Athene Club of Charleroi begins 124th year of service

The Athene Club of Charleroi began its 124th service year by voting to establish a new scholarship to be awarded to a female graduate of the Charleroi Area School District.

The new $500 annual scholarship, created in advance of the club’s 125th anniversary celebration next year, will be awarded at the Senior Tea to be held in April. Parameters for the scholarship and selection of applicants will be determined by a committee comprised of club members.

Seed funding for two years of the scholarship was pledged by Bernie Bandini, a 1979 graduate of CAHS, and is given in honor of his wife, Sue McFarland-Bandini, the club’s new president. McFarland-Bandini was sworn in as Athene’s 63rd president in June.

Other club officers are Vice President Taryn Grant, Treasurer Pam Jericho, Recording Secretary Deborah France, and Corresponding Secretary Judy Forsythe.

Athene’s signature charity is the Charleroi Public Library, and its signature annual event is the Senior Tea, which honors the female graduates of Charleroi Area High School. The club also does an annual service project and regularly hosts educational speakers.

Athene, named after the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, was founded in the fall of 1902 as an education club for women who wanted to learn more about arts and literature, history and science, world cultures, government affairs, current events, and parliamentary rule.

For decades, single topics were studied annually. Members traveled by train to Pittsburgh to do research, obtain study materials from the state library, and hosted prominent speakers, including university professors, well-known business, government and nonprofit leaders, and, even, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Athene’s 16 charter members, the last of whom died in 1984, ultimately grew the club into an organization that shaped the community.

Members were instrumental in the creation of legacy organizations. They pledged $100 to the initial hospital fund; bought pictures, furniture, and medical supplies for the local schools; and fostered creation of the Charleroi Area Public Library. They supported public health causes including the fight against tuberculosis; raised money to support charitable and cultural events; and they were politically active, lobbying for education funding and highway beautification.

Like many women’s clubs and social clubs, Athene faced an uncertain future beginning in the 1980s as longtime members grew older or died, and younger women devoted themselves to work or other activities.

Still, Athene members were committed to the organization, and under past presidents Adele Hopkins and Mary Oler, Athene stabilized its finances, updated the bylaws, and grew its membership.

Today, there are 40 active members including those who work in education, social services, government and politics, and business.

The club year runs from September through June, on the second Friday of the month. The meeting day was set in 1909.

Meetings are held at the Alumni Room on the Charleroi Area School District Campus.