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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Rachille Rusche knows what it’s like to be a first-time mother with little or no support to get through the more challenging aspects of parenting.
“I moved here (to Grand Junction) from Idaho last January and had an 18-month-old son,” she recalled. “I was also three months pregnant with my second son. I didn’t know how I was going to meet other people, let alone moms with kids the same age.”
Rusche found the answer while browsing through the newspaper one day. “I saw a listing for the MOMS Club. It just jumped out at me, so I called the number, and I talked to the membership vice president, and I joined.”
Rusche has since become a board member of the Grand Junction chapter of the International MOMS Club, an international organization of mothers dedicated to supporting stay-at-home moms and their needs. Along with about 70 other members around the city, Rusche participates in group activities designed to offers moms an opportunity to network with other stay-at-home mothers, introduce their children to new friends within the group and make a difference in the greater community.
“The club has been in Grand Junction for about six years,” Andrea Land, president of the local chapter, explained during a recent Mom’s Night Out at Freeway Bowl. “The founder had been a part of a MOMS chapter elsewhere, and when she came here, she couldn’t find anything (similar) and had missed it so much that she started a new chapter.”
Land, a vivacious mother of two with a quick smile and warm personality, admitted with a laugh that she was “roped in” to joining the club.
“I met a member of the club at ‘The Full Monty’ show at the Cabaret about three and a half years ago,” she said. “She was the nicest person, and she told me about the MOMS Club, but it took me a while to get to an event. That happens a lot since we’re so busy being moms. After about three months, I went to an event, and once I was there I was hooked. It’s such a relief to be around other moms and kids and not be isolated anymore.”
Land said that one of the most valuable gifts that the club has given her is the opportunity to learn from other mothers about the good, the bad and the ugly of being a parent.
“(There’s) someone you can say to, ‘Oh, your kid does that too? Oh, I’m not alone! Maybe I’m not such a bad mother after all.’ Because some days, you know, I get frustrated. I’m not a bad mom. My laundry is in piles around the house, and I haven’t done it yet, but that’s OK.”
A sorority of mothers
Beyond the emotional support, however, is the practical assistance members receive from each other. Exhausted and time-pressed new mothers are delivered home-cooked meals prepared by their fellow members in the weeks following their return from the hospital. A death in the family and any number of other life events will also elicit a wave of support and generous gestures from chapter members. Land says that this “silent network of moms” extends beyond the city boundaries, as chapter presidents meet online via the club’s message boards to provide virtual support to each other and to reach out when another member or chapter is in need.
“If a tornado rips up someone’s house and such, we raise money and gather clothes and whatever people need,” she said. “Even if they’re someone in another state, lots of the other chapters send their support and love to that mom because she’s one of us. It’s like a sorority of mothers.”
A tragedy
Undoubtedly, the chapter’s most difficult period of its existence came in the summer of 2007, when founding member Paige Birgfeld disappeared. The tragedy touched off a media firestorm as the police and volunteers from around the city and state scoured the high desert country around Grand Junction searching for the divorced mother of three. When it was revealed that, in addition to her several side businesses, Birgfeld also secretly ran an escort service, the club came under scrutiny from a few reporters.
“We got a lot of negative press too,” Land said. “To a certain degree, anyway. It wasn’t even necessarily stuff that wound up in the paper, but (some) journalists could be very suspicious and cynical and probing to see if there was some dirty underbelly to the moms’ group. It’s like, ‘Look, we’re just a bunch of stay-at-home moms, and we really didn’t know what she was doing or not doing. But we know Paige and we love her, and she’s missing. And her child wants to know where her mom is.”
The club participated in the extensive search for Birgfeld, but to this day she has yet to be found. In the aftermath of her disappearance, club members struggled with their shared grief and shock. The close-knit bond they had worked so hard to develop and maintain rescued them in this, their darkest hour.
