Campster Club donates prized school photographs

An organization originally created to connect a teacher and the community, now provides a link from the community to its past.

The Cape Girardeau County Archive recently received two framed photographs from the Campster Club. The photographs, one of the original school that was torn down in 1940 and the second of the building erected in 1940, will be on display at the archive center as part of efforts to preserve the history of small schools in the area.

The Campster Club, originally the Campster Welfare Club founded in 1934, has continued to thrive as a community organization despite the school's closing in 1966.

At its inception, the club was responsible for providing a county nurse at the school and then for encouraging immunization shots. Members also donated shoes, eyeglasses and food baskets, and raised funds for electrical upgrades, stage curtains and kitchen equipment. The club supported the Campster 4-H Club and sent cookies to area servicemen.

The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center promotes the preservation of histories of many small schools in Cape Girardeau County. Contact Jane Randol Jackson at 204-2331 if you have school photographs or books from the old schools of Cape Girardeau County.