When the Questers come to town this weekend, they won’t be seen wandering parks waving butterfly nets or digging up fossils by the side of the road. Their search is for history, as captured in dolls or spice cabinets, Teddy bears or tombstones.
It was a rocking chair that started it all 45 or 50 years ago for Questers International President Jeanne Stokebrand of Bella Vista.
“I went to an auction with my sister-in-law,” said the native Nebraskan. “I bought a rocking chair, and the rest is history.”
The chair is now owned by one of Stokebrand’s children, making room in the house for more recent acquisitions like the spice cabinet. But what she loves best, she said, are the family photos that are everywhere in the home she shares with husband Larry.
“A lot of people don’t even realize they’re collecting,” she said, telling the story of a new Questers member who had more than 100 vintage tablecloths but “never gave a thought to there being a club out there that dealt with things like that.”
Questers was founded in 1944 in Philadelphia, Stokebrand explained, and was a big hit through the 1960s with women who didn’t work outside the home.
“They found that collecting and history were interesting, so they joined,” she said.
The challenge now for organizations like Questers is to attract the next generation of members.
“Those who joined then are in their 80s now,” she said. “Younger people aren’t interested in joining organizations; they’re too caught up in the technology of today.”
So Stokebrand and the 12,000 Questers members in the United States and Canada are reaching out to school groups, 4-H clubs and others who might be interested in the history more than the antiques. Stokebrand particularly likes presenting “quirky” programs about things like cuspidors and privies, “things other people wouldn’t even think of, but it is history.”
Kathy Dickerson of Rogers, president of the Happy Rackensackers Chapter 906, which was chartered in May 1979, also pointed out how the Questers clubs affect their communities.
“Since its inception, (the Rackensackers Chapter) has supported many preservation and restoration activities in Rogers and supported with contributions the purchase of Gen. Samuel Curtis’ uniforms at the Pea Ridge National Park,” she enumerated. Those grants for preservation and restoration totaled almost $100,000 in the United States and Canada last year, Stokebrand said, and the organization also gives a scholarship to Columbia University.
“Preservation and restoration are really what it’s all about.”
This weekend, however, it will be all about showcasing Northwest Arkansas to Questers members from all over North America. The annual convention - held last year in Baltimore and headed for Grand Rapids, Mich., next year - will include field trips to the Peel Mansion in Bentonville, Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park,Pea Ridge National Military Park, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Har-Ber Village in Grove, Okla. Speakers include Abby Burnett on Ozark cemeteries, Susan Young of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History presenting “At Home in the Ozarks” and Wanda Roe discussing Arkansas gems.
Stokebrand said although the convention is open only to members and their guests, there are three Questers chapters in Bella Vista, one in Rogers and 14 across the state looking for new collectors to share their passions.
“It’s a sickness, it really is,” she said with a laugh.
Life, Pages 7 on 05/01/2013