P.E.O. celebrates Founders’ Day
Special to Long Beach Breeze
On February 1, members of P.E.O. Chapter B-Long Beach celebrated P.E.O. Founders’ Day at a luncheon and program at the St. Martin Community Center in Jackson County, hosted by P.E.O. Chapter AA – Ocean Springs. Chapter B presented the program, sharing facts about the original seven members and what P.E.O. has accomplished since its beginning 156 years ago.
P.E.O. was founded on January 21, 1869, by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Through membership, the P.E.O. Sisterhood has brought together more than half a million women in the United States and Canada who are passionate about helping women advance through education, while supporting and motivating them.
P.E.O. is a philanthropic educational organization. True to the mission of promoting opportunities for women, education continues to be the primary philanthropy of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. Since its inception, P.E.O. has helped more than 125,000 women pursue educational goals by providing nearly $432 million in grants, scholarships, awards, and loans in addition to the stewardship of Cottey College, located in Nevada, Missouri.
Organized in 1930, Chapter B-Long Beach serves as Mississippi’s second oldest chapter and remains very active in the community.
For more information about P.E.O., visit PEOInternational.org and/or PEOMississippi.org.
