Annual Projects

State's Mates logo in red, circa 1962.

State's Mates selected one institution or project annually in which they would devote a great deal of time, financial assistance, and material support. The Projects Committee was formed in 1960 in an effort to organize State's Mates civic activities and to make volunteering a key component of the club, in an effort to characterize State's Mates as a “fullfledged civic club.”  Typical projects involved monthly visits, the donation of useful goods, and a financial contribution. State's Mates typically picked organizations that were involved with either children or the elderly, highlighting their emphasis on caretaking.

List of State's Mates Annual Projects:

• 1947-1959: none
• 1960-1961: Wake County Detention Home
• 1961-1962: North Carolina State School for the Blind
• 1962-1963: Wake County Retirement Home
• 1963-1964: The Methodist Home for Children
• 1964-1965: None due to complications the previous year
• 1965-1966: The Methodist Home for Children was chosen again, but there was no response from the orphanage
• 1966-1967: Westhaven Rest Home
• 1967-1968: Westhaven Rest Home
• 1968-1969: Dorothea Dix
• 1970-1971: The Catholic Children's Home was chosen, but the idea was dropped due to “lack of time”
• 1972-1977: none

The annual projects at retirement facilities and children's homes were focused upon nurturing and caretaking, two aspects of womanhood that were considered normative in the early 1960s; the organization's charitable projects thus correlated to notions of femininity during this era. State's Mates involvement in these kinds of activities allowed them to explore new roles outside of the home, school, and workplace that were still situated within the familiarity of roles that they were already quite experienced with- the roles of daughters and mothers.

 

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