The Estes Park Newcomers Club is lighting 60 candles on its birthday cake next month, March 19, 2025, at the Estes Valley Community Center for the club’s 60th birthday party at its regular monthly Club Gathering.
What began as a women-only social club has evolved into a coed club with 219 households and more than 400 individual members with 35 “Interest Groups,” which are sub-clubs within the main club. The club’s slogan is “Making Friends Since 1965.”
Current president Kate Arterburn says the staying power of this club is “the monthly meetings, the Interest Groups, and the numerous volunteer opportunities, which give newcomers ample opportunities to quickly find like-minded folks with which to interact.”
Arterburn and the club’s board have multiple events planned for the 60th birthday this year, in addition to the birthday party next month.
The mayor of Estes Park is expected to make a mayoral proclamation about the club this year, as the town mayor did for the 50th birthday in 2015, and another birthday commemoration is in the planning stages for an event at the Estes Park Museum later this year.
A new pop-up online store is selling 60th birthday Newcomers Club clothes and drinkware.
Sixty years ago, Newcomers Club began with Mrs. Don Hutchins—back in the era when women were known socially as their husband’s wife—who started the club with a first meeting March 18, 1965, in the home of Mrs. Bill Hintz, who became the first president.
The founders, whose names were Joan Hutchins and Marge Hintz, wanted to provide an opportunity for new residents to become acquainted with others and the community.
Many club members today are surprised to find out the club started as a women-only group, but for 43 years it was all female.
Barb Cole, president from 2008-2009, says the change “just sort of happened,” with no discussion, vote, dissension, or controversy.
“A couple of men had started joining their wives on the hiking club’s adventures, and then five or six other men started attending various activities with spouses, including monthly meetings, which made sense because the meetings were informative about Estes Park and the men were newcomers just like their wives.”
In 2009, Cole appointed the first male board member, local realtor Scott Thompson, as treasurer, and in 2017, the club elected its first male president, Bob Fulton. Some men-only Interest Groups evolved for men’s breakfasts, golf, and poker, but today the golf group is coed, and poker is defunct.
Over the years a lot has changed. Today, the Interest Groups include three different hiking clubs of various intensities, but in 1965, there were no hiking groups, so a few of the members went along as guests with the Hefty Hoofers, an all-female hiking club.
Newcomers no longer has any bridge groups, but there have been as many as three bridge clubs at one time – afternoon bridge, evening bridge, and couple’s bridge.”
Other topics that are no longer represented in the Interest Groups are skiing, rock cutting/polishing, ceramics, singing, cooking, knitting, cake decorating, women’s exercise, which was artfully called Slim and Trim, economy and investments, strolling around the lake (as opposed to hiking), photography, arts and crafts, and gardening.
Sixty years after its inception, the mission of the club remains the same, connecting Estes Park residents to each other and the community.
Members meet with Interest Groups they choose in order to pursue their hobbies, to meet other people with similar interests, to learn, or just to have fun. There is no limit to the number of these sub-clubs people can join, so members can be involved in activities as much or as little as they want.
The current Interest Groups are bird watching; hiking; dining out, which meets at restaurants; dining in, which meets at members’ homes; fireside chats, which meets under the stars in good weather; ladies night bunco; board games; jigsaw puzzling; pickleball; golf, women’s breakfast; men’s breakfast; margarita madness; museum and a meal; writers; dancing; bowling; group it; drink and draw; travel club, and three book clubs – get lit, the bookmarks, and afternoon delights.
New Interest Groups are proposed and accepted easily, so the club evolves as Estes Park culture evolves.
The most popular whole-club parties now are the Wine and Cheese events held once a month, usually at a member’s home, from 5 to 7 p.m. Even former members (5-year “graduates”) are invited to attend. Members bring their own beverages and an appetizer or dessert to share with the group. At 7 p.m. everyone takes away their own leftovers, serving platters, and utensils so the host’s home has no mess to clean up.
The Stanley Hotel Wine Bar has been hosting the December Wine and Cheese with free wine and charcuterie boards for the past two years, and other locations have included the Estes Park Museum, the library, the Estes Park Art Center, the Estes Valley Community Center.
The annual picnic in Rocky Mountain National Park has also been a popular event for years with talented club members serving as grill masters and everyone contributing to the potluck. Horseshoes, volleyball, cornhole, and music are part of the fun each year.
