The late Gail Swart, who died in January, was one of the founding members of the Circle 100 Club. She is shown at the last in-person annual meeting in 2019. The club will meet in-person for the first time since the start of the pandemic on Thursday, April 7.

ENTERPRISE — After a two-year hiatus on in-person gatherings, the Circle 100 Club — a giving circle of local women sponsored by the Wallowa Valley Health Care Foundation — will hold its one and only annual meeting in person Thursday, April 7.

The meeting will be held in the front reception room of the Enterprise Christian Church from 4:30-6 p.m., rather than Wallowa Memorial Hospital, which is still under the governor’s mask mandate for hospitals and health care clinics.

“We’re very excited to hold our first Circle 100 Club meeting in two years,” foundation Director Stacy Green said. “We appreciate all the women who supported us through the pandemic, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone again.”

At the meeting, Circle 100 members will hear about this year’s project request from the hospital. Past projects have included obtaining new equipment for the physical therapy department, an incubator for struggling newborns and the ability to perform stress echocardiograms, to name a few.

The club has doubled in size and donated $187,100 since its inception to help improve and expand health care services in Wallowa County.

“When I joined Circle 100 a few years ago, I was amazed at how much the group was able to raise, just by each member donating $100,” said retired teacher Marla Dotson, who joined the foundation board in 2020. “It’s really incredible how popular the group has become.”

Circle 100 was founded in 2011 by the female members of the foundation board at that time: Gail Swart, Glenda Underhill, Saralyn Johnson, Denise Dawson, Nancy Waters and Karen Coppin. The idea was formed to get more women involved in the work of the Foundation, and as a way to bring women together to raise money for a specific project. By giving $100 each, each woman could make an equal contribution and, joined together, make a significant impact to local health care.

Today, the women of the board are: Diana Collins, Jolene Cox, Marla Dotson, Rebecca Knapp and newest board member, Suzi Brown.

In 2015, the men of the foundation board decided to form their own group, Men’s Guild 100, at the urging of foundation founder Don Swart, Sr. Today, the men of the board are President David Smyth, John Hillock, Eric Johnson, Terry Jones and Vearl Lewis. The Men’s Guild will meet Tuesday, April 26, at 5:30 p.m. at M Crow & Co. in Lostine.

For more information about Circle 100 Club and Men’s Guild, contact the foundation at 541-426-1913.