role, goes back to, gosh, the late 1800s. Tell us a little bit about some of the significant things there.

Well, when they first started forming, it was mainly to have women be educated, have the opportunity to be educated, and also to improve society.

Yep. And it's hard for us to remember back then, but I mean, weren't allowed to vote. Women weren't allowed to I don't think, could they even own property? No. Couldn't own property?

I mean, that's a It seems so foreign now, but if we think back, there was a lot to advocate for and to help women socialize, but also educate and those kinds of things. And in the early 1900s, I know that the women's club movement was involved in things like libraries. That was a big deal. But I really love this story, if either of you would like to share, from June McCarroll and how her role and the little story about how she got white lines on our roads. I mean, is so cool.

This was a big movement. She was driving on her way out in the middle of the desert on her way to Indio and met a car on the road and realized there needs to be something here to delineate between us and them. So she came back and started a letter writing campaign to have white lines put on roads for safety purposes. And that turned into a national movement and worldwide after that.

I mean, we take it so much for granted, right? It seems like common sense now. We drive down the road. Now we've advanced. There's different color lines.

Are white lines, there's yellow lines. But back in the day, were no lines. And of course, if we go to some foreign countries, still are less advanced, and so you might see some of this. But she was the mover and shaker that got this white line going down the middle of our roads. And so it looks like it took about seven years to get it fully into the mainstream.

But that's amazing.

I know. It's amazing what women can do when we get together.

Yes. 3,500 miles of lines were painted. That's a lot of lines. I think that's California only. Yeah, that was California.

Very cool. And then there was another crusade in the sixties for seat belts. Tell talk us about that.

Exactly. Can you imagine getting into a car today and not putting on your seat belt?

I know. It's so foreign.

Unbelievable. And in 1961, another one of our, women in the women's clubs launched the campaign for seat belts and cars. And so they, that led on eventually, think, the baby car seats also to keep our children safe. Yeah. And they say that it resulted in the installation of 1,000,000 seat belts in cars in 1961.

Yeah. I mean, we take it for granted because it's such a safety device, right? And with so many accidents, but back in the day, it wasn't a thing at all. But it takes initiative, right?

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It does.

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And some of us are old enough to remember those days.

I mean, I remember the times before car seats, right, as a child. But I don't remember the days before seat belts, although I don't remember them being as big a deal. Like, it wasn't so much where, like, it was just de facto you got in and put a seat belt. I don't remember when I was a child, but I think as my childhood, our cars had them. But now it's just like, don't move until everybody's buckled up.

Which, of course, has saved a lot of lives through a variety of things. And so that's really fascinating to see that impact. Let's talk Carlsbad for a minute. So you guys were founded in 1925. So who wants to kick this off?

Oh, go ahead. This

is the part where the audience can't see you two looking at each other. No, you. No, you. You go first. You first.

Well, they started in nineteen twenty twenty five when everybody didn't have a neighborhood. People were very spread out. And so it started as a social group coming together and developed into having a place where women could gather, get together, socialize, and then it morphed into doing social work in the community for the good of the community, such as, advocating for trees in Carlsbad on the old Elm Street. Developing the libraries, setting up educational experiences for kids like kindergarten. And so that's how those gals got together and started with us.

Yeah, that's wonderful. And I, you know, with us, the chamber, having just recently celebrated our centennial, you know, I took that opportunity to kind of dig into the chamber's history. And I'm assuming the listeners know, but for those of you that don't, the Chambers was started in 1923, so just a little bit before the Women's Club. But as you guys know, there's connections there, you know? Roy Chase was the basically kind of the founder, if you will, and the first chamber president.

And his wife was one of the founders of the women's club.

Yes. And we're not even sure what her first name is because all those women back then went by Mrs. Roy Chase. Mrs. Edith Royals.

Oh, so we don't even have that. How interesting.

I've done some research and found out, but it was funny how we were associated with being our husbands.

Sure. Sure. That was common at that time.

Right. Very common.

That's interesting. You know, I did, in our process of digging into our history and preparing to celebrate our centennial a couple years ago, I did find actually a picture of Roy Chase and his wife.

Oh, nice.

Yeah. And now that I think of it, I wonder I would have to go back and look. I wonder if both their names are written on it because that could give you some insight if

they Thank

you. Yeah. We'll have to dig that up and see

how

very fascinating. But the two organizations were pretty closely associated back in the day. And one of the things that I thought was very forward thinking and astute was way back near your inception. You guys purchased your own clubhouse, I mean, your own building that was yours. And that became like your spot.

It is, at a time when women couldn't own property. Even more amazing.

Yeah, it is amazing. But I love that because it gave you your place to kind of hang your shingle, so to speak, and gather people. It was very and then so I I love it, It was on Pine And Fourth Street.

Right.

I mean, we still have those well, wait. Do we have Fourth Street still?

