About us

Public Service

Throughout our years of service, the Wake-Robins have contributed to and supported many worthwhile causes. Currently, we are supporting Food & Friends, the Family Crisis Center of Prince George's County and the Adopt-A-Highway Anti-litter Program.

Food & Friends - "Delivering hope, one meal at a time"

Through monetary donations and food drives, Wake-Robin is helping Food & Friends fulfill its promise that every day of the year, clients who face so many uncertainties will know one thing for sure; Food & Friends will always be there with a smile, a word of encouragement, and a nutritious meal.

Along with nutrition counseling, Food & Friends prepares packages and delivers meals and groceries to more than 2800 individuals living below poverty line, living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-challenging illnesses throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area free of charge. Food & Friends voted best place to volunteer 2012.

Family Crisis Center, Inc., of Prince George's County, Maryland

Wake-Robin collects no-longer-used cell phones, batteries and accessories in any condition, as a means of contributing to the needs of the Family Crisis Center. Through its partnership with the Verizon Hope Line Program, the Family Crisis Center can turn in no-longer-used cell phones for cash to support their Domestic Violence Program. The Center provides emergency shelter services to victims experiencing domestic violence in their intimate partner relationship.

History

The Wake-Robin Golf Club (WRGC) is a minority women’s golf club founded April 22, 1937, by Helen Webb Harris. It is the oldest registered Afro-American woman’s golf club in the United States. WRGC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that introduces women to the game of golf and provides them with the abilities/skills to participate in amateur competitive golf events.

The first meeting was held at the home of Helen Webb Harris at 79 R Street NW, Washington DC. There were thirteen women in attendance. Mrs. Harris, an educator, was the wife of a prominent Washington physician. The founding members, several of whom were wives of Washington’s all-Black, all-male Royal Golf Club, Inc., were tired of staying home on weekends while their husbands played golf. Named after the purplish Wake-Robin wild flower plentiful in the Mid-Atlantic region, the club blossomed almost from the start though not without a few problems. In 1938, WRGC pushed the process of desegregating the public courses of the District of Columbia by drafting and sending a petition to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. To mollify the petitioners, the Secretary approved the construction of a nine-hole course on the site of an abandoned trash dump.

In 1939, Langston Golf Course was built near Spingarn High School in Northeast Washington, DC. It wasn’t pretty, especially when players tried to retrieve balls from under the old tires or rusty tin cans strewn about the property; but, finally Black golfers had a place to call their own. Both WRGC and the Royal Golf Club, Inc., continued to press Secretary Ickes to desegregate the city’s other public facilities. In 1941, he issued an order opening public golf courses to all.

Today, Wake-Robin Golf Club, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that has contributed to many charitable organizations over its history. The activities and functions administered by WRGC allow us to continue the legacy started in 1937 to foster, perpetuate and advance women’s interest in golf. Proceeds from these activities help us to provide scholarships to graduating high school female students who are college bound. Additional proceeds go to local charitable organizations.

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Public Service

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