New Trier Girls Club is celebrating 100 years of service to the school and the community. The club is one of New Trier’s oldest and largest clubs, with 44 members at the Winnetka campus and 66 members at the Northfield campus.

The club members, led by senior Alice Beberdick, along with Head Sponsor and Special Education Teacher Melissa Gonzales, have been working to commemorate this milestone.

Gonzales has been a sponsor for Girls Club the last 16 years.

The club is celebrating its centennial by hosting an open house on Apr. 14 and all Girls Club alumnae are invited to the Winnetka campus.

“Our students are extremely excited to meet Girls Club alumnae from the past 100 years and are looking forward to sharing what their experience in the club is like today,” said Gonzales in an email addressed to staff.

At the open house, guests can view Memorabilia from the past century, watch a slideshow of Girls Club pictures ranging back to the 1920s, and current members will also give tours of the school.

“Every current member of Girls Club will have matching shirts so we can be identified by everyone who attends the event. I’m looking forward to meeting all the different generations of Girls Club alumni and celebrating the great accomplishment of being the oldest club at New Trier,” said Beberdick.

Beberdick along with her fellow officers, seniors Lily Nicolaides, Julia Goldish, and Halle Nelson are looking forward to welcoming past members and showcasing the fruits of their hard work.

“I hope that they are impressed with the work we have done and who we are. I hope they are satisfied and feel as if we have carried on a wonderful legacy they left,” said Goldish.

The Girls Club was formed in 1919 as a leadership organization with a goal to engage girls in fundraising for the New Trier Scholarship Fund.

“Our goal is to fundraise for New Trier scholarships for senior girls in financial need. The focus has always been scholarships,” said Gonzales.

Girls Club holds small fundraising events throughout the year to raise money to replenish the scholarship fund. One of the bigger fundraisers is selling concessions at all home football and soccer games during the year.

The fundraising success of the club will be one of the showcases of the Open House.

“We hope that they come back, reconnect with old friends, and still see the value in raising money for girls scholarships. We also hope they will be excited to help current students,” said Nicolaides.

In addition to raising money for the scholarships, the club has completed service projects for various organizations in the community.

Along with Tri-Ship, a boys counterpart to the club, they organize an annual canned food drive for the Chicago Food Depository. According to Girls Club, New Trier is one of the top contributors to the depository every year.

This year’s food drive, held last November, collected over 20,000 pounds of food.

The collections provided over 50,000 meals during the holidays for those in need around the Chicagoland area.

During its 100 years, Girls Club has also raised money to benefit the school. In 2016, Girls Club, along with Tri-Ship, donated $100,000 to build a rooftop garden on the new building at the Winnetka campus.

Despite any changes to the club over the last 100 years, the scholarship mission has not waivered.

“Besides building a community, we hope they’re proud of the mission [of Girls’ Club], and [gain] a better sense of serving the greater community,” Gonzales said.