I don't think so. We have Pine. Pine, but not Fourth.

Yeah. We'd have to really dig in and figure out where that was exactly. And but also impressive. Fairly early on, your membership was strong. Tell us, how many members did you have?

I have some notes here, but I think you have equal notes.

It's said that in 1928, only three years into our existence, that we had 200 members.

Amazing.

Fascinating to me because back then I heard we only had 600 inhabitants in Carlsbad, which wasn't even a city

at that It's before we were an official city. Yeah, 200 members. That's so strong. Now, as we look back historically, something that affected everybody, including organizations like the Chamber and clubs like yours, was the Depression in the '30s. So that was a tough time.

And the women's club sold their clubhouse back then, which makes sense. You got to do what you got to do. But that turned out to not be their last permanent location. You guys have continued to invest and have a place to call your own over the years. So the Depression hits, you guys sell your clubhouse I'm just kind of looking through some of my notes here.

To the Carlsbad School District that they then used as their auditorium.

Wonderful. Kept it in the community. Then, is it '19 Let's see, 1931. Talk to me about Elm And Madison.

That property was donated to us by the McClellan family, which I'm sure a lot of people know that name. A past president of the chamber and the first mayor, associated with our airport. We found that plot of land on the map, and it's currently where Kentucky Fried Chicken is. So our clubhouse used to sit right there.

That's great.

In that spot.

Yes. The McClellan family's got a great footprint that they've left here in Carlsbad, a legacy, as you said, past, present. Actually, the McClellons had multiple family members who chaired the board of directors for the chamber. Think like father son type of thing, you know? And then, as you mentioned, first mayor.

Our airport's still named after them for donating that land to the county. So that's great. But then you guys sold that clubhouse too.

We did. We We moved on and upward.

Yeah. You guys don't let a lot of moss grow on you. You just keep moving and shaking.

Yep. You

needed more space.

Tell me, though, about Julia Sharpley, because this also connects to Carlsbad's history in the 1930s and what she did.

She was the one that donated property over by McGee Park that then was used for the first fire station. At the time Carlsbad didn't have one, we had to rely on Oceanside or other areas around to put out our fires. And so she donated that land for our first fire station.

Amazing individual citizens, you know, donating property for such civic things. So amazing.

And

my notes say that the building, although it's not a fire station anymore, is still there.

That's what I hear too.

Yeah. Still there. So it's still standing in our community. Gosh, that's ninety five years ago, right? Or roughly ninety five years ago.

That's amazing. And your involvement wasn't just involvement in things in Carlsbad. World War II hit, and you guys were very active. Tell tell some of the things you guys were doing back then with your clubhouse.

The Red Cross worked in our clubhouse and held classes for citizens, sewing for servicemen, veterans, and did financial planning and training for women in the community that perhaps were left behind without a husband to help them with those endeavors.

That was, yeah, tough, tough situation, right? Not everybody came back, obviously, from the war. And so, having to become a little more independent, etcetera. No, that's great. And you guys lent your clubhouse out to the Red Cross for that.

And if I skip anything, let me know. But if we fast forward, as we all know, Carlsbad finally does become its own incorporated city in 1953, which in large part, our chamber was very involved in that. Oceanside was making a play to grab part of Coastal Carlsbad that would eventually incorporate the power plant. Now, our big power plant smokestack's gone now, but it was kind of iconic in Carlsbad for And when the vote to annex that part of Carlsbad into Oceanside failed by the way, it failed it tied, 45 to 45, so it failed. And it was then that the chamber jumped up and said, We've not got to protect Carlsbad.

And so we led the charge to incorporate. And that was also a narrow vote that the citizens passed to become our own city. But in 1953, Carlsbad becomes its own city. And as was already mentioned, Dewey McClellan, a past chamber president connected to you guys as well, becomes the first mayor. But you guys still got very active in the community.

Talk about some other things you did in the in the 50s that have still exist today.

We purchased play equipment and trees for Holiday Park when that was being established. We worked with Georgina Cole, the founder of our namesake of our Cole library. She actually had set up a lending library in the clubhouse, and sort of got that whole library thing going in Carlsbad. Let's see. In

I think she even founded that Friends of the Library group that I believe still exists today.

She did. And club members with her were helped her to start that up and were very active in the Friends of the Library, the fundraising arm of that.

So, beautiful I mean, we have some great library resources now, but that really goes back to your club.

It does. And

Carlsbadians have you guys to thank for that. Let's do this. We're gonna take a brief pause. We are talking to Kay Gernant and Edith Broyles from the Women's Club of Carlsbad. And when we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about their history and bring it full full forward to what they're doing today.

So stick with us. We'll be right back. So Kay and Edith, we're kind of going through your guys' history, which is very rich. Lots of benefits that our community has received from the involvement of the Carlsbad Women's Club over the last hundred years. And if we kind of fast forward to your current property, which you guys purchased and is now Well, you tell.

