NEWS RELEASE

Red Hat Ladies to Gather at Chris Jensen Nursing Home Today

The Red Hat Society at Chris Jensen Health and Rehabilitation Center will meet at the Inner Courtyard of the nursing home, today, Thursday, June 24 at 11:30 AM. The 18 Red Hat Society members from the Spruce Unit will have a picnic lunch and enjoy music. Volunteers will assist the ladies, whose group is registered with the National Red Hat Society.

The Chris Jensen Spruce Unit of the Red Hat Society formed in March 2004 and have had an afternoon tea and a pizza party. The Red Hat Society is a play group for women over 50 years of age. The ladies wear red hats and purple clothes which gives them a distinctive appearance.

The Red Hat Society has its genesis from the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph, which reads, in part:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purpleWith a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer glovesAnd satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tiredAnd gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bellsAnd run my stick along the public railingsAnd make up for the sobriety of my youth.I shall go out in my slippers in the rainAnd pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .

In 1998, Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton California formed the first Red Hat Society to celebrate the wisdom and downright fun that comes with age. The women wear purple outfits and red hats and have fun! In 2004, Betty Helstrom, St. Louis County Social Worker presented the idea of starting a Red Hat club to the Spruce Unit residents and the founding members were formed.

For more information about the Red Hat Society, please see:

www.redhatsociety.com

For more information about Thursday’s event or the Chris Jensen group, please contact Betty Helstrom at 218-720-1515.

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