Barbara, Meet Barbara!
By Karen Soderholm
Sun contributor
A story that ran in the Glen Arbor Sun last summer profiled the area Barbara Club and how it came to be in Leelanau County. While the majority of the women named Barbara were born in the 1930s and ’40s, one young reader, seven-year-old Barbara Noreen Tornvall from Chicago, was delighted to learn of all of the area women who share her name.
Little Barbara wrote to the club’s instigator, local Barbara Alldredge, to share a little about herself. Alldredge (they have to call themselves by their last names to avoid confusion!) read the letter aloud at the annual Barbara meeting in Glen Arbor on June 4. “I wanted to let you know that there are indeed some (at least one) little Barbaras out here,” Tornvall wrote. “I am named for both my grandmothers. Your Barbara Club sounds like a lot of fun.”
Since the Sun’s story rang the Barbara bell, the club has grown even more; attendance at this year’s meeting was 26, up from 16 in 2012. “We’ve outgrown a home luncheon,” said Alldredge, “and will move the event to the Glen Arbor Yacht Club next year. Our mailing list now includes 56 Barbaras, only one from outside of Leelanau County.”
Calling all Barbaras: Do you share the name? All Barbaras are welcome to join the group by emailing Alldredge at glenarborbarb@aol.com.
