BSP to hold Founder’s Day Banquet Thursday
Hot Springs City Council of Beta Sigma Phi will hold its Founder’s Day Banquet at
7 p.m. Thursday at Paradise Grill, 1020 Airport Road.
Beta Sigma Phi is a social sorority founded in 1931 by Walter W. Ross, beginning with seven members in Abilene, Kan. It has grown to an international organization of more than 250,000 members in nearly 12,500 chapters.
Each April, Founder’s Day is celebrated by these chapters all over the world. This is a time to bestow special awards for outstanding performance for chapters and individuals. Women of the Year were chosen by their respective chapters as outstanding individuals who have gone above and beyond expectations.
The following candidates were named Woman of the Year for their chapters:
Marsha Mays, Preceptor Epsilon, has been a member of BSP for 37 years, joining in
1980. She has held most offices in her chapter and City Council. “I try to be part of as many activities pertaining to my sorority. Through the years, I have enjoyed decorating for events, sewing props and putting together scrapbooks with memories for the presidents of my chapter. I love my sisters!,” stated Mays in the press release.
She has worked in retirement communities for 35 years in marketing and as an assistant activity director at Garrett Woods Retirement Community. “I love making people happy, busy and healthy!” She has been married for 35 years to John Mays and has three children and two stepchildren. Between them, they have five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a granddaughter on the way.
“It is an honor for me to have been voted Preceptor Epsilon’s Woman of the Year,” she concluded.
Wilma N. Bledsoe, Laureate Mu, is a 46-year member, joining her chapter in 2003. She holds the Laureate Degree. One of four active members, she has been president for the last 15 years. She works on all projects involving the chapter, holding two meetings in her home, including planning of the Founder’s Day function, any socials with husbands and a Friendship Night with another chapter. She works on everything needed by the chapter, including having done a lot of the decorations, planning and food for this year’s Preferential Tea festivities.
Bledsoe has been a part of as many activities pertaining to BSP as possible and attended this year’s City Council functions. She has transported members to functions so everyone can attend together. She completed the yearbook, and helped plan and gather items for the chapter’s part of the 2016 Founder’s Day celebration.
A full-time artisan-crafter for 49 years, Bledsoe works the live meet at Oaklawn Park and volunteers at The Caring Place, assisting onsite with caring and crafts, which is the chapter’s major service project. She participates in the Alzheimer’s Walk, Relay For Life, collects canned goods for the food bank and Toy Train as service projects. She proposed to the chapter fours years ago that the money usually spent on Secret Sister gifts be given to charities instead.
Ashley Williams, Theta Pi, has been selected as the 2016-2017 Woman of the Year for the Theta Pi chapter of international women’s philanthropic sorority, Beta Sigma Phi. She continues the family tradition of being a member of Beta Sigma Phi, started by her mother, Judy, who is also in a Hot Springs chapter of the sorority. Williams has been a member of Hot Springs’ Theta Pi Chapter since 2002. She holds the degree of Preceptor.
This year, she is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and coordinated the delegation from Theta Pi to the 85th Anniversary International Convention held in Kansas City. She is chair of the Arkansas State Convention, which will be held in Hot Springs this summer. “She enjoys the insanity that is the Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade and serves on this special committee each year,” reports the release.
She is married to Huey Smith, who is employed in sales at Gregg Orr Marine. Ashley Williams is the billing service manager of Med software Inc. and the proprietor and designer behind Madame Fifi’s Emporium. The emporium is an Etsy store of unique custom apparel and accessories that exhibits at weekend marketplaces in the South. Valley of the Vintage Antique Show and Sale is her latest venture, with a show in Hot Springs coming in June 2017