WILTON — The world was changing fast at the turn of 20th century. Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley, paving the way for Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt to be sworn in as president. Both the silent film “The Great Train Robbery” and the Wright Brother’s first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air airplane would not be seen by the world for several years to come.
In February of 1901, in the small town of Wilton, several women banded together with the explicit purpose of helping their community in whatever way they could. For over 122 years, the women of Tyngtown Club have been lending their hands to the community, including annual donations to the Wilton Public Library and keeping their summer reading program alive for the kids of Wilton.
All over the town of Wilton, Tyngtown’s fingerprints can be seen in the fabric of it’s history, like Bass Park. Nestled beside Wilson Lake, members of Tyngtown Club teamed up with another local organization in 1974 to lay the groundwork to what would eventually become Bass Park. Members of the club even had a hand in painting the mural on the side of Food City in the downtown area.
“The group has never disbanded,” Tyngtown member Robin Bragg told the Livermore Falls Advertiser. With over 122 years under their belt, the fraternity has worked hard to make itself a staple of the Wilton community.
The club also hosts an annual plant sale, with the most recent funds raised going towards local programs, including the Wilton Free Public Library, the Western Maine Play Museum, the Wilton Scholarship Committee, Fit Girls of Wilton, as well as the flowers planted seasonally throughout Wilton’s downtown, which are tended to by club members.
Those flowers beds were a result of the club’s efforts, as they were instrumental in the Downtown Beautification Project in the early 1980s. After the installation, club members have planted, watered, and changed them to winter greenery every year since then.
Other organizations the club supports include the Wilton Historical Society, Wilton Blueberry Festival, and the RSU 9 Food Pantry.
Recently the group, with the help of RSU 9 Pantry Coordinator Kristen Wroble and Dr. Steven Quackenbush of the University of Maine Farmington helped establish Anita’s Hope, the pantry’s backpack program.
The program had existed prior to their involvement, but Wroble shared with the Franklin Journal in May her uncertainty with keeping the program alive with the funds they had going into the next school year. The program had caught the eye of club member Anita Louise Spencer, who had brought the program to the attention of the other members of Tyngtown to discuss ways in which the club could help the program.
Tragically, before anything more could be done, Spencer passed away in November of last year at her home in Wilton. Her son, Quackenbush, felt it appropriate to use the funds left to him by his mother for a cause she was incredibly passionate about, and the he partnered with Tyngtown to find that in the RSU 9 backpack program.
With a $10,000 donation form Quackenbush, RSU 9’s backpack program was renamed Anita’s Hope, and it will be spearheaded by the members of Tyngtown. According to Bragg, they will be responsible for distribution and making sure the program continues to thrive. “Each month, two teams will stuff over 200 bags of food for students to take home in their backpacks,” Bragg said.
The club, according to Bragg, is holding strong with 36 to 38 members by her count. “Members move away, but even if they do, they are still with us,” she said.
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