Questers bring festive trimmings to library

Saturday, November 22, 2008

A local non-profit organization is actively helping to promote the holiday season in the community.

The Fort Scott chapter of the Questers, which was founded two years ago, plans to adorn the Fort Scott Public Library with Christmas wreaths and other holiday decorations on Saturday -- a project the group has participated in each year since its inception in an effort to help spruce up Fort Scott for the holidays, according to Becky Halsey, the president of the Fort Scott chapter.

"We pick one project each year, and we voted to decorate the library," she said. "We're just doing this one project for now."

Questers is an international organization founded more than 60 years ago whose members focus on learning about antiques and work to promote the preservation and restoration of memorials, artifacts, historical buildings and landmarks. The organization's motto is "It's Fun to Search, and a Joy to Find."

The Fort Scott chapter has grown from 10 members last year to between 12-15 members this year, Halsey said.

"We've gotten a few more members than we had last year, and we're hoping to continue to grow," she said.

Employees of the Fort Scott Public Library are pleased with the group's efforts to decorate the library each year during the holiday season.

"Oh, we're loving it," librarian Hope Gainer said. "It goes right along with all the downtown decorations."

Gainer said library patrons also appreciate the decorations, which include wreaths placed on entrances to the library, and other holiday-themed decorations in the library's hallways.

Club members meet once a month in a member's home between September and May. Members frequently give talks on antiques or collectibles during those meetings. The group is in the process of planning fundraisers and other projects to raise awareness of the club, and to also help out in some fashion in the community. Money generated from fundraisers the group plans goes toward future projects, while dues paid by members -- club members pay $35 per year -- goes directly to the international Questers organization, Halsey said.

Halsey said the local chapter is continuously looking to recruit new members, who don't necessarily have to possess a knowledge of antiques or historic preservation.

"You can be a beginner and not know anything or know a lot," she said. "We all just come in and share our knowledge. We're here to learn and we're here to teach. I didn't know anything about antiques at first, I'm just trying to learn."

Local resident Jan Boge, the founder and former president of the Fort Scott chapter, said the main purpose of the organization is to "learn about antiques" and "continue to promote research about antiques that people are interested in." Boge, who is from Iowa, took the lead in starting up the local Questers chapter, called Old Fort Scott No. 1455, in 2006. She passed the duties of the club's president on to Halsey this year.

Due to the fact that the local chapter is small, the chapter is limited in the amount of funds available to spend on local projects, but this disadvantage has not kept chapter members from doing what they can to help out in the community, Halsey said.

"Because we're a small group, we don't have a lot of funds to donate, but we're doing as much as we can," she said. "And we're always open to ideas."

One of those ideas is the decoration of the 106-year-old Fort Scott Public Library for the holiday season, which some of the local chapter's members will brave the cold weather to complete on Saturday. Club members also plan to participate in other needed community tasks as they continue to search for historical preservation and restoration projects they can be involved in, Boge said.

The group is looking for small projects first due to limited funds, she said.

There are typically between eight and 30 members in each chapter who collect antiques, collectibles and other pieces of history.

Members learn about antiques and historical items through books, libraries and friends. The Questers organization was founded in 1944, and now includes more than 15,000 members in more than 900 chapters in the United States and Canada.

For more information about the Questers, call Halsey at (620) 223-5781, or visit the organization's Web site at www.questers1944.org.

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