A century for charity

Elia Powers

For members of the Newport Beach Ebell Club, the city’s

longest-running active women’s organization, the past century has

been about charity.

The Newport Beach chapter was founded in 1909. At the first

meeting, 12 women met in a member’s home on Balboa Peninsula.

Named after a European physician, the Ebell Club has historically

provided women with an outlet for helping their communities.

“In the early days, women didn’t work,” said Patricia Green, who

joined the Ebell Club in the 1970s. “The thought was that women

should still be educated.”

One of the club’s first actions was to obtain a small traveling

collection of books from the state library. Members made their

collection available to the community a few hours a week at a

makeshift clubhouse.

In later years, they developed a permanent collection of 300

books. When the city of Newport Beach’s first public library was

formally established in the 1920s, the initial collection consisted

primarily of the Ebell book collection, which had grown to include

more than 1,000 texts.

The club was instrumental in the library’s founding and has

remained involved, donating tens of thousands of dollars to library

causes.

After decades of meeting in members’ beach bungalows, the Ebell

Club decided to create a permanent home.

Donna Statia, a 50-year member of the club, said Ebell Club

borrowed $26,000 to construct a building across the street from the

Balboa Branch Library. The club’s first meeting there was in 1957.

“We worked like dogs building it,” said Statia, who is 101 years

old.

The club grew and formed a Junior Ebell Club, comprising 18- to

35-year-olds who hoped to be members.

In the 1960s and 1970s, some of the club’s main fundraisers were

fashion shows. Green said local department stores received free

advertising by showing off their latest styles. On some occasions,

club members served as runway models, Green said.

In 1995, after 48 years of in the Balboa Boulevard clubhouse, the

Ebell Club sold the building.

“We were sitting on a pot of gold,” Statia said. “We realized we

could give the money we earned from the sale to the community.”

The club received hundreds of thousands of dollars and continues

to focus on charitable causes. They set money aside for high school

and community college scholarships, library funds and nursing

programs.

“We always felt young people were important because they are our

future,” Green said.

In the past few decades, the club’s membership has dwindled. Green

said the main reason is that women these days are more likely to hold

full-time jobs.

Once nearly 200 people strong, club membership is down to 35

Newport Beach residents. Still, the organization has survived because

“there is still a nucleus of women who have been in the club for a

long time,” Green said.