And it looks like, I believe from my notes, in about 1961, you purchased the property that is currently your clubhouse. Is that right?

Yes.

And where is that?

It's right across from Carlsbad High School on the corner of Monroe And Basswood.

Okay, so 1961 to today. Man, that thing's appreciated quite a bit.

It has. Well,

I applaud you, though, for not just cashing it out because that could be a lot of money in your coffers. But having that asset is very valuable. I've been to the physical club. I know you guys occasionally, or maybe, I don't know, regularly rent it out to different groups. And my daughter is in theater, she's done a couple plays with the Carlsbad Community Theater.

And she's auditioned there before, she's had rehearsals there before. And so I've had a chance to be at your facility. And so you have that. And tell us a little bit about now, if I miss anything that you want to highlight from your history, feel free. But otherwise, I would love to hear what you guys are really passionate about.

And here's the mission statement I found on your website. Your mission is to strengthen our community and enhance the lives of others through volunteer service and philanthropic endeavors. So tell us a little bit about the activities you guys do today.

Well, think that's one of the things that really draws women to the club. It did for me. I could join many different groups to just network with women or make friends, which we do get to do there. I mean, we all develop relationships and whatnot. But it's the philanthropic involvement that really drew me in.

I think women like that. We have so many different things. Do you want me to just list a few of the charities that we donate to or service with? One Safe Place, Meals on Wheels, Got Your Back, San Diego Food Bank, Community Resource Center. I mean, are some of the bigger names.

Alabaster Jar, Foundation for Women Warriors, Boys and Girls Club of Carlsbad. But we also do smaller things like the women get together and make comfort pillows to give to women that have had breast cancer surgery. We have some of the women that crochet or knit, I'm not sure which it is, handmade baby hats to be able to take to the hospitals to give out as We have scholarships for graduating senior girls that they go through an application process and a committee evaluates them and we give them scholarships. So there's lots of community cleanups, the Carlsbad five thousand. And then again, the fundraising that we do, the Holiday Market, which as Kay mentioned before, is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and Bunko and Bingo and many things throughout the year that we can get involved in as little or as much as we want.

But the idea is that we are always giving back and have so many different ways that we can do that.

I love that. So let me come back to the holiday market because I think we were actually talking before we turned the mics on. Tell us about the holiday market, because it sounds like it's a big annual thing for you guys.

It is our biggest fundraiser of the year. It was started in 2014. And we put together items that our members make during the course of the year. Some we do together, some we do as projects. We also have vendors that we invite in that are jury to come in and sell their wares, and we open up the clubhouse.

It's actually this year going to be on November 15 from nine to two. And we invite the public in and they come and they shop. They get a start on their holiday shopping and they get to choose from so many lovely, wonderful items that we sell. And then all of that money in the past has gone back into the philanthropic groups that we support and collaborate with.

I love it. And I'm sorry if you said it, I might have missed it. Did you say exactly when it is? Or it's in December or?

It's in November.

It's in November.

Okay. I'm sure it's on November 15.

November fifteenth.

Okay. At our clubhouse.

Good. I got that out there. If you had said it already, I apologize. But either way, we got it out there. November 15 at your clubhouse.

Your clubhouse is, you said where it is, but it's across from Carlsbad High School. Across from their football field at least.

Exactly. And we do lots of rentals out of that clubhouse. Rent to businesses and individuals on a one time basis if they like or on a weekly basis. They come in and have their meetings, seminars, get togethers at our clubhouse.

And then, Edith, I want go back to what you were sharing about scholarships. So, you mentioned you guys do scholarships for girls who are graduating. And then, is there other criteria? Do they have to live in Carlsbad or go to a Carlsbad high school? Or what would be other criteria that people might have to apply?

Yes, it's local Carlsbad high schools. And I was on the committee a few years ago, so I'm not sure what all the current criteria are, but it talks about their community service. And some of these gals, when we sit and listen to their stories about what they've done, it's so inspiring to see what these girls have accomplished in their time in high school. And you want to give them all a scholarship because they're all so worthy. We just want to give them a little something to go off to college with.

Obviously we can't afford huge tuition amounts, but it's just something to reward them for what they've in the way of giving back in their community in the high school and volunteering and all of that.

Well, and I know, like you said, you would like to probably give more, but I bet if we were to add up all you've given over the decades Do you have that number?

I do have that much is that? I can't go back decades and decades because our records really got solidified in, 02/2012. But since 02/2012, we have given away $33,500 in scholarships to local girls.

Nice.

Going on to college. We've also given away $28,000 in nursing scholarships that we give to nursing students that are already in college. And we're going to be expanding that this year to other nursing colleges and universities here in Carlsbad and San Marcos.

