In more than 36 years of giving, the Inner Wheel Club of St. Thomas has touched hundreds of lives in the Virgin Islands, from newborns and young children, to college students and adults of all ages.
One of the first projects it took on after being chartered in 1978 was operating a mobile book cart at what was then St. Thomas Hospital. Soon that project was expanded into a gift shop, and members staffed the shop for years before turning it over to the hospital administration.
Proceeds from sales at the shop were used to buy equipment for the pediatrics ward. The club purchased a nebulizer and a heart monitor for the hospital. More recently, it has raised money for cancer patients.
While health has long been a priority for the club, it is far from the only cause the women support. For many years, they sponsored full, four-year college scholarships for Virgin Islands students. They also supported adolescent clients at Sea View Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility and donated generously to the Women’s Resource Center, now Family Resource Center.
More recently, the club donated checks to Little League and to the Bethlehem Shelter of Catholic Charities of the Virgin Islands.
Like other Inner Wheel clubs worldwide, the local club was founded as a sort of adjunct of Rotary, which for generations was an all-male organization. The original Rotary Club of St. Thomas, or Rotary I, is its sponsor.
The V.I. club is affiliated with IWUSA. Members can attend national meetings, and the local group has hosted visiting Inner Wheel members on many occasions. In 2004, it hosted the IWUSA conference.
The first Inner Wheel Club ever was formed in Manchester, England, in 1924, and it was primarily an English organization for many years. In 1967 IW International was born.
Today there are 3,895 clubs and more than 100,000 members, working in more than 100 countries, according to the IW International website.
The club’s purpose is threefold:
– To promote true friendship,
– To promote the ideals of personal service, and
– To foster international understanding.
The St. Thomas club started with 16 members. By the mid 1980s it numbered more than 70. Today there are 32 active members, according to president Judith Hobson.
“We used to be more but now that Rotary has opened up to women” some women prefer to join Rotary rather than Inner Wheel, she said. She’s not one of those.
“I feel we should have our say, also,” she said, explaining why she has stayed with Inner Wheel.
Carol Nelthropp, who has been an Inner Wheel member since 1989 and has served two terms as president, said she never had an interest in being a Rotarian – she left that to her husband. Between work and raising four sons, she said she really didn’t have the time to devote to Rotary, which meets weekly. In contrast, Inner Wheel meets once a month.
Nelthropp said she likes the friendships she’s made in the club and she likes the sense of fulfillment it gives her “to do things for the community.”
Every year the organization holds two major fundraisers that are open to the public, Hobson said. One is a picnic and fun day at Magen’s Bay beach. The other, coming up in May, is a Movable Feast that features a four-course luncheon in a local restaurant; diners sit with a different group of people for each course.
A third source of funding comes for the “Happy Dollar” collections and the 50-50 raffle held at regular meetings.
Originally, a woman had to have a husband or male relative in Rotary to be eligible to join Inner Wheel St. Thomas. Now, Hobson said, “Anybody who’d like to help the community can join.”
Dues are $60 annually. Meetings are held at noon on the first Thursday of the month at Bolongo Bay. Hobson said potential members must attend three meetings, to be sure they are truly interested, before they can apply for membership.
More information is available by calling Nelthropp at 1-340-643-1461.