Keeping up with our sisters Pre-issue January 2025
SHIRLEY’S CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES In the Winter 2025 issue of The P.E.O. Record, Jennifer Mitchell’s article Small Gestures Have BIG Impacts: The Importance of Nurturing Connections Within Your P.E.O. Chapter mentioned her grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies, which she frequently baked to share with sisters, often as an excuse to stop by for a visit. Jennifer has graciously shared this recipe by her grandmother, Shirley Bartlett. Bake a batch and take them to a sister! It’s a SWEET gesture and a wonderful way to nurture connections. Combine: 1 c. butter-flavored shortening 1 c. light brown sugar 1/2 c. white sugar Add: 2 beaten eggs (room temp.) 1 t. vanilla extract Combine and then add to sugar mixture: 1 1/2 c. flour 1 t. baking soda 1 t. salt Stir in: 2 c. oats 12 oz. chocolate chips 1 c. chopped pecans Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes. Yields 48 cookies. —the recipe referenced in the P.E.O. Record, Winter 2025 issue, “Small Gestures Have Big Impacts” on page 16.
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Celebrating Founders Day and Our History The P.E.O. Sisterhood was organized in 1869 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, by seven young women on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan University. At our January 14 meeting at the Best Western, Kate Dolan presented a video that talked about each of these remarkable women. Following is notes from that presentation: Alice Bird Babb was afford the special outfits required. a talented writer, “I greet you as sisters. May performer and public you raise the standard of true speaker who wrote womanhood, elevate the fallen, some of P.E.O.’s help the weak, give smiles, scatter earliest documents rose blossoms, making light the including the first rudimentary burdens of the oppressed, and constitution which is the basis may... we indeed be stars among of our present day objects and women in whatever vocation we aims. She was the first Founder to fulfill.” take the Oath and served as the Ella Stewart was an first president. She also served excellent student, as associate editor of The P.E.O. but because of her Record in its first few years. responsibilities “We were earnest and even then helping run her desired something broad and mother’s boarding substantial. We did not for one house, Ella was unable to graduate moment wish it to be a mere from Iowa Wesleyan. Even so, she college fraternity; we wished for a went on to become a dedicated society of more lasting name and teacher at the Iowa Industrial reputation.” school. She first read the oath to Alice Coffin was Alice Bird who read it to others. known for her Ella’s emblem is believed to be the generous spirit only original one still in existence. and her talent as a “When I think of the past, look seamstress. She was at the present, and dream of a beloved teacher, the future, I am filled with hope and one of her students recalled and ‘great expectations’ lure me ,“whatever Miss Coffin did, she did onward. And I trust that our little it superlatively.” Alice suggested effort, like the ripples on the lake, the star as the symbol of P.E.O. will widen and extend until they She helped sew clothes for her shall touch that shore whose students whose parents could not P.E.O. Chapter AG “The Prattle”