Phoebe Founders
The Phoebe Allentown Health Care Center Auxillary
As happens in so many situations, the women of the community came together to organize and define a way to lend their help. This dynamic force became the Phoebe Auxiliary, sometimes called “the right arm” of the Home. Founded in 1904 by Mrs. Reuben Steckel, it drew 500 members by year’s end from the Allentown and rural congregations. Membership cost $1 to join and a single dollar each year thereafter. In the first three years, nine chapters formed, starting in Hellertown and followed in Bethlehem, Richlandtown, Perkasie, South Bethlehem, Indian Creek, Souderton, Emmaus, and Trumbauersville.
The innovative leadership established annual events to raise funds, recruit new members, and attract the public’s attention. For example Donation Day each June included an all-day program held in the orchard at the Home. Those attending could buy dinner for 25 cents, purchase handmade crafts, listen to music and speeches, and join discussions. In exchange for the entertainment, they brought household gifts and supplies. It was the same for Anniversary Day at Thanksgiving time. This celebration marked the formal opening of the Home and the Auxiliary’s founding, and because it fell at the end of the growing season, rural congregations brought their crops and fruits. These items were canned, stored in the basement, and then used in meals during the winter.
One hundred years later, most of these activities remain major social events and fund-raisers, which shows the importance of faith—and tenacity. In fact its first officers, Mrs. Steckel, Anna M. Grim, Addie S. Weaver, and Nettie Ziegler, had such certainty in its success that in 1907 the auxiliary promised to be responsible for the construction costs of a new dormitory.
