Red Hat Splash in Greater Sudbury

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
 
Jen Gaydos doesn't get embarrassed when she goes out in public in a garish red hat and bright purple dress. The Levack woman says her idiosyncratic apparel gives her self-confidence.
 
"Actually, I feel dressed up when I wear it. It does something inside. I couldn't believe it the first time I put the red hat and purple dress on," says Gaydos, a member of the Sudbury Rocking Rubies branch of the Red Hat Society.
 
"I was in the bank, and my daughter's father-in-law came in, and he didn't recognize me. I said 'Hi, Ed.' He said, 'Oh, do you ever look smart.' I said, 'I think so too.'"
 
About 200 women belonging to Red Hat Society branches across Ontario are gathering at the Radisson Hotel this weekend for the Sudbury Red Hat Splash. Greater Sudbury Mayor Dave Courtemanche will attend the opening ceremonies Sept. 8.
 
The ladies will watch The Devil Wears Prada at Rainbow Cinemas, attend a banquet and watch slag being dumped.
 
The Red Hat Society, a social club for women over 50, was started in 1998 by a California woman called Sue Ellen Cooper, who bought a red hat when visiting a friend in Tucson, Arizona.
 
A year or two later, she read a famous poem by Jenny Joseph which features the lines "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter."
 
She decided to give her good friend a red hat and a copy of the poem.
 
The friend got so much enjoyment out of the hat that she gave the same gift to another friend, then another, then another. One day, it occurred to the friends that they were becoming a sort of Red Hat Society, and they should dress up in red hats and purple dresses and go to tea.
 
Their group eventually swelled to 18, and they encouraged other interested women to start their own chapters. There are now about 349,000 chapters in the world.
 
In the Greater Sudbury area, there are approximately 20 chapters of the society, with four to 50 members in each group.
 
Gaydos, who organized the convention, says society members go to dinner and plays together, host teas and luncheons, and generally have a good time. The club does not raise money for charity.
 
Dorothy Wilson the "Queen Mother" of the Sudbury Rocking Rubies because she founded the chapter.
 
"My girlfriend on Manitoulin was involved, and I was interested. I started my own group three years ago because there were no openings in the chapters in Sudbury. I have 25 members, and I knew none of them before I started the chapter. They were all new friends," she says.
 
"I've been getting out more in the community. I'm involved in more activities than I normally would have been. I think it's been good for my spirit."
 
Evelyn Anstice, a member of the Sunshine Girls branch of the Red Hat Society in Sault Ste. Marie, considers herself the "troublemaker" of the group. She becomes excited when she hears our "handsome" mayor will be at the convention's opening ceremonies.
 
Anstice is looking forward to next September, when Sault Ste. Marie will host a Red Hat Society Convention at the Holiday Inn.
 
"We do crazy things. The poem will tell you the story," she says. "I don't get embarrassed wearing red hats and purple dresses. Heavens, no. We get lots of attention."
 
For more information about joining the Red Hat Society, go to www.redhatsociety.com.