HISTORY OF Alpha Kappa Chapter 34

Founded on January 15, 1944, in Carbondale, Illinois, Alpha Kappa Chapter is now 81 years old. The years from 2015-2025 have found the chapter striving for continued achievement of the

organization’s mission and purposes along with the chapter’s goals. The chapter has continued to meet eight times each year. With members living in, at times, 6 counties, meetings have been varied in location and have taken place on either the first Thursday evening of the month or on the first Saturday of the month. The pandemic resulted in the chapter officers receiving lessons from ILSO leaders on how to use Zoom for meetings. Those valuable lessons have resulted in the chapter continuing to offer hybrid meetings as an option for attendance.

The chapter has had members benefit from the society’s scholarship programs to aid them in working toward advanced degrees. We have also had high school and university level students apply for and receive Florence A. Cook Recruitment Grants and Grant in Aid. Our proximity to Southern Illinois University and their strong fine arts programs, has made it possible for us to encourage university level students to apply for the M. Josephine O’Neil Arts Award.

The chapter has supported the Marion Medical Mission annually and has had the honor of hearing directly from one of the founders of the mission. We have supported a local women’s shelter by donating children’s books for distribution to residents as Christmas gifts. We have also collected school supplies and distributed them to elementary school in the counties represented by our membership. 

The chapter has pampered active teachers with Christmas gift baskets to remind them how much they are appreciated. We have cautiously distributed funds from a bequest the chapter received almost 20 years ago from a founding member. Organizations promoting literacy and fine arts have been on the receiving end of the funds.

As with all chapters, our members are our strongest asset. We have members who have served and continue to serve on ILSO committees. We have lost members to resignations, relocations, and death, but we are pleased to currently have two collegiate members. We are learning from each other as we also have a member who has received a pin for 75 years of membership! We have stayed in touch with Reserve members by sending cards and making phone calls to ensure them we are thinking of them even though attending meetings is no longer feasible for them. We have recognized birthdays and achievements at each meeting. An informational brochure outlining Delta Kappa Gamma was developed and individuals from our Membership Committee distributed them at a multi-county teachers’ institute in an effort to inform active teachers of the organization’s mission and to encourage membership. We have also continued our tradition of having a joint meeting each year with Beta Delta Chapter.

Alpha Kappa members are proud to have continued for another ten years the vision of the twelve courageous female educators who established the chapter in 1944.