2025 was a Celebratory Year!
President Trump in the White House,
Republican Majority in the U.S. Senate,
Majority was maintained in the U.S. House, and a
Super Majority in the Tennessee General Assembly
AND
RW of Purpose was celebrating 20 years as a Federated club!
We enjoyed learning from our state legislators: Senators Paul Rose and Brent Taylor and Representatives Mark White and Kevin Vaughan at our January Meeting and then participated in Republican Party of Shelby County Re-organization Convention Revive 25 and celebrated Victory with outstanding Officers elected.
Our education continued in February with a state-wide human trafficking presentation by Secretary of State Tre Hargett; we joined Tennessee Businesses Against Trafficking; attended training on identifying trafficking; and adopted new Caring for America project Thistle &Bee, which helps trafficking survivors.
We hosted award-winning radio commentator Ben Deeter in March.
Collected Rummage Sale items, baby items and monetary donations for VA Baby Shower and Fisher House.
Veterans Affairs Volunteer Services Chair Priscilla Tucker and Alliance Foundation Fundraising Executive Mark Billingsley were our April speakers.
26 RWOP attendees participated in Ladies Day on the Hill.
Our 20th Annual Rummage Sale was held with much success.
We answered the RPSC Call to Action by contacting the Shelby County Health Department in support Elon Musk, XAI and to counteract Justin Pearson’s protest.
In May, we hosted Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden and submitted a Mental Health Awareness Resolution in support of May- Mental Health Month.
We attended the investiture of Judge Valerie Smith as Judge of the Tennessee Court of Appeals by Governor Bill Lee.
We completed our annual VA Baby Shower Basket Project by delivering to the Memphis VA Medical Center the much-needed baby items for their new mothers.
We continued collecting items from the Fisher House wish-list and presented them with our purchases and our monetary donations on May 29.
We completed all Achievement Awards form entries and submitted them to NFRW and TNFRW in hopes of receiving thanks and recognition for our Club’s community and political involvement over the 2-year Federation term.
Our June Barbecue “Meet the Municipal Mayors” was an evening of learning, friendship and food with a surprise appearance by President Trump and Melania (Terri Boatwright and Dorrie Simms).
Barbara Capozella was re-elected Area 9 Vice President at the June 22 Area 9 Convention.
We attended the 6th Annual Kustoff Family Cookout July 20.
In August, we answered an RPSC Action Alert to request our Shelby County Commissioners to realign MSC School Board elections with the County’s General Election cycle in hopes of larger voter turnout.
Two great speakers highlighted our meeting: General Sessions Court Judge Deborah Henderson and state Representative Debra Moody, District 81.
We finalized plans for our Constitution Essay Contest with gratitude to Chair Mary McDonald and Representative Mark White who enabled us to distribute nearly 2000 pocket Constitution booklets to area eighth grade students to use in teaching about the Constitution.
With the important election coming up next year, we distributed a reminder of the bylaws endorsement policy and social media policy of the Federation.
We distributed the Differences between Democrats and Republicans.
We began making plans for the TNFRW Biennial Convention in Chattanooga by purchasing a Program Ad and encouraging attendance.
Our annual New Member Brunch was delightful and delicious at the home of Julie Ethridge.
September, National Literacy Month, brought Dr. Lee-Ann Kight from University Schools of Memphis and Lathan Watts with Alliance Defending Freedom as our speakers. State Representative Mark White presented the University Schools with blue books and flags that have been flown over the State Capitol. Dictionaries were sent to over 100 3rd graders in the University Schools of Memphis as part of our annual Dictionary Project.
We distributed the story of the NFRW Seal that features the American Eagle holding a quill pen standing guard over our most treasured tool of democracy, the ballot box.
We elected delegates to the TNFRW Biennial Convention.
The 2026 slate of officers was announced by the Nominating Committee with elections to be held in October.
We were honored to host Congressman David Kustoff as our featured speaker in October. The Constitution Essay Contest winners read their winning essays and were awarded certificates and a monetary donation from Republican Women of Purpose for their achievement.
We elected the 2026 Club Officers and we elected the 2026 Nominating Committee.
We announced the awards that Republican Women of Purpose received at the NFRW Biennial Convention in Florida where we received the Diamond Award and the Armed Services Award for the best project in the nation by a Mega Club for our work of providing much needed items and funds for the Memphis Fisher House and for the VA Medical Center through our annual Women’s Veterans Baby Shower Project.
We had 14 delegates to the TNFRW Biennial Convention in Chattanooga and we were awarded 10 certificates of achievement for our hard work over these 2 years of the Federation cycle.
Our November meeting was a “Salute to our Veterans”, featuring state Representative Ron Gant, District 94.
We made plans to participate in Wreaths Across America on December 13 at West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery.
We held an Opportunity Drawing with the proceeds going to the Mid-South Food Bank which was presented to them on November 10.
The Board Meeting ended with a Leadership Training, one on one meeting, of current office holders with their newly elected/appointed office holders.
December’s program included discussion with Judge Chris Frulla, Judge Ray Lepone, and Judge Rhea Clift acting as moderator.
Judge Clift installed the 2026 officers.
The opportunity drawing proceeds went to the Collierville Food Pantry.
Thistle & Bee representatives attended and sold their products to benefit their trafficking survivors’ program.
Wreaths Across America, on December 13 at 11 o’clock, at the West Tennessee Veteran Cemetery was well attended with our members placing 30 wreaths on the graves of our fallen veterans.
We participated in a request to support xAI at the Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board Hearing at the University of Memphis. Our goal was to let the Board know that xAI had support in the community. Success was the Hearing outcome of 6-1 in favor of xAI.
We ended a very active celebratory year with gratitude to our Speakers, Board of Directors and to all our many members for their hard work and a record membership of 233 members.
Barbara Trautman, 2025 President, Republican Women of Purpose