The Golden Club of Kershaw County recently inducted its first two female members, Kitty Baxley and Anne Porath, at its Thursday meeting. The Golden Club was originally chartered as a chapter of Kiwanis International, called Golden K. After concluding that the overhead for Kiwanis International was too high, the Golden Club decided to make more effective uses of their resources by forming an independent club. It is now chartered as a non-profit organization by the state of South Carolina.

The club’s constitution has never stated that all members should be male. It just happened that all members have been male until recently when Baxley and Porath showed an interest. They were welcomed into the club, along with Joey Jones, the club’s youngest member. Jones has been part of the Golden Club for several months.

The Golden Club’s members are mostly retired or semi-retired and have long-standing connections with other organizations. During the past year, the club averaged 370 hours per month of member support for charitable organizations. Some of the organizations supported include Habitat for Humanity, Adult Literacy, Camden Historic Foundation, Veterans organizations and the Fine Arts.

The club has donated money to prostate cancer research, the Red Cross, first responders and neonatal care. The club’s goal is to increase donations by keeping operating expenses to a minimum (no salaries to officers, no newsletters, etc.) It especially aims to increase support to the KershawHealth Foundation with money saved by reduced overhead.

Finally, the club seeks to keep members connected to the community and nation by having a speaker at each meeting. Past speakers have covered both serious and light-hearted topics. Through the past four years, Golden Club has donated close to $13,000 to various Kershaw County charities.