ABOUT
For more than 60 years, GFWC Santa Rosa Woman's Club, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, has been living the volunteer spirit in the Gulf Breeze, south Santa Rosa County, Florida, area. It is the longest, continuously serving volunteer group of women in the Gulf Breeze area. In conjunction with the General Federation of Women's Clubs and Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, SRWC is part of the largest volunteer women's group in the world.
In 2023, the Santa Rosa Woman's Club participated in 115 Projects, volunteered 7,650 hours, donated $6,129 in In-Kind Donations & raised $12,844 for our community !
COMMUNITY SERVICE AREAS
Living the Volunteer Spirit
ARTS & CULTURE
Santa Rosa Woman's Club members are affectionately known as the "the hat ladies" for their volunteer work creating paper hats for children at Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts and for providing special needs students with headbands, halos, and bracelets at the Greater Gulf Coast Arts Fest in Pensacola. Arts & Culture is one of the five areas of the club's volunteer service, which includes art education, nurturing creativity, and promoting cultural awareness. Members are encouraged to create and enter their artistic endeavors in an annual competition. The club's membership includes artists, writers, seamstresses, a glass blower, quilter, and photographers.
Santa Rosa Woman's Club promotes education in both children and adults. We support our local schools and libraries, along with showing appreciation to our teachers and librarians. We are strong advocates for reading programs, in particular Early Learning Coalition and our organization's reading program, ESO. We also support Little Free Libraries and neighborhood book boxes and have mapped them for google maps. To see the 42 little libraries in our area CLICK HERE. We also sponsor scholarships for women living in south Santa Rosa County.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
This Community Service Program aims to explore the various opportunities for awareness and advancement to improve our well being, addressing three key components: nutrition, disease prevention, and physical and emotional care. Locally we volunteer with the Children in Crisis food pantry, the Weekend Food Program, and the Gulf Breeze Hospital Auxiliary, while providing financial support to Interfaith Ministries, Alzheimer's, and Feeding the Gulf Coast. With several members employed by heath care agencies, we are proud to have Granny Nannies as our exclusive business partner.
ENVIRONMENT
This area encourages us to become stewards of the earth by working to preserve the world's resources, protecting wildlife and domesticated animals, beautifying our community and enjoying nature. We volunteer with Ocean Hour and have planted a tree at Tiger Point's playground for Arbor Day. We support Canine Companions for Independence. We are advocates for recycling and avoid single use plastics, support our National Parks and area wildlife sanctuaries, and are proud that Florida Federation of Women's Clubs is responsible for the preservation of the Everglades.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT & OUTREACH
As part of an international organization, we strive to create a better quality of life and foster a sense of community -- locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. In this area, our efforts focus on Citizenship; Crime Prevention, Safety, and Disaster Preparedness; the Needy, Hungry, and Homeless; and Our Military Personnel and Veterans. We promote the USO and Monument to Women's Veterans project in Pensacola and place wreaths at Barrancas National Cemetery. We support our local first responders. GFWC's signature project addresses domestic abuse awareness. To keep attune with the community, we are members of both the Gulf Breeze Chamber of Commerce and the Navarre Chamber of Commerce.
GFWC Santa Rosa Woman's Club meets the first Tuesday, September through May at 9:30 a.m. at St. Sylvester's Church, 6464 Gulf Breeze Parkway. The program begins at 10:00. We invite you to attend our general meetings and help us advance our five areas of community service. We welcome all people interested in volunteering in our community. For those unable to attend monthly meetings, we provide a "Friends of Santa Rosa Woman's Club" membership option. As a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, we have numerous leadership opportunities online and at seminars, workshops, and conventions. We also participate in district events with clubs from Milton, Fort Walton, and Crestview and state conventions.