Tea, please
Cathy Richardson, past president of the Monongahela Woman’s Club, serves tea to Sarah Hetzler during the Ringgold High School Senior Girls Tea at Mon Valley Country Club. Also pictured are Colleen Murphy Arnowitz, chairwoman of the senior tea, at the head of the table and students, from left, Samantha Beam, Madison Trainer, Kayla Vickers and Lauren Suppo.
Monongahela Woman’s Club members Randee-Lynne Cowden, left, and Shelly Hetzler prepare cups of tea and coffee before serving them to students at the Ringgold High School Senior Girls Tea.
The Senior Girls Tea sponsored by the Monongahela Woman’s Club has been a rite of passage for students at Monongahela and Ringgold high schools since 1939.
Sarah Noll, left, and Lauren Nizill, seniors at Ringgold High School, help themselves to some punch during the annual tea sponsored by the Monongahela Woman’s Club.
Seniors at Ringgold High School line up for the buffet line during the girls tea at Mon Valley County Club.
MONONGAHELA – The Senior Girls Tea sponsored by the Monongahela Woman’s Club has become a rite of passage for students at Ringgold High School.
Last Friday, 67 seniors attended the club’s signature event at Mon Valley Country Club, with just 21 of the 88 students in the girls’ 2017 graduating class unable to attend because of other commitments.
The gathering dates back to 1939, when the club held a tea for senior girls at Monongahela High School. For those who are counting, that’s an impressive 78 years of tradition.
And while other clubs held similar events in the mid-1900s and beyond, few have survived into the 21st century with as much fanfare as the tea hosted by the Monongahela Woman’s Club.
Colleen Murphy Arnowitz, chairwoman of education and the senior tea committee for the woman’s club, is a 1971 graduate of Monongahela High School, and she hopes the girls remember their tea with the same fondness as she does hers.
“We think many of the girls have never been to a tea or grown-up event. It sets an example of social skills,” Arnowitz said. “They have role models in all of us. We’re all women who have worked and are now doing it to give back to the community. We’re helping to guide them into adulthood.”
Arnowitz has been a member of the woman’s club for nine years. She joined partly because she knew a lot of the women in the club, and many of its members, like Arnowitz, are retired teachers.
“I joined because we’re united in our interest in doing what’s best for the community,” said Arnowitz, who also is a member of the Rotary Club of Monongahela and the alumni board of California University of Pennsylvania.
Cathy Richardson, past president of the Monongahela Woman’s Club, taught kindergarten for 44 years in the Mon Valley. She said many of the girls she was serving last Friday were her former students.
“I enjoy seeing them once they get their new teeth,” she laughed. “Sometimes, I never know who they are.”
Previously, the teas were held in private homes. As the size of the graduating classes increased, the tea was moved to churches and other larger venues.
And even though the girls no longer wear white gloves or wide-brimmed hats, they are dressed in some of their finest attire, along with smartly appointed makeup and well-coiffed hair.
Cellphone were in abundance, too, as the girls posed with their friends to capture the memories from their senior tea.
Entertainment was provided by three harpists from Ringgold Middle School, who, Arnowitz said, can tell their classmates what the tea is like when they are seniors, and Erin Sinko, manager of Consierge Services at Monongahela Valley Hospital, was the guest speaker.
The girls were treated to a buffet-style lunch that included hamburger sliders, fruit, cheeses, vegetables and an assortment of desserts, and, of course, tea, along with coffee and punch.
The Monongahela Woman’s Club has 50 members, who meet once a month, except for January, from September through May. They continue to support Monongahela Area Library, as well as the local elementary schools, adhering to the Woman’s Daily Creed, a copy of which was at each place setting, that says, in part, “Let me think more of my neighbor, and a little less of me. Let me be concerned and care for others.”
Also in attendance were members of the Mother’s Club, which was established in Monongahela in 1902 and served as the predecessor of the woman’s club. Five of the seven Mother’s Club members who attended the tea were Joan Chambers of Monongahela, president and treasurer; Margaret Wise of New Eagle; Ramah Delso of Monongahela, who serves as vice president and chairs the card committee; Anna Mary Frye of Monongahela, a 23-year past president; and Josephine Rogers of Monongahela.
“If it was not for the Mother’s Club, there would be no woman’s club,” Frye said.
There also was a Junior Woman’s Club that developed out of the Mother’s Club, but that club no longer exists.
“Our main mission now is to help keep the Mother’s Club alive,” Frye said.