Wonderful. Oh, that's fantastic. So you give away to charities and you give scholarships. Your biggest fundraiser is your market that you have November 15, which we just talked about. Are there other fundraising things we want to highlight or activities in any way that we want to highlight?

Maybe a little bit of the social aspect that Edith talked about a little bit. We have a monthly lunch and learn where our members can come together, they get a delicious lunch, they get an educational exposure or a crafty kind of thing that they can put together. We have a game night once a month that the gals can get together and just play random silly games and get to know each other better. We have a book club that's on the social aspect too. Happy hours and holiday parties and things like that for the social part of our lives to help people connect.

Yeah. That's wonderful. And when I was preparing to chat with you guys, I was on your website, and it's not that much money to be a member. It was like $50 or $60 or something. You guys might want to raise that a little.

That's really, really a reasonable amount. And then, obviously, then you have a lot of fun things as a member that you can tap into, like these social lunches, or happy hour, or the lunch and learns, etc. But yeah, I was amazed by how low that cost was.

We are very reasonable. And there's nothing more rewarding than the rewards we get for giving back. It's gratifying that you can be useful in the community and do good things and help others.

Very nice. Now, are women's clubs in general, are they still like like you guys have survived, and I would say to a certain degree, thrived over a hundred years. Is that story similar in other communities? Like, does every community in North San Diego County have a woman's club and that kind of thing? What do you find?

Not every community has their own woman's club. Some communities group together. We have women in our club from San Marcos Vista, Oceanside, local But there are a couple other communities, or I'm sorry, women's clubs in North County that you can choose from and check them out too.

Sure. Okay. No, I was just curious how if it was I I in the chamber industry, you know, we've definitely seen over the years, in the industry in general, membership has shrunk. And it's a challenge for us in our industry to continue to get out there and articulate to the next generation of up and coming entrepreneurs and business leaders and such, you know, who we are and the value we bring. You know, we're constantly having to sell ourselves.

You know, and I didn't know if there's similarities with what you guys are experiencing or

how that experience where we've actually merged with a couple different women's clubs because maybe their numbers have declined or people in the club don't want to be in leadership positions. They want to do the work, but they don't want to be the leader. So we've actually merged with two other women's clubs in the last ten years or so. I see. And grown our numbers that way.

But I think you're probably right. It seems like, some numbers have been going down and we have to reach out. We're trying to reach out to get younger members. We have some younger members, stay at home moms or working moms, but they can come to our meetings there in the evenings. And so they can come and get some of that type of fulfillment in their lives.

Wonderful. And as you guys look at the different charities that you support, do you have a system for evaluating who you support year to year? Or is it kind of, we're going support these same ones that we've always had? Or if somebody in the club says, Hey, here's something that is really good, we should support it. Do you have a system?

We do look at those. I mean, are some of these that have been very long standing. And there is a philanthropy committee that when the monies do come in, they evaluate and present to the club where they are going to allocate the funds to. So yes, I've seen members oftentimes come in with an idea of somebody else that we could add to our list. And some are at it and some aren't.

But I've just got a short list here and you can see how long it is. But yes, a lot of them we've been donating to for quite a while now.

They seem to all focus When I was working on the website and gathering and getting things organized, they seem to mainly focus on women and children. Some animals, some Environment. Environment. Yeah. I think that's only natural for us to be concerned about women and children.

Because women and that's what we do. We nurture and care take for not only ourselves, but the community.

Anything else, though, that we want to get on people's radar?

Well, I do have to mention that we just had a very successful fashion show in tea that was, again, just for fun, just to gather the women for something, because we haven't done one. I think the last fashion show might have been back in 2014 or something. And so there is a committee as part of the club. It's called Federation, which now we're trying to call activities. And we do like to just plan activities like that.

And this was a great outreach to the community. I think we had at least as many guests as we did members. We had 115. We were sold out. It was a fabulous event.

And I did bring flyers over to the chamber as well. So we utilized your exposure a little bit.

Perfect. That's what we want to hear. That's what we want to do, is to be able to partner with you guys. So if somebody is listening in today and is saying, didn't even know we had a woman's club in Carlsbad and I would like to learn more. Would the website be the best place to direct them to start with?

I believe so. Yes. You can learn lots of stuff on the website. The website URL is? Womans,withanA, womansclubofcarlsbad Org.

So W0MANS, WomansClubOfCarlsbad Org. Okay. There you heard it, Go check out all the great things that our Woman's Club of Carlsbad has done in their history and is doing currently onto the next hundred years. So onward and upward. Well, thank you both for taking some time out of your schedule and your calendar to come and share with us.

I love getting to know better our strong institutional organizations that have made Carlsbad what it is today, and that definitely is you guys. So really appreciate it. And yeah, I look forward to continuing to work together.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People, Purpose and Impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad people, purpose, and impact.