Newcomers Club not for only newcomers
Now that the new year has begun, it's a fitting time to consider joining a local organization whose mission for more than 60 years has been to welcome new residents -- because the club officially isn't for just newcomers anymore.
Last year, the women-only Newcomers Club of Columbus became the Newcomers and Friends Club of Columbus to more accurately describe itself. The group's immediate past president personifies this point.
After moving to Columbus from Pennsylvania 12 years ago to take care of her grandchildren, Ann Kingsley sought a new source of activity when they started school around 2009.
Kingsley saw an item in the Ledger-Enquirer announcing the Newcomers' monthly coffee. Kingsley didn't think she qualified, but she certainly was in a new social situation and wanted to make more friends. So she called the number listed and spoke to Audrey Lenig, then the club's president.
Lenig told her some of the club's members have lived in the Columbus area for more than 20 years.
So much for being newcomers.
Members stay involved that long because the club continues to be compelling for them. They enjoy learning more about their community, meeting new friends and welcoming the next newcomers.
"It's a great group of women," said Kingsley, the club's president in 2014-15. "There's nobody here that doesn't help out when there's a need. They're very caring, supportive. We have so many activities."
For example, this month's calendar includes:
Jan. 4 mah-jongg
Jan. 5 board meeting
Jan. 7 Brunch Bunch (monthly gathering at a local restaurant)
Jan. 8 Knit, Sew, Chatter (twice-monthly gathering at a member's home or local café)
Jan. 11 bridge
Jan. 13 canasta
Jan. 14 book club
Jan. 15 bunco
Jan. 16 Dining In (every-other-month gathering at a member's home)
Jan. 18 mah-jongg
Jan. 19 Variations (periodic trips; this time it's a visit to the W.C. Bradley Art Museum, followed by lunch downtown)
Jan. 20 Cook's Choice (monthly gathering in a member's home for those who enjoy cooking and sampling new recipes)
Jan. 21 coffee (monthly 10 a.m. gathering at the Columbus Botanical Garden includes a guest speaker; this time it will be Beth Karriker, program manager of the local Ronald McDonald House)
Jan. 22 Knit, Sew, Chatter
Jan. 25 bridge
Jan. 27 canasta
Club members also take trips to attend movies, plays and other performances or shop, and they have a golf league and occasionally play other sports. Special events include luncheons for spring, fall and Christmas, as well as game socials. The club's We Care group provides meals for those in need, and the Courtesy group sends cards of congratulations, condolences or other messages of compassion.
Annual dues are $20.
Lenig and Kingsley figure the name change has attracted more members. The club has 82 on its list, approximately 10 more than the previous year.
Myra Josefsberg is another longtime resident in a new situation and looking for a new social outlet. Retired from Gentiva Hospice, where she was a bereavement counselor, she recalled the Newcomers helped her acclimate to Columbus when she moved here from New York in 1990.
"It was very helpful to me because I got to meet other mothers, and I also got to meet people here in Columbus," she said. "So I thought I'd come back."
Now that she has opened a new chapter in her life, Josefsberg is pleased to learn that the club supports a local nonprofit organization each month, because she wants to increase her community service. This year, the Newcomers will support the Ronald McDonald House. The Homeless Resource Network was the cause in 2015. Fox Elementary School, Brown Bag of Columbus and Hope Harbour are other organizations the club has supported.
Around 2008, Lenig, while volunteering at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, mentioned to another volunteer she had been in Columbus since 1985 but didn't have any friends to go to the movies or shopping. Lenig's lament was timely and aimed at the right person, because the next day was one of the club's monthly coffees, and that fellow volunteer happened to be a member, so she was invited.
"I just felt so welcomed," Lenig said. "People would come up to me and thank me for coming. Really? I would normally just sit in a corner and watch everybody."
By the next year, she was club president. Lenig laughed as she said, "And I'd never been president of anything."
Linda Hagberg, who moved here from Raleigh, N.C., to be closer to her grandchildren and play tennis at Cooper Creek Park, has been a member for 11 years.
"So many ladies groups are real snippy," she said, "but this is a caring group."
And real, honest-to-goodness newcomers still join the club. Carol Miles moved here six months ago from Tennessee to live closer to her children after she retired.
"Everybody that I have met through the Newcomers looks you in the eye, listens to you," she said. "They don't mind saying their name every time we meet because I can't remember names. But it's like everybody understands what it's like to be a newcomer. I moved to Columbus, and I knew two people out of 200,000. Now, I can actually go to stores and see faces that I know because of the Newcomers.
" Columbus has so much to offer, but when you're alone, you don't tend to go out and do it. When these ladies say, 'Hey, let's go,' I'm on the bus. It's just a wonderful way to get to know people. Through different people in this room, I've met people who aren't even members. I'm enfolded into Columbus without feeling like I'm still a stranger."
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter @MarkRiceLE.
This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Newcomers Club not for only newcomers ."