Chapter LA, Des Moines, Iowa Adds to P.E.O.!

You Add to P.E.O. is a fun initiative within the P.E.O. Sisterhood where chapters are challenged to add two or more active members between March 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. Chapters that meet this challenge are eligible for special recognition, including being featured on the P.E.O. blog.

Chapter LA, Des Moines, Iowa, was selected for November! As of October 31, the chapter had added 5 new members since March 1. Read below to learn more about Chapter LA, Iowa.

Organization date: January 28, 1958

What does your chapter do together for fun?

• We like to have periodic socials, such as the Cookie Decorating Party we had in April or the outdoor garden party we had in June.
• We always enjoy getting together for coffee at Panera, particularly when we have a potential new member to meet and greet!
• We also feel inspired when we work together at a specific charity project that helps others, like the event we had to build "buddy backpacks" for food-challenged kids or the recent drive to bring school supplies and personal hygiene products for a school district in need. These things remind us that in these ways, we are showing loving concern for others!

What has been your most successful fundraiser?

We have an ongoing drive among our sisters (and their friends) to periodically clean out a room, a closet or any place that needs "editing.” We raise money by selling those donated goods at a reduced price. Last year we made over $1,200 on that effort!

Other fundraising activities have included making and selling prepared packages of bean soup ingredients, an annual holiday auction of homemade treats and a "Coin Harvest" calendar activity for collecting money.

Our Chapter LA sisters are most generous, though. Toward the end of each year, we send out a holiday letter asking our sisters to remember the P.E.O. projects in their gift giving. We raise quite a bit of money in those individual gifts.

What is your best tip for finding new members?

Ask, Ask, Ask! It's amazing how many women out there know a little about P.E.O. but are just waiting to learn more and be asked to join! We have brought in five new members in the past year by "just asking," and we have two more in the works!

Each time a new member is initiated, that sparks the potential for friends of the new sister to become P.E.O.s and it can have a snowballing effect!