Write On!

              Companions - 7 -
every unsettling thought.
• Yes, indeed," he chuckled, " Companions, friends, adventurers. That
we will be."
I was about to slow down for a red light, when it suddenly turned
green, and I stepped on the gas. As the car shot forward I heard the dog say,
" We're off to a good start! Companions for life!"
" Companions," I thought, That has a nice ring to it."
And that's how it all started for me and my dog. •
COLLECT FOR CLUB WOMEN
For many years women's dubs in Canada, United States, Britain and other
countries have used a prayer for opening or dosing meetings. Usually called Our Creed or
Club Women's Creed it is widely known and popular on this continent. The author, Mary
Stewart, wrote the prayer in 1904 while she was prindple of Longmont High School in
Colorado and titled it " Collect for Club Women". We are indebted to a Canadian woman, the
late Mrs. Maude ( Alfred) Watt, M. B. E., for a true and correct version of the prayer. Mrs. Watt,
who carried the Women's Institute idea to Britain and later became president of Associated
Country Women of the World ( ACWW), came back to Canada in 1939 to attend and speak at
the eleventh biennial conference of Federated Women's Institutes of Canada ( FWIC) in
Edmonton where she presented " Collect For Club Women" to the assembly.
Mary Stewart had spent some time visiting Mrs. Watt at her English home. The
author expressed concern about the garbled versions being circulated. Errors had crept into
the various printings of the prayer and she felt that they marred the beauty of expression and
the clarity of thought. In the studio of Robin Watt, the artist son of Mrs. Watt, Miss Stewart
personally supervised his work of copying the prayer, down to even fine points of placing a
comma or a period. Many Wl offices have a copy of that original hand lettered document.
" It was written as a prayer for the day. I called it ' Collect for Club Women* because
I felt that women working together with wide interests for large ends was a new thing and
that, perhaps they had need for special petition and mediation of their own. This must have
been true for the Collect has found its way about the world, especially wherever English-speaking
women get together. Indeed it has been reprinted in many forms in many lands."
It was officially adopted by the National Federation of Business and Professional
Women's Clubs, meeting at their second convention in 1920 in St. Paul. It was read into the
printed record of the Congress of the United States by Senator Tobey of New Hampshire, at
the closing session in 1949. Mary Stewart held a number of special teaching posts in
Colorado and Montana. In 1921 she became a junior guidance and placement officer in the
pioneer period of U. S. employment services. She continued to write for American newspapers
and magazines. Her Alma Mater, University of Colorado, in 1927 conferred upon her an
honorary degree in recognition of her distinguished work in education, sodal and civic
service. •