GEORGETOWN
With the group’s 100th anniversary upcoming, selectmen last week nominated the Georgetown Working League for a Maine Spirit of America Award.
“They’re instrumental,” said Selectman Bill Plummer, who made the motion for the nomination. “They raise quite a lot of money and they turn it into scholarships. And they do a lot of work that’s unseen.”
The tribute is presented annually in the name of more than 25 Maine municipalities, where selectmen often choose their towns’ recipients.
The Georgetown Working League is an organization of women, founded in 1913, dedicated to supporting community pride and spirit through scholarships for deserving students, and gifts to many community institutions. Profits from the League’s annual fair fund scholarships and support town services.
“It’s a connection,” said Betsy Cook, a League member since 1988. “I’m not sure I would have met a lot of these ladies if not for this group. We pick each other up when we’re down. It’s a group of wonderful women who come from all different backgrounds.”
The scholarships benefit Georgetown students, the Georgetown Fire and Ambulance Service, the town library, the Georgetown Community Center and Georgetown Central School. Each year, the women make a queen-sized quilt to be raffled at a fair in August.
The League also finances two scholarships of its own — The Josephine Hooker Shain Scholarship and the Georgetown Working League Scholarship — and administers the Woodex Bearing Company Scholarships, the Riggs Cove Foundation Scholarship, the Benjamin Riggs Scholarship and the Robinhood Marine Center Scholarship.
Plummer, who also serves as president of the Georgetown Community Center, said, “They helped get the Community Center going.”
lgrard@timesrecord.com
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