Celebrating 100 years in 2027
The Williamson Community Chest has been serving Williamstown and the surrounding community since 1927. We hope you will join us in our 100th Anniversary celebrations.
Our special 100th Annual Meeting will be held on our founding date – March 10, 2027. We hope you will come and share birthday cake!
The Community Chest will host a very special 100th Anniversary Celebration on September 25, 2027 at the Clark Art Institute. This will be our “once-in-a-hundred year” event to celebrate a centennial of accomplishment and enjoy our neighbors and friends.
Stay tuned for details of these events as they evolve! We look forward to seeing you at all of our 100th Anniversary activities including the Fun Run in September and the Penny Social during the 2027 Holiday Walk.
In this milestone year, we celebrate the people who make this work possible: the tireless professionals at our partner agencies, and the dedicated board members, staff, volunteers, and donors who ensure no neighbor has to stand alone.
A Bit of History
The Williamstown Community Chest was formally founded on March 10, 1927 as the Williamstown Welfare Association. Its roots date back to 1887 and a local private subscription group called the Good Will Club which consisted of “women of all denominations”[1] who worked to assist neighbors in need and encouraged “helpfulness and good will.”[2] In 1923 the group changed its name to the Williamstown Welfare Association and, in 1927, was incorporated as a Commonwealth of Massachusetts nonprofit organization. Its purposes were described as follows:
“To unite in to one body all the activities working for the welfare of the town, in so far as shall be possible: to raise and disburse the funds necessary to carry out on this work and to provide funds for Williamstown’s share in similar work in the county, state, and nation.”[3]
Signatories included Brainard Mears (South Street), Eli Herbert Botsford (North Street), Grace Perry (Grace Court), Elizabeth Crocker Clarke (South Street), Margaret C. Smith (Hoxey Street) Edith H. Cooke (Southworth Street), Vanderpoel Adriance (South Street), William F. Cameron (Park Street), Anna E. Eaton (Southworth Street), and Frederick C. Moore (Main Street).
In 1946, the name was changed to the Williamstown Community Chest which remained an all-volunteer organization until it hired its first official employee in 1994. Current executive director, Anne Singleton, became executive director in 1995, now having served over 30 years.
[1] R. R. R. Brooks et al., Williamstown: The First 250 Years, 1753–2003 (250th Anniversary Edition; Williamstown, MA: Williamstown House of Local History and the 250th Anniversary Committee, 2005), 417–418.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Certificate of Organization, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Corporations and Taxation, March 10, 1927, 1.
