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 the process of 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, electected officers and developed by-laws following Federation guidelines.

The Tellico Village Women’s Club was first recognized on March 16, 1996 and the charter was officially recognized at the Centennial Convention of Tennessee Federation of Clubs on April 26, 1996.  Since that time the membership has grown steadily and many thousands of dollars have been raised for worthwhile causes.  The women of the club give unselfishly of their time and are tireless in their commitment 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 provide immediate impact within the member community.

Explore our history, our commitment and our accomplishments by logging onto our GFWC International website at: www.gfwc.org.  Learn about our founder, Jane Cunningham Croly, and how her determination back 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 at www.gfwctennessee.com provides an overview of clubs and programs within 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 the communities in which they live and work.  By Living the Volunteer Spirit, GFWC club women transform lives each day, not simply with monetary donations, but with 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 it has done since its formation 125 years ago.

See Community Services for descriptions of GFWC Tellico Village community service programs, along with 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 had need for 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 still are 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
alway generous.

Let us make time for all things;
make us to 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