Week 57: The Chandler Service Club

The Great Depression hit Chandler hard, and came on just as the town was starting to recover from the 1920 crash of the cotton market. It cast many Chandler residents into poverty, and many school aged children went hungry. It also brought many migrant workers to Chandler to work in the agricultural fields, increasing the number of impoverished people in the area. In 1933, a group of eight Chandler women decided to do something about it.

The Chandler Junior Guild, today known as the Chandler Service Club, was organized on January 15, 1933, by Helen Pernell, Betty Blake, Babe Madison, Marian Edwards, Pearl Bouton, Sue Beer, Eleanore Fogel, and Ruth Eikenberry. Their goal was to ensure that Chandler school children, particularly those whose parents were migrant workers or victims of the Great Depression, would get hot lunches. Daily these extraordinary women would cook meals in their own homes, and deliver and serve them at the schools. Soon, they were cooking meals for every student in the district. The Guild raised funds for this program by hosting rummage sales and pot luck suppers, presenting plays, sponsoring movies, hosting bridge luncheons, and putting on fashion shows. They also hosted a Charity Ball, which is a tradition the Club continues today.

In 1937, the school district built a new gymnasium on the grounds of Chandler High. A cafeteria was included in the building, and the Guild purchased the kitchen equipment. They also provided funds for a kitchen manager to supervise the cafeteria and cook the meals. For 20 years the Guild continued to staff and equip the school cafeteria and cook the meals. In the final year of the program, 1956, they provided 1,028 meals every day, 45 of them free of charge for students who couldn’t afford it. That year, the school district took over operation of the kitchen. Even though they no longer ran the school lunch program the group, known as the Chandler Service Club after 1949, continued to work for their community.

The Club continued their relationship with the school district with several projects. They started an ear and eye testing program for students at Chandler Junior High in 1957. Soon, they were providing the service to students at all of Chandler’s elementary schools, too. They also collaborated with the Desert Club of Mesa to open dental clinics in Mesa and Chandler for needy students. In 1984, the dental clinic was replaced by the Shoe Project which provided shoes, and later jackets, to needy Chandler students.

They also supported civic projects around the city. The Club provided $30,000 to the Chandler Public Library in the 1970s in order to fund the city’s first Bookmobile. In 1980s, after pushing for the construction of a performance venue in Chandler, they donated $45,000 to the enhancement of Chandler Center for the Arts.

Today, the Chandler Service Club continues to support the Chandler community. Current projects include efforts to provide food, shoes and jackets for needy students in Chandler’s Title I schools and giving scholarships to worthy students. They raise funds many ways, notably through their popular Flower Girl program and Charity Ball.