Elaine Linamen of Butler is taking another turn as president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) Intermediate League of Butler.

Installed two weeks ago, she begins her second two-year term that will end in 2024.

She had served as president from 2014 to 2016, just one post she has served in her 34 years with the Intermediate League.

Her predecessor as president Sue Morrow said, “I have tremendous faith in Elaine. She was president before, so this is her second time being president.

“She knows what’s she’s doing, and she’s up on the ins and outs of the club. She’s committed, and she’s a kind person,” she said.

Linamen said her second term as president comes at a good time for club. “Right now, we’ve got 70 members,” she said. “We had a nice group of members installed in May. We had eight new members; that was very nice.”

“We have a few younger members. We’re getting some mothers and daughters joining together, which is nice,” she said.

People can apply to be a member of the Intermediate League and wait for the membership committee to make a recommendation. The group meets on the first Monday of the month at Christ Community United Methodist Church, 205 North Duffy Road.

The group’s mission is the betterment of the community.

“We are an international women’s volunteer organization dedicated to improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer work,” Linamen said.

The Intermediate League’s projects include contributing food and packers to the Butler Area School District’s food backpack program; aiding Robin’s Home that aids homeless, unstably housed and low-income female veterans and their children; and the Butler Public Library.

Well-known and well-established Intermediate League projects and fundraisers include the Gateway Garden plantings on North Main Street near the Route 422 interchange and the league's annual antiques show and sale at the Tanglewood Center in Lyndora in March.

Linamen said this spring’s sale, the 70th, was the first in two years, 2020 and 2021’s sales being canceled by the pandemic.

“We were federated in 1950, and the first fundraiser we did was the antique show,” she said. The latest antique show “went very well. The proceeds will be distributed to local nonprofits.”

The Intermediate League also throws The Arc of Butler County two parties a year and has been doing so since 1950.

Linamen said the Intermediate League also takes up causes often because GFWC members are involved in other charities. Because of this, GFWC has been involved in the Lions Club eyeglass collection, Operation Smile and Shot At Life.

“We’ve heard about the needs at at the Grapevine Center and packaged up personal hygiene products,” she said.

“It’s always a good feeling we get from helping others,” Linamen said, adding she can’t wait to see what her Intermediate League chairwomen bring to her as new projects.

“I guess I’m waiting to see what ideas come from the committee chairwomen. I’m looking forward to hearing what they want to do,” she said.

“It’s really about the women in the club that makes it happen. I just provide guidelines. They are the ones who really run with it,” she said.

She said she got her volunteerism from her father who was very community minded and often took her on various charitable efforts.

Linamen said: “I learned how a group of people can come together and make a difference. Alone you can do so little, together you can do so much.”

For her own projects, she said she has started a book club and plans to issue a reading challenge to her fellow Intermediate League members.

“It’s called the alphabet soup challenge,” Linamen said, with members challenged to read a book whose title begins with every letter in the alphabet.

Looking ahead, Linamen said the state convention will be in Cranberry Township next year with two Butler GFWC Intermediate League members, Yolanda Cooper and Ann Miller, acting as chairwomen of the event.

Looking ahead to her term, Linamen said during her first presidency she “learned a lot about the Federation women’s clubs, more about what we actually do.”

And she said there’s a reason she’s been in the Intermediate League for more than three decades.

“It’s the bond of friendship and the people I’ve met throughout the years, not only in our own community but throughout the state,” Linamen said.