BY BILL BRADLEY  
Everybody likes to have fun.
That's why 140 ladies from 17 groups in Greater Sudbury and as far away as Blind River donned red hats and purple dresses to take part in a Christmas fun fest and dinner at the Parkside Older Adult Centre last Friday.
"We are not here to raise money for charity. Many of us volunteer untold hours for that worthy past time. We believe we have earned the right to come here and do nothing-be entertained ourselves for a change. We are here to have fun, meet other people," said Maggie Boxwell, Queen of the Red Hat Hotties, from Wahnapitae, one of the 17 groups represented.
Boxwell said members were fifty plus in age and mostly retired.
"We have members from Levack, Hanmer, Azilda, Chelmsford, Lively, Capreol, St Charles to the east, lots from Espanola and Elliot Lake, Manitoulin Island all out for a night of entertainment and fun. Barb Jordan, our organizer, has helped pull all these ladies together for this special night," said Boxwell.
The Red Hats originated in the United States in California ten years ago and spread from there all through the world including Canada, said Boxwell.
Local chapters include: Red Hot Grammas, Sassy Scarlet Sisters, Class Act French Hats, Purple Nicklettes, Flaming Fedoras, Friendship Blossoms, Les Plumes Rouges, Minnow Lake Red Hatters, Nickel City Reds, Red Gals in the Sunset, Red Hat Hotties, Splendid Scarlet Ladies, Sudbury Rocking Rubies, Sudbury Sizzlers, Sudbury Strawberry Swirls, and Sudbury Strawberry Jams.
The Red Hat Society began as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humour and elan,  says the official website of the society.
"Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by a common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm wherever life takes us next," states the founder Sue Ellen Cooper on the website.
While visiting a friend in Tucson, Arizona she impulsively bought a red fedora hat at a thrift shop for no other reason that it was cheap, and she thought quite dashing. She then read a poem which depicted an older woman in purple clothing with a red hat. She then gave the red hat and a copy of the poem to a friend who then passed the same gift to another friend until it one day they decided to organize a tea for themselves around the notion of becoming a Red Hat Society.
The rest is history. It worked as a movement because of its simplicity, said Boxwell.
"Our only reason we exist is to have fun because we think we deserve it after all our years of service to our families and to our communities," she said.
For more information, including local Greater Sudbury chapters, visit www.redhatsociety.com .
