WAC Magazine

SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

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In Washington state, the war always seemed close, with sea battles fought in the same ocean that wets our shores. Americans responded to the war in massive scale. At the WAC, we watched members leave for the fight, and we supported them with our efforts at home. The WAC Victory Work Center stands as perhaps our most important contribution. Our sales of war bonds, our support of service members' families, and our hosting of important wartime speakers also mark essential contributions to the battles and the spirit of the times. In the work center, WAC women spent endless hours sewing supplies for field medics and hospital ships. They also put together scrapbooks to send to the troops overseas. Flip through the archive of Club newsletters published in the first half of the 1940s, and you'll see stories about the work center next to announcements of upcoming social events. It's an eerie dichotomy and one that helped those back home maintain regular lives despite world events. Surgical dressings were a primary output of the work center. During one nine-month period, WAC women made 34,603 surgical dressings, a number that was tracked closely and updated often. In February 1942, just two months after Pearl Harbor, the Red Cross faced a desperate shortage of its iconic armbands. WAC women responded by cutting and sewing 526 in only 36 hours. During the summer of 1942, the Club provided entertainment in Victory Square, located on University Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, just three blocks from the WAC. WAC groups, including the Masters of Balance gymnasts, performed. In one day, they raised $84,500 in war bond sales, the equivalent of $1.2 million today. Earlier that year, the Club hosted a talk by Edward R. Murrow at the now- demolished Music Hall Theatre. Proceeds were donated to the Red Cross. Murrow was also the guest of honor at a pre-dinner talk held at the WAC. During active duty overseas, WAC members' dues were waived and their families were allowed to continue using the Club without charge. WAC employees, meanwhile, signed up for 10 percent payroll deductions to purchase war bonds, buying the equivalent of a military jeep every month. The WAC also issued special guest cards to 50 Army and Navy officers each S eventy years ago this month, World War II came to an end. Its legacy lives on. Here in Seattle, hundreds gather on the shores of Green Lake every August to mark the annual observance of Hiroshima. They light lanterns and float them along the lakeshore, a simple yet powerful memorial. It's just one of the many ways our area gives reverence to a conflict that defined an age. The war at home A look back at WWII and the efforts of WAC members By Darrick Meneken W A C N E W S A R C H I V E S , J A N U A R Y 1 9 4 2 W A C N E W S A R C H I V E S , A U G U S T 1 9 4 2 W A C N E W S A R C H I V E S , J U LY 1 9 4 2 32 | Washington Athletic Club Magazine | SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015

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