At 88, Oliver Women’s Institute president Helen Overnes keeps the group alive, but is urging younger women to join to carry on the legacy.
The Oliver Women’s Institute is calling for younger members with computer knowledge to breathe new life into the organization.
“We’re down to four members,” said president Helen Overnes as she minded the small raffle table in SuperValu last week.
The raffle for a quilt and other hand-made prizes was a fundraiser for BC Children’s Hospital and the South Okanagan Women in Need Society.
Fundraising is only a small part of what the group does. For 92 years the institute has improved the life of women and children in the Oliver community.
Overnes said the group was responsible for getting the traffic light at Similkameen Avenue and Highway 97. And it continues to lobby for affordable housing.
Other projects that the institute brought to fruition included land to build the hospital, baby clinics, speech pathologist for preschoolers, and clean water for rural residents.
“We’ve (also) been trying to get a basic wage for people on welfare,” Overnes noted.
She joined the Oliver group in 1976 when there were more than 30 members. Before that she was a member of the Dawson Creek club for 12 years.
At age 88, she isn’t sure how much longer she can remain as president.
Overnes said the group is in great need of younger women with knowledge of modern technology and computers to help with research.
The group meets once a month (the next meeting is November 9 at 2 p.m. in the Lutheran Centre on Okanagan Street.
“We are a support group. We help build self-esteem. Members can let us know where the problems are and what needs to be changed,” Overnes said.
For more information, contact Overnes at 250-498-4705.
Since its inception in the area in 1922, the Oliver Women’s Institute has been involved in 33 projects which included providing ongoing education for women, sending Red Cross parcels and knitting for servicemen in the Second World War, helping establish the Fairview School for the mentally challenged, and presenting the need to keep the birthing unit open at South Okanagan General Hospital.
It is hard to believe there was no health care to speak of back then, just one doctor in the community.
“There was no hospital, no welfare, no employment insurance, so we felt something had to be done,” said Helen Overnes.
Local teacher Marji Basso says the Oliver Women’s Institute has such potential to continue to be a force, to be the voice of women and have their interests validated, consolidated and heard.
“A group of this magnitude has the opportunity to have a unified voice – one that can carry political clout and move collective concerns and visions forward much like the Oliver Women’s Institute has done in the last century,” Basso said.
Did you know that the BC Women’s Institute requested the ban of Aspartame in 1987?
It also sent a resolution to the provincial government requesting the one per cent Property Transfer Tax be returned to the communities to help construct low income housing.
Another resolution requested both federal and provincial governments to re-assess the needs of those who have to live on disability pensions or social assistance.
