Club News

Five women attended the 124th annual Convention of Iowa State Chapter P.E.O. Sisterhood held June 4 and 5 in Des Moines. With the theme ?Wild About P.E.O.?, State President, Kathy Wilke, Chapter DS, Odebolt, Iowa presided over 700 delegates and visitors. Twenty-four chapters from north central Iowa served as the hostess group for the convention.

Pictured above are Mindi Rees (bottom left), Lind Soukup (bottom right), Jane Cuddeback (top center), Lynette Loula ( top left) and Renee Sieren (top right).

President Kathy Wilke, Chapter DS, Odebolt, presided over 700 delegats and visitors. Twenty four chapters from north central Iowa served as the hostess for the convention.

Attendees participated in workshops and heard from recipients of P.E.O.?s six philanthropies and the Iowa P.E.O. Project Fund Inc.

P.E.O. is a philanthropic organization where women celebrate the advancement of women; educate women through scholarships, grants, awards, loans and stewardship of Cottey College; and motivate each other to achieve their highest aspirations. There are approximately 6,000 chapters in the United States and Canada with nearly 250,000 members. Iowa is the second largest state chapter with 382 chapters and over 17,000 members.

P.E.O. is one of the pioneer societies for women and was founded on Jan. 21, 1869, by seven young women at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Originally a small campus friendship society, P.E.O. soon blossomed to include women off-campus. Today, P.E.O. has grown from that tiny membership of seven to almost a quarter of a million members in chapters in the United States and Canada. The P.E.O. Sisterhood is passionate about its mission: promoting educational opportunities for women. The sisterhood proudly makes a difference in women?s lives with six international philanthropies: P.E.O. Educational Loan Fund; P.E.O International Peace Scholarship Fund; P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education; P.E.O. Scholar Awards; P.E.O. STAR Scholarship, and the ownership of Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri. The international headquarters of the P.E.O. Sisterhood is in Des Moines.