ISLAND GIRLS BEGINNING
In late 1999 , I attended several
Southside Girls meetings at what was called The Players, a bar in Blue Island. We had an average of about 10 to 12 ladies
at each meeting. If I can remember, some of the girls present were Carol, Lorraine, Melody, Tina, Crystal, Jenna, Janet, Danielle, and myself. In
early 2000, the bar had a fire and was sold. No one knew how the new
owners would react to the ladies. The group as it was known,
Southside Girls, had died.
I talked to a
couple of the former members about starting again, but it wasn't until I
met Bobbie Stone at a Chicago Gender Society (CGS) business meeting, we
clicked and things started to roll.
At our first meeting of the new group, held
in February, 2000, we had six ladies in attendance (shown in photo at
left; they are [clockwise, from upper left]: Bobbie, Susan, Donna (me),
Beth, Jenn, and Crystal). We had no name, no agenda -- well ,
some things never change!-- and no funds. We did, however, have a
core of hard-working ladies with a dream. We decided to rename the
group and "The Island Girls" were born. At the second meeting,
Linda Scott joined and designed the logo. The founding ladies decided
on a regular night (first Wednesday) and meeting time (9 p.m.). at The Edge
in Blue Island. Those few ladies spread the word of the new group on the
Southside, with a place to hang their jeans or dresses and kick up their
heels. Since that time, we have had a meeting every month with an
average of 40 ladies and admirers. At our fourth anniversary party,
we had an all-time high of 110 ladies.
In April 2001, we decided to go
online, with fresh ideas, and the logo, and with the goal to help all who
came to us. We had no experience, no money, and no membership.
Toni designed the original web site, we use Linda's logo design, Bobbie
funded that web site and registered us, and I just kind of watched it grow.
We had some growing pains and some disagreements- thanks, Crystal- but we
were able to overcome them. As of February 2006, we have over 850
online members and we have had over 115,000 hits on the web site. As of
summer 2003, we also added an additional Yahoo! group just for photos.
In early 2002, we started a
monthly social night at John L’s in Calumet City -- thank you, John
-- we averaged about 15 ladies, lots of food, drink, and just plain fun.
In summer 2003, we moved the
social to Dick's RU Crazee, also in Calumet City, with more parking and the most romantic
patio.
In the fall of 2005, we moved our
social night to the Edge in Blue Island.
We have had a
booth at Be-All 2002 and 2006, trips to South Bend, Champaign, Milwaukee (twice), and recently to Fall Harvest in Omaha. We have members from all over the US
and foreign countries.
No matter how long there have
been Island Girls, wherever they live, whatever stage in life they are at,
accomplished in their appearance, or just starting out, they all have some
things in common: a desire to live out their own lives, as male or as
female, help each other, and all have hearts as big as the world we live
in.
When I started this article , I
said it was a beginning for the Island Girls. Now, every time we meet
someone new, in person or on the web site, a person asking for help or just
information, we are born all over again.
As they say, "Baby, we've
come a long way!"
