Red hats and purple outfits are proudly worn by a new group of women in the Douglassville area. The international Red Hat Society has recently formed a new chapter in Douglassville – at Keystone Villa, 1152 Benjamin Franklin Highway.
Stephanie Ludwig a Keystone Villa employee initiated the paperwork at the beginning of 2015 that registered the Keystone Villa Cougars as a new Red Hat Society chapter. All chapters are registered with the Red Hat Society, located in 32 countries worldwide. The Keystone Villa Chapter was formed with the help of sister chapter, the Plymouth Purple Princesses from Plymouth Meeting.
Chapter members are all residents of the Villa’s Memory Care Program and are all over the age of 50 – one of the requirements for society membership. Red-Hatters have the privilege of wearing purple outfits with their red hats. Younger members – often daughters and granddaughters – are “princesses,” and may wear lavender outfits and pink hats.
The Red Hat Society began in 1998 by Sue Ellen Cooper, now Queen Mother, when she impulsively bought – and then gave – a bright red fedora to a friend as a birthday present. Cooper, who had thought the hat was “quite dashing,” read a poem one or two years later about an older woman who wore a purple outfit with a red hat. The poem was called, “Warning,” and Cooper felt an “immediate kinship” with the author, Jenny Joseph. “I will be bold, I will wear purple and red, which doesn’t go together,” said Cooper’s which echoes thoughts about mature and independent women aged 50 and older. Cooper gave a copy of the poem and another red hat to another friend for her birthday. That friend did the same for a mutual friend, and soon the friends realized that they were creating a sort of “Red Hat Society.” It’s that kinship that unites Red Hat Society women around the world.
The Keystone Villa Cougars met for the first time in June, when each “red hatter” designed their own red hat. July’s meting was a beach party theme with sensory activities, including kinetic sand, vintage and retro pictures, a little volleyball, and beach-themed foods.
Whimsy in the form of Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party was the theme for August. Costumed characters from other chapters attended the meeting including Christine Lozinak, from the Plymouth Purple Princesses, Plymouth Meeting portrayed the Queen of Hearts. Queen Dottie Potone, Kathy Lewandowski, and Madeline Frisco were present from Aspiring Hatitudes, Douglassville. Other participants were Sue Bailey Bordeaux Chapeaux, of Feasterville and Kathy Notarfrancesco, of the Queen’s Council of the Delaware Valley; as well as Kaleith Tomichek and Debbie McGee, both of Royersford and members of the Plymouth Purple Princesses.
September’s meeting theme was pirates, October will be a costume or fashion show, and Thanksgiving and Christmas themes will round out the year.
Keystone Villa at Douglassville is a distinctive retirement community located on Route 422 in Douglassville. For more information, call 610-385-5002 or visit <www.KeystoneVilla.com>.
