The NDWC 50th Anniversary celebration committee members. Photo by Steve Hibbard.
About 125 people helped celebrate the New Dominion Women’s Club’s 50th Anniversary at a party held at The Pavilions of Turkey Run at Claude Moore Colonial Farm on Friday, May 4. With pink flowers hanging from the ceiling, and the deejay, Bristol Sounds, playing a selection of tunes from 1968 to the present, the festive evening was organized by co-chairs Jennifer Salopek and Kim Marinus. State Sen. Barbara Favola and Del. Kathleen Murphy mingled with some of McLean’s finest. The food buffet was catered by J.R.’s Stockyards Inn and included carved beef tenderloin, grilled shrimp and chicken with an open bar from Total Wine & More. Sweetbites Café and Bakery provided the desserts.
“The celebration is a culmination of many months of planning and coordination and hard work on the part of our co-chairs, Jennifer Salopek and Kim Marinus. We’re very excited to be doing this this evening. We’re expecting a great turnout and we’re ever so grateful for the weather cooperation,” said NDWC President Desi Woltman.
“We have been planning the 50th Anniversary celebration for about a year and a half now and have used this as an opportunity to reach back and connect with former members and supporters, bring them back into the club, which has been an extremely successful effort,” said co-chair Salopek. “Really, what excites me most is the number of former members who are joining us this evening. It’s probably close to 50 percent of the attendance; former members coming back to reconnect and see each other and I’m happy that we can provide a venue for them to do that.”
According to Favola: “I know that you’re celebrating 50 years and the greater McLean community appreciates very much what you have done. You have been an integral part of making our community livable, making our community more passionate and really helping us build community so everyone feels welcomed, everyone feels part of our neighborhood, a part of the fabric that makes McLean great.”
Added co-chair Marinus: “We’re just really glad to be able to celebrate ourselves. It’s been a long run and we don’t often get to pat ourselves on the back. It’s nice to be able to get people together and bring people from the past. We have a number of past presidents who are here tonight as well.”
According to Jeff Anderson, a Board member of Claude Moore Colonial Farm, which donated use of its pavilion rental: “What I really like is for organizations like this to be able to take advantage of the facilities we have here. It’s a fantastic place to hold a huge event inside the Beltway in the heart of McLean, fully catered, covered with great facilities. We think it’s a fantastic asset to the region.”