ISLAND GIRLS BEGINNING

In late 1999, I attended several Southside Girls meetings at what was called "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 the above photo; 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 sixth 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 December 2006, we have over 890 online members and we have had over 145,000 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 thru 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!"

-- Donna Greer