What started as a way to meet new friends and neighbors turned into a lifelong calling for Ida Finley.

Finley of Butler has been a volunteer with Woman’s Clubs for almost 50 years. After moving to Butler as a young woman and wanting to meet people, she joined the South Butler Woman’s Club. The club later dissolved, changing into smaller clubs in communities such as Saxonburg and Mars. Finley stayed involved with Saxonburg and went on from there.

Over the years, she’s been past president of six Woman’s Clubs, from the Saxonburg club all the way to the GFWC mid-Atlantic region, which covers Pennsylvania and three bordering states.

She’s been involved in the fundraising, planning and preparation of several projects along the way, including setting up a well-baby clinic, starting kindergarten in the public schools and starting and supporting the Saxonburg Library.

What keeps her involved is just helping the community, she said.

“Even though our membership decreased over the years, what we do for the community hasn’t decreased,” she said.

Asked about how many hours have been spent volunteering with the woman’s clubs over the years, Finley said she couldn’t estimate.

A widow with no children, Finley’s philosophy to give back to the community isn’t just done through the woman’s clubs. She has spent countless hours volunteering at Butler Memorial Hospital, now serving as volunteer coordinator there. She also volunteers with the Butler Symphony Board and the Maridon Museum.

“My husband always said, ‘She doesn’t have time to work,’” when people asked if she had a job.

One of the special experiences she remembers about the Woman’s Club is helping to set up a project which benefited children with cancer while she was state president. The state club collected about $57,000 to start a camp that children could attend to help them forget for a short time about their illness, she said.

Finley said the Woman’s Clubs remain an excellent way for women to help out and to meet people.

“It isn’t what you get out of it yourself ... What you give means so much more,” she said.

Gail Paserba of the Intermediate League of Butler, one of the three Woman’s Clubs here, said her club began in 1950 and has about 85 members.

The other Butler clubs are the Woman’s Club and the Junior Woman’s Club. While the clubs are generally divided by the age of the members, the rules about that have loosened over the years, said Paserba.

Several communities have also started their own Woman’s Clubs, including Slippery Rock, Valencia, Saxonburg, Penn Township, Mars and Cranberry Township.

Over the years, the three clubs have been involved in a variety of service projects, depending on the needs of the community.

“We find a need within the community and work to fix that issue,” Paserba said.

Past issues the clubs have worked on include:

• Butler County’s 911 system

• Starting kindergarten in the 1960s

• Starting the block parent program in Butler

• Lending child safety seats to parents who needed them even before the state seat belt and child seat law required them

• Library support.

Other agencies that the Woman’s Club supports include the Butler Symphony, PARC, Maridon Museum, Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, YWCA, St. Vincent DePaul, Lifesteps, Irene Stacy Mental Health Center, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Butler County Historical Society, Visiting Nurses Association, Butler Arts Center and Butler Community Clinic.

The Intermediate League’s biggest fundraiser is an antique show around St. Patrick’s Day each year, she said. Last year, about $8,700 was raised, which went back into the community, she said.

<B>GFWC Intermediate League of Butler County</B><B>ADDRESS:</B> 207 E. Metzger Ave., Butler<B>COUNTY PRESIDENT</B>: Jackie Bice<B>MEMBERS</B>: 85<B>BUDGET</B>: About $10,000<B>PHONE</B>: 724-352-4631 for Jackie Bice