The Seattle Star Newspaper, June 11, 1923, Page 4

WOMAN’S BENEFIT ASSOCIATION | Starts Its 31st. Year of Service to Women and the Home 2643 Local Units in 56 States and Provinces Operate as Service Centers for the Largest Fraternal Benefit Society Composed Exclusively of Women in the World great accomplishment on every hand, size alone attracts scarcely more than passing interest The Woman's Benefit Association which is now celebra- ting its 30th Anniversary in this city, however, is an organization unique in the realm of great achievement. ie THIS day of “big business" with examples of Idealistic and humanitarian in its purposes, it is in- tensely practical and constructive in application. It operates on a sound business basis which assures results, but through its activities runs a spirit of friend- liness and fraternalism which wins the love and admira- tion of everyone who comes in contact with it. It is international in its scope, extending from Alaska to the Rio Grande and from Coast to Coast, but the applica- tion of its benefits is localized to conform to the condi- tions existing in every community. And it is an organization made up entirely and exclu- sively of women! No man has ever sat on its executive board; there is not a man among its members. It is essentially an organization of women working for the betterment of women and the preservation of the home, and its success is a tribute to the broad vision and out- standing executive ability of a woman. Miss Bina M. West founded the Woman's Benefit Association thirty years ago. Life insurance for women was then a new idea, but under Miss West's leadership the Association grew steadily until it had spread into every state in the Union and province of Canada, Today even Alaska has its members, and it has crossed the seas to Hawaii, Protection of the Home To preserve the home intact by providing death and disability protection for women is the purpose of the Woman's Benefit Association, and it has found man avenues of practical service to help achieve this end. Insurance for women, of tremendous importance in itself, is supplemented by extensive work along the lines of health promotion. The beautiful ritualistic work and social activities of each Review, or local unit, make it a social center for its members. There are summer camps and girls’ clubs for the younger members, and a Junior organization for the children. Mothers may enroll their babiessin the Cradle Roll and receive assistance in their care, and throughout all its manifold activities the Woman's Benefit Association makes for the building of character, for health, and for good citizenship. Protection is given at cost, based on the same statis- tical tables used by all the leading life insurance com- ies. Only the necessary mse of operation is added to this basic charge, and operating as it does along fraternal lines, this cost is minimized. In the Life Benefit Department are 252,000 members. Their insurance is protected by a reserve of $16,500,000, safely invested in government and municipal bonds. Nearly $200,000,000 of insurance is in force, and more than $23,000,000 has been paid to beneficiaries. The Woman's Benefit Association is not only the largest fraternal benefit society composed exclusively of women in the world, but its large membership and ample re- serves place it high among all life insurance companies. Health Centers Founder and Supreme Commander Home Office Bidg., Port Huron, Mich. =< fC itt preservation of life and health, and that disease pre- vention through health promotion is more beneficial still. To this end the Woman's Benefit Association maintains Health Centers for its members where any member may come for examination and treatment free of charge. Health Center is in charge of a com- petent Health Supervisor and fully equipped with all modern facilities for examination and first aid treatment, and through these centers a never-ending work of spread- ing information conducive to good health is carried on. The Seattle Health Center in the Arcade Building has done a work of incalculable benefit among the members of the Association in Seattle and the surrounding country, Health Centers are now maintained in thirty- one cities and in a few years every city in the country will be s0 equipped. Hospital Service Going hand in hand with this work and extending fraternal service one step farther, hospital service in the event of illness is given free of charge to needy members. This service, established seven years ago, is now in effect in every state, reaching rural as well as city Medical science knows that the detection of disease in its early stages is of paramount importance in A ‘The Juniors of Armourdal: 4 at one of ihete Critdeens Past i members. Through the Hospital, Fraternal and Relief Fund maintained by the Association thousands of mem- bers incapacitated by illness or age and in financial need are cared for every year. Summer Camps for Girls The W. B. A. Summer Camps and Girls’ Clubs for the younger members are extremely popular and successful as a means of gratifying the love for out door life every young person feels, and inculcating the spirit of frater- nity in the young women of the country, Summer Camp Clubs have been organized from Coast to Coast and camps are maintained at suitable places where members may spend their vacations. Some of these Summer Camps have accomodations for one hundred girls and are filled to capacity all summer long. This summer there will be six or more State Campa in opera- tion and many local camps where thousands of girls will spend healthy, happy and inexpensive vacations. Swimming, rowing, and the other usual camp activities are supplemented by basket ball, study of local trees and plants, choral singing, folk and aesthetic dancing, and other recreations under competent instruction, HOME OFFICE OF THE WOMAN'S BENEFIT ASSOCIATION AT PORT HURON, MICHIGAN Rock Run,” W. B. A. Summer near Bvanston, Ill. A corner of the San Francisco Health Center, Market and Fourth Ste, and every facility is provided for a perfect out-of- doors vacation in comfortable, sanitary The Association provides the camps, camp sites, camp managers, cooks and other helpers, relieving the girls of any semblance of work during vacation hours and all expense except the actual cost of their food. During the winter the Summer Camp organizations remain active as Girls’ Clubs and hold frequent social gatherings and entertainments. In these Camps and Clubs the younger members of the Woman's Benefit Association organize and find an abundance of fun and healthy recreation. Any member of a Summer Camp Club is privileged to attend any W. B. A. Camp in the country. Junior Members The Junior organization is made up of the children of the members and provides the means for frequent social gatherings and entertainments dear to both the children and their mothers. It also gives Junior protection, and in helping provide a healthy training and environment for the coming generation and teaching the little ones the spirit of fraternalism the W. B. A. is doing much to make good future citizens, Social Centers The work of the Association is carried out through its more than 2,600 local organizations or Reviews out the United States and Canada. There are sixty- four Reviews in Washington with an enrollment of nearly five thousand members, four of them in Seattle, and many more in the territory tributary to it. Each Review is a social center and hub for its members, managing its own local affairs and acting as a “service center” thongs which the work of the central organiza- tion finds expression. For Better Citizenship Regret is sometimes expressed for the tendency toward the disintegration of the home which is said to be taki: place in America. It is indeed illuminating, then, encouraging to all who accord the home its true im- portance to society to find this large and influential body of women operating on a business-like basis and achiev- ing such notable success in strengthening the home ties. The Woman's Benefit Association is not a reform organi- zation. It is organized to do practical, constructive work and does it. It exists to make American homes safer for women and children and functions in a hundred practical ways to preserve inviolate the intangible things which raise the home above the status of a dwelling place. Its benefits are extended to every walk and age of life. It advocates no political belief or religious creed. Its qualifications for membership are only good character and sound body, and any such woman who wishes her home to be preserved intact should she, who is its very heart, be removed by death, may find therein the pro- téction and the advantages to health and happiness which she seeks. Such women will find in the Woman's Benefit Association congenial friends waiting to welcome them, and are invited to write to Miss West or Mrs. Wilkinson for further information.