Women united in effort to lift a community

Women often have a unique instinct for the educational needs of children in their communities. In Las Cruces, that instinct continues to shape the work of a group of women who have quietly served the city for more than a century.

Today, members of the Progress Club of Las Cruces gather regularly to find ways to lift their neighbors. One of the club’s newest efforts focuses on local schools.

Chayo Garcia, the club’s current president, made that work her presidential priority by launching a program to adopt a school.

“We've always been involved in the schools, so last year I decided what we should do is adopt a school, a Title I, low-income school,” Garcia said. “We adopted Central last year. We gave them books. We asked the teachers what their wish list was for artwork to create their art because we knew that they were pulling out of their own pocket. Teachers can't afford it. They asked for risers so they can do awards and host concerts.”

Garcia also wanted to expose students to music. Growing up, she rarely had the opportunity to attend symphony performances herself, but she knows how powerful music can be for young people.

“I thought, ‘How are we going to bring the kids to the symphony,’” Garcia said. “Then I thought let's bring the symphony to the kids, so we hired a string quartet, and they went in and showed them what the instruments were, what they sound like and then they played about three to four songs. The last one was a Taylor Swift song, and the little girls and boys were just wiggling and just singing along.

“After the concert, they came up and hugged several of us and thanked us. They were asking where they can go to sign up for orchestra. They loved it.”

The club’s approach to education isn’t just symbolic. Members collect gently used and brand-new books during March and donate them directly to the school.

“It’s with the intention of giving the books to kids,” Garcia said. “There are a lot of students that don't even own a book, so we want them to have a book.”

While the project feels modern, it reflects a tradition that stretches back more than a century.

The story of the Progress Club does not begin with the club itself. It begins in 1894 with five determined women and a dusty desert town where many basic services simply did not exist.

At the time, Las Cruces was still a young community with little public infrastructure. When the Woman’s Improvement Association of Las Cruces was formed that year, its members became some of the city’s earliest organized civic leaders. They set out to improve daily life in practical ways, stepping in where government services were absent.

Their efforts helped establish some of the community’s earliest public amenities, including a park, a library and even a swimming pool.

One story, passed down through generations, captures their motivation. After riding behind a wagon carrying a friend’s body to the cemetery, the women decided their first project would be to raise money for a proper hearse — an early sign of the practical, community-first mindset that would define their work.

As their influence grew, so did their connections beyond Las Cruces.

The Progress Club eventually became part of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, a nationwide network of women’s civic groups. Bringing the federation to New Mexico is largely credited to a Las Cruces woman named Laura Frenger.

Originally from the St. Louis area, Frenger married a man who had been born near Fort Selden and later served as mayor of Las Cruces. Because she knew the national president of the General Federation, she helped bring federation leaders to Las Cruces in 1911.

“They came, the international president was there, and they voted to join the Federation,” Garcia said. “Technically the club entered the Federation as a territory because New Mexico wasn’t even a state yet.”

The organization officially became part of the state federation the following January when New Mexico achieved statehood.

By 1914, that civic spirit evolved into what would become the Progress Club, formally affiliating with the national federation in 1915. From the start, the mission was clear: improve the community through volunteer service, education and advocacy.

In its earliest years, the club focused on fundamental needs. Members raised money to bring electricity to a local school in Mesilla Park and supported soldiers during World War I. They also joined the growing movement advocating for women’s suffrage.

As the decades passed, the club’s work evolved alongside the community.

During the Great Depression, members helped distribute food and milk to children. During World War II, they raised money for war bonds and supported USO activities. Later, members advocated for legal protections for women in New Mexico, including inheritance rights that took years of organizing to achieve.

Education remained a constant thread.

For more than a century, the club has supported students at New Mexico State University through scholarships and programs. Members have also supported literacy initiatives, library programs and arts education in the community.

The organization itself reflects the diversity of the people it serves. The club describes itself as non-political and non-religious — a group of women united by service rather than ideology.

“We do it all liking each other,” said Debbie McAllen, the current president of the state-affiliated organization and a former Progress Club of Las Cruces president. “I'm from Chicago, and when I came here, I didn't know anybody, but you get to know these women, and they have similar feelings of what I'm passionate about, you really enjoy hanging out with them. I think that the more that we have the word out, the better that we will become, and we can do more for our communities on all levels.”

Members say they also want the community to see them as approachable.

At one city meeting, Garcia recalled, someone described the group dismissively as a collection of privileged women with little else to do.

“I was working at the time, and I thought, I'm a little brown, and I'm still working,” Garcia said. “I want people to know that we are approachable. Come, talk to us. We are working women. There are people from all economic levels.”

In many ways, that diversity has been present since the organization’s earliest days.

“The people were from all different backgrounds. They were from Las Vegas, New Mexico. They were from Tucumcari. They were from Roswell, Clayton, Silver City, you name it. They were all over the state. I was amazed that they actually got here in 1911.”

Long before Las Cruces had the tax base or government infrastructure it has today, these women were building institutions and shaping civic life. The clubhouse they built more than a century ago still stands — and it is still where members gather.

Today, the organization includes 69 members. One is more than 100 years old. Another is in her 30s.

The club continues to invite women from all backgrounds who want to make a difference in the community. Members raise funds when necessary, but much of their impact comes through volunteer service — giving their time, their talents and their energy.

Despite that long history of service, members say the organization has often remained largely invisible.

“People don't know who we are,” the current and former presidents and organization leaders said. “That has always stunned us that we have been giving scholarships to NMSU, and to state college since we started in 1915 and when they were having their homecoming, no one knew us.

“We have a nursing endowment. We have an education scholarship. We have another STEM scholarship, and we also have one at DACC for the trades. We're getting better and I've gone to people we've been supporting for 20 years, and we had no idea what we did or what we were about.”

From a time when women had limited formal power to today’s broad civic engagement, the Progress Club’s story mirrors the growth of Las Cruces itself — built on service, shaped by need and sustained by a belief that communities improve when people step forward to do the work.