82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 12,1985 Farm Women president e long-time member New IS BY JOYCE BUPP Staff Correspondent GLEN ROCK - “They really enjoyed it. It was time out for themselves.” That’s how Naomi Bupp describes a group to which some of her Jacobps friends and neighbors belonged, other young mothers and homemakers like herself. But the group had a limited membership and already other names were ahead of hers on the waiting list. Before too long, though, she and her husband, Charles, moved from the small town to a 6ft-acre farm near Potosi, away from the group’s immediate membership area. So when dairy farm neighbor Mary Carman called several rural neighbor women together in Oc tober 1950, Naomi was eager to take part. At the second informal meeting, she and the other young farm wives attending became charter members of Group #ll, York County Society of Farm Women. “It was a chance for a few hours away from milking, garden work, canning. It was a few hours for me,” she says, remembering the the first step in the slipcovering part of Naomi Bupp's Sewing For The Home business. When she’s not traveling for the Farm Women, Naomi can most often be found operating the machines of her freelance sewing business. Assistant Jane Klinefelter helps with seamihg and cording for the home interiors designs. enjoyment of becoming part of Group #ll. This week, nearly 35 years later, Naomi will be installed as president of Pennsylvania Society of Farm Women. Her title becomes official during the Society’s annual business meeting, set for Tuesday morning at the Farm Show office complex. “At first I got more out of the organization than I could ever give back. But it gave me a chance to leam to be a public speaker,” she says, crediting those early years as a Farm Women member. “Our group never excused anyone from doing something on the reasoning that ‘I can’t do that’,” she explains. “Everyone can do something and the com mittee system always makes it so that there is someone to help, not just one person to do the job. And there are not leaders and followers in farm women. Everyone is in volved.” Because members had to take charge in turn of the meetings, they learned to contact speakers and program representatives, to set up programs and to organize. York County Society of Farm Women president Arlene Miller, right, also a member of Group #ll, presented a crystal dish from the local group to Naomi at an open house for her newly-remodeled home. Many of the members of Group #ll had small children, and this society soon earned a reputation as one that incorporated fun into their meetings. One particular meeting that Naomi remembers was held at their farm, and guests were members of the Dallastown Group #9. Program for the afternoon was a circus in the backyard, complete with sawdust ring, and performing animals, including such pets as dogs, cats and baby pigk. Other children-oriented events saw hayrides, bam hobo parties, scavenger hunts, summer picnics and Christmas parties on the schedule, while more serious meetings often took the form of educational sessions with ex tension personnel on cooking and sewing. “Now, things have changed a bit,” says the incoming state president of her local group. “Many of our members have celebrated 50 years of marriage. We don’t take hayrides any longer. Our fund-raisers were once sand wich and bake sales, but now they Wtnes(ead c K/cies focus more on monthly ideas, like small penalties of paying by inches in your waistline or your shoe size. We’re more content to sit and do less physical things. ’ ’ In the early 1960’5, Naomi ac cepted a position as head cook for a local elementary school. The hours of that job allowed her to remain active in Farm Women, while working basically the same hours that her four children were in school. There was another small plus. In the years when school had to close for the inevitable Farm Show snowy weather, Naomi would seize the snow-day vacation as a chance to attend the state Farm Women’s conventions in Harrisburg. Ten years later, the couple’s two youngest were in college, and Naomi again sought changes in her work schedule that would allow flexibility to meet their college travel needs, while still freeing her for her much-loved Farm Women activities. “I have always enjoyed sewing,” she relates. “So I answered an ad for a draperymaker.” The job was with the Penney’s stores, and the sewing instead was mostly of slipcovers. Not initially thrilled with the prospect of that intricate and difficult work, Naomi decided she would accept the challenge and learn this new job. Athough the store manager had suggested she study slipcovering techniques in Philadelphia, her own children’s college schedules prohibited any thought of her returning to such studies. In the past, she had ex perimented at slip covering some of the family’s own furniture, with results so impressive that friends had requested similar work for their homes. With that little bit of background, and plenty of determination, Naomi began ripping slipcovers apart, teaching herself the techniques as she constructed new ones, using the old as patterns, and copying the methods of construction. , j A year later, Penney’s moved their interiors business to another county, and Naomi accepted a similar position with Sears. This job, however, was for drapery sewing only. So, with her self-taught techniques and plenty of customers waiting for slip covering, Naomi opened her own free-lance decorative sewing business. Her “Sewing For The Home” specializes in slipcover and drapery designs, as well as bed spreads, pillows and other decorative home accessories. Along with her own business, Naomi still does some drapery work for Sears. With the flexibility of her own business schedule, she agreed in 1972 to serve as second vice president of the York County Society of Farm Women. Two years later she moved to the first vice-presidency, and in 1976 became head of the county group. During her stint as a county officer, a Farm Women’s bus trip was organized to visit one of the former state presidents. Melba Dummer had left Pennsylvania and moved to Las Cruces, NM, to open a doll museum. Many of her former friends wished to visit her, and tour the unusual business. The trip in 1975 was so successful that a repeat visit was made in 1979. Now, Mrs. Dummer is planning to sell her museum, and a third trip by the Farm Women is planned for April. Under Naomi’s leadership, York’s societies hosted a Farm Women Spring Rally at the York Fairground, with a deep-pit barbecue dinner cooked and served by the 4-H beef club. But the highlight of her county presidency was the organizing of three new Farm Women societies. Two are in York County, Group #34 of Freysville, and #35 at Seven Valleys. The third society is in Adams County, based in the East Berlin area. Retiring as county president after 1977, Naomi took a break in her Farm Women schedule for two years. Then she was approached with a request to consider a state office, and in 1979 began a three year term as second vice president', moving up for a similar period as first vice-president. When her state president term winds up in 1988, Naomi will have spent 15 years in Farm Women leadership activities as the county and state levels. One of her key goals as president is to keep the membership of over 4,000 in 17 counties expanding. An extra special thrill would be the opportunity-to help Farm Women organize in a new county. As each new president assumes office, she chooses a special area in which to focus statewide project activities. For Naomi, that focus will be on promoting Pennsylvania commodities through projects geared to foods and recipes. “We can always try to make better use of the excellent, plen (Turn to Page B 4)
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