Now that you’re a lady of a certain age, (we’ll never ask!) you Silver Fox ladies are eligible to join a distinguished company of 1.5 million registered members in the Red Hat Society.  Members come from the United States and 30 other countries to celebrate the joy of sisterhood and aging women.

Celebrate is the watchword for this year, since the Red Hat Society is 10 years old in 2008.  The aim of the group is to encourage fun, silliness, creativity and friendship into middle age and beyond.  Local chapters are everywhere, numbering approximately 40,000 chapters.

Referring to their society as a “dis-organization”, founder Sue Ellen Cooper states only one rule: that members over age 50 shall wear red hats with purple outfits.  If the member is under 50, she wears lavender with a pink hat.

Gaining in popularity and increasing in membership, the group is not a sorority or a service club.  It has no initiations or fundraising projects.  Local chapters are where all the fun is, with members eating out, attending plays, social parties, trips, or any other function together to celebrate the Sisterhood.  Local chapters usually meet one to two times a month.

If you would like to find a local chapter of the Red Hat Society, ask at senior centers, check your newspaper for clubs and organizations or check the Internet at http://www.redhatsociety.com/.  If you want to start your own chapter, you become the “Queen” and gain royal benefits.  The website can guide you in starting your own group. 

Ladies, those hats just don’t go with your dresses!  But, that’s the point, so, enjoy!