Sun Lakes Women’s Association expands its sales with a curio cabinet at the Merchant Square! Stop by 1509 N Arizona Ave and check out booth no. 75. Some of our smaller, most interesting donations can be purchased there all year round.
Colleen McKnight
Sun Lakes Women’s Association is the oldest official club of Sun Lakes, but it is by no means old. This group does everything it can to be looking ahead for new ideas.
This summer the by-laws are being revised to keep up with some recent changes. As we review these 42-year-old bylaws, we’re impressed with the foresight and direction laid out by the founding ladies.
The object of the Sun Lakes Women’s Association, as laid out in our bylaws, is ‘To promote friendliness within the community; to undertake proper activities for the purpose of raising funds and to accept gifts or donations to make Sun Lakes a safe, healthy and secure place in which to live by having it well equipped to care for its needs in the areas of safety, health, security and welfare and other worthy projects beneficial to the Sun Lakes community.’
Well, can’t argue with that objective. Since promoting friendliness is our first thought, we list ourselves as a social club. Make no mistake though, we are philanthropic. As stated, our mission falls into the ‘raising funds…for a safe, healthy, and secure’ place. Our dedication to that has led to $1.1 million of donations to security, Fire Department and infrastructure improvements during the last 42 years.
The bylaws needed to be revised to acknowledge that we have applied and received 501(c)(3) status by the IRS. No longer do we need to be backed by the homeowners association or an associated charity. This change also means that any donation you make to The Sun Lakes Women’s Association is tax deductible and you will be offered a receipt when donating items.
We also have a big change coming later this summer with the launch of our new website! The site will answer the two most commonly asked questions:
What do you ladies do with ALL that money? And How can we donate more?!
In the process of creating a member’s section for the website, we realized we needed to strengthen the definition of who our members are. As written in the bylaws a member is defined as ‘All ladies (both homeowners and renters) shall automatically be members of the association and are urged to participate in all its activities.’
With no registration, dues or requirements for membership we could estimate our membership at 5,000 plus. But after some work last winter we know that a very active 100 ladies make up our core. Membership will continue in the future through on-line and in person sign ups. We are also planning to create a membership badge so everyone can identify our members.
As reflected in our bylaws, our motto ‘Building strong friendships and communities’ still applies after 42 years. Thank you all again for all your support of the Sun Lakes Women’s Association!
To donate please contact us by phone at 480-895-9270, ext. 220.
To join us please visit any Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. in the Sun Lakes Country Club Arts and Crafts Room.