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By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 10, 2001
Most of the time, this column celebrates the successes of not-for-profit organizations. Today it will document the demise of one. The St. Petersburg Bar Auxiliary, formed almost 50 years ago, will cease to exist after Thursday. That night, past and current members will join members of the St. Petersburg Bar Association at the Bar's annual reception and installation of officers. Current auxiliary president Judy Stanton will officially retire the auxiliary. Its archives will be given to the St. Petersburg Museum of History.
In 1952, the year the auxiliary began here, St. Petersburg was still a small town. It was resolutely segregated. For the white community, commerce revolved around the department and specialty stores, the banks and offices that radiated from Williams Park. Social life was organized around private clubs like the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and groups such as the Dragons, Squires, Junior League, the Women's Service League, the Woman's Club and auxiliaries affiliated with hospitals and churches. Institutionalized social services were practically non-existent, and charity was mostly dependent on affluent people's sense of noblesse oblige. Everything shut down during the summer and those who could left for North Carolina or points further. Air-conditioning and sprinklers were exotic novelties.
That was the year John C. Blocker, a prominent local lawyer, was president of the St. Petersburg Bar Association. He suggested that wives of lawyers -- because lawyers here were always men -- form an auxiliary.
"Our purpose," said Sammy Logan, a founding member, "was to assist our husbands in any way and to get to know the other wives and their families. We played cards and had lunch. It was primarily social. We were not a fund-raising group."
The first meeting was at the Yacht Club. Mrs. Victor O. Wehle was elected president.
The group met for monthly luncheons, hosted holiday coffees and teas, and partnered with members of the medical and dental auxiliaries for big parties. They wore white gloves and hats.
Today it all sounds quaint and anachronistic. Our highly evolved sense of duty makes us feel a bit uneasy about groups that are purely social. The Bar Auxiliary was not immune to that impulse. It contributed small sums to local charities and began some service programs. On every Law Day for many years, Vera Meyer hauled boxes of doughnuts and urns of coffee to the police station to honor officers. (I helped her for a couple of those years, and the big metal bowl I used for apples and bananas still bears a Bar Auxiliary ID sticker.)
The real reason the Bar Auxiliary is packing it in is that it is no longer needed. Lawyers' wives are now often lawyers themselves, or doctors or accountants. Or homemakers who, if they join a club, do not want one in which they are defined through their husbands' identities. That the group has managed to keep things going this long, with an ever-dwindling membership, is a testament to its tenacity and tradition.
Still, I note the auxiliary's passing with sadness. It is one more reminder that, for all its benefits, progress also has costs, and we are sometimes poorer for them.
All Children's Hospital continues to raise the bar on its big telethon, which took place June 1 and 2. This year's take was more than $3.8-million, several hundred thousand dollars higher than last year. The total includes profits from Taste of Pinellas, which generated about $350,000. The biggest single check came from local Wal-Marts and Sam's Clubs. Between donations from associates and customers and some corporate matching funds, the stores contributed $700,000. That puts their donations to the hospital telethon at just over $5-million since 1988.
Friday
ALPHA SPRINGALA: Rick Baker, the new mayor of St. Petersburg, seems to be everywhere these days, including this annual fund-raiser for ALPHA, an agency that assists women and families in crisis pregnancies. Baker will be featured speaker at "A Morning with the Mayor," which begins at 7:30 a.m. at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, 11 Central Ave. $25. 822-8190.
A BRIGHTER DAY BENEFIT: Bridal fashions from Malindy Elene will be featured at a fashion show for a Brighter Day, an agency assisting homeless families. Champagne and hors d'oeuvres will be served. 4-6 p.m. St. Petersburg Yacht Club. $25. 898-6866.
BPW LUNCH: The local chapter of the national organization, the Mid-day Business and Professional Women's Club of St. Petersburg, meets at noon for lunch. State Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, is guest speaker. Soho Gallery, Central Avenue and 21st Street. $12. 892-4694.