By Sarah Hall

Editor

Picture it: Baldwinsville, 1816.

It was the summer that wasn’t. A great cloud of volcanic ash from the previous year’s eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia was blocking the sun across the Northern Hemisphere, causing a killing frost every month of the year. Crops froze in the ground. People starved by the thousands. Farm folk flocked to the cities in hopes of finding food; trapped in close quarters, they faced typhoid outbreaks and food riots instead.

In the little riverside community of Baldwinsville, meanwhile, people rallied, according to historian Sue McManus.

“Most of these people were still of a pioneer mind. They came from New England, from good Yankee stock, where you were thrifty, you saved, you didn’t throw out anything,” McManus said. “They discovered that if they pooled their pantries… and shared with the community, they could get everyone through until the next year’s crops came in.”

The small town had more than enough to go around; there was even enough stored up to feed 250 Oneida Indians in the area. Once the crops came up in 1817, things were back to normal.

But for the women who had coordinated the effort to share and distribute resources during the famine, “normal” meant something different.

“They discovered that they enjoyed being in each other’s company…. and they discovered there was more work to be done,” McManus said. “Just because that horrible food shortage was over didn’t mean that Baldwinsville didn’t have needs.”

Thus in the summer of 1817, a number of women — while tradition holds it was 31, documents from the meeting suggest it was closer to 60 — got together at the home of Betsy Farrington to form the Female Charitable Society of Baldwinsville.

The group dedicated itself to meeting the community’s needs and now, 200 years later, it continues to do so. It’s the oldest such organization in the state and one of the oldest in the country.

The FCS will celebrate its bicentennial with a celebration at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 17, at the Presbyterian Education Center, 64 Oswego St., Baldwinsville. The event will coincide with the group’s annual meeting, which is usually held on a Wednesday.

“Changing the date from our traditional Wednesday to a Saturday was a big first step,” McManus said. “But we wanted to make the event available to as many people as possible.”

The anniversary meeting will also include the announcement of a new project that McManus said will “honor our past and further our mission.”

That mission entails helping residents of the Baldwinsville Central School District, whether through donations to local organizations or through its loan closet, located at 10 River St.

The loan closet maintains about 2,400 pieces of home medical equipment for B’ville residents to use for as long as they need, free of charge; the closet is staffed by volunteers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The FCS also makes regular contributions to such local organizations as Meals on Wheels, Maureen’s Hope, the YMCA, PEACE Inc. and others.

“We reach out to help anyone that needs it,” said FCS President Bonnie Kisselstein. “People don’t go directly through us. They go through agencies.”

Kisselstein said the organization really hasn’t changed much since its inception 200 years ago.

“It’s pretty much the same as when it started,” she said. “It was formed to help people and help them quietly.”

She said it’s one of the easiest local organizations for volunteers.

“There’s no obligation,” she said. “You give your $5 dues and it goes into our coffers and that’s it. You can choose to volunteer at the loan closet, but you don’t have to.”

Though it requires very little of its members, the FCS continues to be one of the most impactful organizations in the community.

“We do quite a bit,” Kisselstein said. “It’s a very worthwhile cause, if I do say so.”

For more information, email [email protected] or find them on Facebook.