Wenatchee, Washington, Alumnae Club

Philanthropic Service

In 1998, the club donated a bookshelf to the pediatric ward of the local hospital to honor the memory of a deceased member, Wardine Jesseph Fenton. Members collected and purchased books to keep the bookshelf well-stocked. Since this program was so well received, members decided to contribute another bookshelf to the club’s local community health center in 2004; this shelf the memory of another deceased member, Ella Mae McBride Crowl. 

Due to the success of both these bookshelves, members currently assist a local organization, the Wade Family’s Literacy Endowment Fund, in its efforts to provide a new children’s book to every newborn and pediatric patient at the Confluence Health Hospital. Members affix stickers to each book recognizing Pi Beta Phi and the Wade Endowment Fund, and deliver them to the hospital. Annually, members also make a donation to the local Friends of the Library organization.

Meaningful Mementos

This club is the only active alumnae group in the Wenatchee Valley. Members have been continuously active since the club’s charter date of May 13, 1929. As seen in one of the club’s historic photographs, members have held numerous community sales of the beautiful weavings and other handicrafts produced by the Settlement School, Arrowcraft and Arrowmont.

There is a plaque in the children’s section of the Quincy, Washington, library recognizing the club’s contribution to children’s literacy, in memory of a local deceased member, Roberta Huffman Bulleri.

In years past, members would send boxes of apples to the three chapter houses in Washington State during rush week and initiation. Wenatchee is famously known as the “Apple Capital of the World.”

​Awards and Club Recognition

• Club of Traditional Performance - Region Five (2016, 2011, 2010)
• The Houston Alumnae Club Links to Literacy Award - Honorable Mention (2004, 2003)

Evelyn Peters Kyle Award (Tau Province)

• Wardine Jesseph Fenton (1983)
• Connie Busigin Nelson Bean - Honorable Mention (2011)

Notable Alumnae

• Dr. Ruth Henderson Walsh McIntyre, currently Alumnae Regional Director, Region Five and Ambassador, Pi Beta Phi Foundation
• Connie Busigin Nelson Bean, former Tau Province President