In 2015, club president Karen Daugherty led the club in celebrating its 50th birthday and explained the popularity of the club by saying she had heard many times that “people moving to Estes come for the mountains but stay for the people.”
She called the club an “asset to the community and a lifeline for the people who arrive each year.” Her view has been manifested many, many times over the span of 60 years.
Newcomers Club’s significant connections to the community have included supporting local charitable projects and organizations. Former president Sherry Unruh (2017-2018) says that rather than asking members to donate money to support charitable work, the club asks members, “‘What can we do?’ We turn our actions into money that we then donate.”
For example, when the Newcomers Club launched the multi-faceted Christmas extravaganza under the “We Believe” banner in 2017, they partnered with the town of Estes Park, who paid them for weeks of activities that promoted the town and Christmas spirit with free activities for residents and tourists.
Santa and Mrs. Claus have been club members since 2017, and many newcomers have donned elf or toy soldier costumes made by club members to participate in breakfasts with Santa for kids and seniors; visits with Santa in “Santa’s House” (created by the club); a float and participation in the Catch the Glow parade; photos with Santa for pets and people; trolley rides inspired by Chris Van Allsburg’s book “The Polar Express;” the tree-lighting ceremony downtown; and more.
This collaboration with the town for the Christmas season is still strong, and club members enthusiastically supported these and more activities through December 2024.
The history of the Newcomers Club reveals 60 years of commitment to support community charity with creative ventures that put the “f-u-n” in “fundraisers,” like fashion shows; Mad Hatter parties with awards for most outrageous hats; luncheons; teas; box-lunch tradeoff meals; “hippie parties;” husband and wife dinner parties at the country club (even when the Newcomers Club did not allow male members); Christmas cookie exchanges with awards for best-looking cookie and best-tasting cookie; and sales of baked goods, knitted products, quilted creations, and arts and crafts.
Cash donations from the club’s clever fundraisers supported the building of the current hospital (1970-1975), and helped to purchase medical equipment for the hospital, a new ladder truck for the fire department (1981). Money raised by the Newcomers has also supported student and faculty groups in the local schools, the American Legion, the Quota Club, Crossroads Ministries, Salud Family Health Center, various Estes Rotary clubs, My Sister’s House, The Estes Park Museum, EVICS Family Resource Center, Rocky Mountain National Park, Rocky Mountain Conservancy, The Kahuna Project, The League of Women Voters, The Citizen Project, Trail Ridge Quilters, Estes Park Art Center, and more.
The 2025 March Club Gathering and birthday party at the Estes Valley Community Center will also be a way to connect club members with opportunities to serve the community. There will be a Non-Profit Showcase where up to 20 non-profits will set up booths for club members to browse and learn about opportunities to volunteer for these local organizations. Food and drink will be available as people socialize and network.
One of the biggest club challenges in its 60-year history was the 2020 pandemic. All club activities ceased by April 2020, and then masks were required at all functions when mandated by the Town of Estes or Larimer County as club activities resumed over the next year.
However, even through this global crisis, the Newcomers Club continued its mission to connect new residents to a responsive community. Some new Interest Groups sprang up, like online trivia where members met via Zoom. People appreciated seeing each other, talking, laughing, learning, and connecting, even if only through a computer screen.
Fireside chats started during the pandemic as a way for people to be together yet still stay 6-feet apart outdoors under the stars on beautiful evenings here in the mountains.
In May of 2021, club President Debbie Stalder welcomed over 100 loyal members back for a Club Gathering and dinner at the Estes Park Resort. She gave a very emotional speech about the challenges the club’s board had navigated, and she was zealously cheered by the audience.
Today the club and its members are thriving and still evolving. Arterburn says there is an active push to recruit more people who are single and more families with children. With more members representing those demographics, new Interest Groups are sure to follow.
To join Newcomers, click here and follow the link to “Join Us” at the top of the page. Prospective members may attend up to two monthly club gatherings and two Wine and Cheese events before committing to join.
Members pay $45 per household per year for five years, then “graduate.” Sixty years ago, club membership was only for two years, and then graduates were encouraged to join a club called The Villagers, which no longer exists. A recent change in club policy now allows graduates to continue participating in all club activities indefinitely but without paying any more dues.
The Estes Valley Voice would like to thank the Estes Park Museum for providing access to the Estes Park Newcomers Club yearbooks from 1965 forward as resources for this article.