Who We Are

The General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) is an international women’s organization dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service.

In 1995, the Loudon Women’s Club (LWC) began organizing a General Federation of Women’s Clubs in Tellico Village. The LWC held a meeting in the Recreation Center, inviting several women from Tellico Village. In subsequent meetings, the Tellico Village members (13) paid dues, elected officers, and developed bylaws following Federation guidelines.

The Tellico Village Women’s Club was first recognized on March 16, 1996, and its charter was officially recognized at the Centennial Convention of the Tennessee Federation of Clubs on April 26, 1996. Since then, the membership has grown steadily, and many thousands of dollars have been raised for worthwhile causes. The club’s women give unselfishly of their time and tirelessly commit to community service.

With more than 100,000 members in every state and more than a dozen countries, GFWC focuses on community-specific, hands-on projects that immediately impact the member community.

Explore our history, commitment, and accomplishments by logging onto our GFWC International website at www.gfwc.org. Learn about our founder, Jane Cunningham Croly, and how her determination in 1868 created a wave of volunteerism that continues to do so much for so many.

As an additional resource, our  GFWC Tennessee-specific website, www.gfwctennessee.com, provides an overview of clubs and programs in our state and features the GFWC Tennessee Handbook.

What We Do

GFWC clubs and club women are the fabric that binds not only the federation but also the communities in which they live and work. By living the Volunteer Spirit, GFWC club women transform lives daily, not simply with monetary donations but hands-on, tangible projects that provide immediate impact.

With a grassroots approach that often thinks locally but impacts globally, GFWC, its clubs, and members remain committed to serving as a force for global good, as they have since their formation 125 years ago.

See Community Services for descriptions of GFWC Tellico Village’s community service programs and a recap of our most recent local projects.

GFWC Collect

Written in 1904 by Longmont (Colorado) High School Principal Mary Stewart, the Collect for Women is read at every GFWC chapter around the world.  In her own words, “It was written as a prayer for the day.  I called it a ‘Collect for Club Women’ because I felt that women working together with wide interests for large ends was a new thing under the sun and that, perhaps, they needed special petition and meditation of their own.”  The first women’s organization to hear and use the Collect was the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

While written in 1904, the words of the Collect for Women are still true today.

Keep us, oh God, from pettiness;
let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.

Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off self-seeking.

May we put away all pretense and meet each
other face to face — without self-pity
and without prejudice.

May we never be hasty in judgment and
always generous.

Let us make time for all things;
make us grow calm, serene, gentle.

Teach us to put into action our better impulses,
straightforward and unafraid.

Grant that we may realize it is the little
things that create differences,
that in the big things of life, we are at one.

And may we strive to touch and to know the great,
common human heart of us all, and
O Lord God, let us forget not to be kind!

–Mary Stewart