“Girls just want to have fun,” quipped Barb Zorc, “and that is what the Greenhorn Valley Red Hats are all about. Promoting fun. Some of the red hat groups just go out to dinner, but we take it a couple of steps further and plan a different activity each month.”
Donna Bozell is the “Queen Bee” of the Greenhorn Valley Red Hat group with nearly 30 members. The lively group meets once a month, usually on the first Thursday of the month to do their activity. Activities are chosen by different members each month so they have a wide variety of outings. In the past few months they have held a 50’s party, participated in Rye’s Halloween Town, had a float in the Rye Homecoming parade, attended the Harvest Festival at the Abbey Winery, visited the Pioneers Museum, and enjoyed a day in the hot tubs near the Sand Dunes.
The Greenhorn Red Hats dress in purple and wear red hats, a symbol in tribute to the poem by Jenny Joseph that the organization is based on. It begins with, “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple with a red hat that doesn’t go.” The poem indicates that when you are of a certain age, do whatever you feel like doing, enjoy it, and don’t worry about what anyone thinks.
Greenhorn Valley Red Hat ladies are required to be over 50 years of age, although they have a pink hat program for those under 50. The purple dress with red hat protocol is changed only during a person's birthday month. At that monthly outing, they wear a purple hat with a red dress.
The $25.00 membership dues to the Greenhorn Valley Red Hats include the cost of the Christmas party. The 2021 Christmas party was held at the lovely Abriendo Inn, recently remodeled and reopened by long-time valley residents, Cindy and Jeff Bailey. Although the Abriendo Inn does not serve food, arrangements were made for the group to use one of the facility’s gorgeous rooms and have a catered event. The Red Hat ladies reported they were having such a lovely time they stretched lunch out into a four-hour event.