BLOOMINGTON — The Illinois Woman's Christian Temperance Union and its local branch, the Normal WCTU, are celebrating a big anniversary this weekend, having continuously served the state and community for 150 years. To mark this milestone, the Normal WCTU will host a celebration at 10 a.m.
Saturday at The Salvation Army Chapel, 701 W. Washington St., Bloomington.
A lunch will follow at Pizza Ranch, 1211 Holiday Drive, Bloomington. WCTU is a nonprofit organization that advocates for abstaining from drugs and alcohol. Normal WCTU President and National WCTU Education Director Loreta Jent said while the word "temperance" is not often used today, it was defined by Aristotle as the moderation of things that are good, and as total abstinence from things that are "harmful or foul.
" This is what the organization still believes today, Jent said. From left to righ are Merry Lee Powell, National WCTU president; Margaret Ostenstad of Norway, World WCTU president; Loreta Jent, Normal WCTU president; and Larry Jent, honorary WCTU member. The first union in McLean County was the Bloomington WCTU, and it hosted the first-ever Illinois WCTU Convention on Oct.
28, 1874, at the Bloomington Methodist Episcopal Church, which at the time was at the southwest corner of East and Washington streets. Frances E. Willard of Chicago was the recording secretary for that first convention in Bloomington, and she later became the second national WCTU president.
She worked as an educator, a women's suffragis.