“Moving on at this point is kind of impossible until there’s some sort of closure,” Land said. “It’s really hard to just move on, but we have bounced back, and a big reason for that is because we know that the last thing she would have wanted is for all of us to fall apart and not enjoy our lives or pay attention to our kids, or not enjoy that fact that we’re all still here together.”
Expansion and growth
Now, six years after their founding, the club is ready to take its membership to the next level. Beginning this summer, the chapter will divide into three — Grand Junction East, Grand Junction West and Fruita — to better accommodate its growing membership. Land is confident that the new groups will be better able to serve the needs of stay-at-home mothers throughout the Valley.
“There are events almost every day, and there are enough members who attend so that there’s plenty at each event,” membership vice president Amy Cyr said. “We get to know each other very well. We share babysitting every now and then so it’s not hard to find babysitters if you want to go out.”
Among the many activities moms can participate in include a recipe club, an annual Easter egg hunt, craft days, the monthly Mom’s Night Out and community service projects. The Grand Junction chapter has adopted Ariel Clinical Services for the last three years and has organized holiday parties, turkey drives and gift-exchanges for the foster children served by the agency. Membership is open to any stay-at-home mother of any age, and mothers who work part-time or who own a home-based business are also welcome.
“I’ve never found a better support group for women,” said Jennifer Schaefer, a member since 2007. “I really like the fact that you have other moms who’ve been there before. If you get frustrated with your kids or you’re having a bad day or even a really good day, there’s someone you can call and say, ‘Guess what?’”
“When I first joined, my kids were three and one,” Land said. “Those first three years (as a mother) were pretty hard. It would have been great to have MOMS Club then. So I’m really thankful to have it now. It’s such a powerful force in the world and makes motherhood so much more enjoyable.”
To learn more about the GJ MOMS Club, contact Cyr at (970) 623-1840.
“I moved here (to Grand Junction) from Idaho last January and had an 18-month-old son,” she recalled. “I was also three months pregnant with my second son. I didn’t know how I was going to meet other people, let alone moms with kids the same age.”
Rusche found the answer while browsing through the newspaper one day. “I saw a listing for the MOMS Club. It just jumped out at me, so I called the number, and I talked to the membership vice president, and I joined.”
Rusche has since become a board member of the Grand Junction chapter of the International MOMS Club, an international organization of mothers dedicated to supporting stay-at-home moms and their needs. Along with about 70 other members around the city, Rusche participates in group activities designed to offers moms an opportunity to network with other stay-at-home mothers, introduce their children to new friends within the group and make a difference in the greater community.
“The club has been in Grand Junction for about six years,” Andrea Land, president of the local chapter, explained during a recent Mom’s Night Out at Freeway Bowl. “The founder had been a part of a MOMS chapter elsewhere, and when she came here, she couldn’t find anything (similar) and had missed it so much that she started a new chapter.”
Land, a vivacious mother of two with a quick smile and warm personality, admitted with a laugh that she was “roped in” to joining the club.
“I met a member of the club at ‘The Full Monty’ show at the Cabaret about three and a half years ago,” she said. “She was the nicest person, and she told me about the MOMS Club, but it took me a while to get to an event. That happens a lot since we’re so busy being moms. After about three months, I went to an event, and once I was there I was hooked. It’s such a relief to be around other moms and kids and not be isolated anymore.”
Land said that one of the most valuable gifts that the club has given her is the opportunity to learn from other mothers about the good, the bad and the ugly of being a parent.
“(There’s) someone you can say to, ‘Oh, your kid does that too? Oh, I’m not alone! Maybe I’m not such a bad mother after all.’ Because some days, you know, I get frustrated. I’m not a bad mom. My laundry is in piles around the house, and I haven’t done it yet, but that’s OK.”
A sorority of mothers
Beyond the emotional support, however, is the practical assistance members receive from each other. Exhausted and time-pressed new mothers are delivered home-cooked meals prepared by their fellow members in the weeks following their return from the hospital. A death in the family and any number of other life events will also elicit a wave of support and generous gestures from chapter members. Land says that this “silent network of moms” extends beyond the city boundaries, as chapter presidents meet online via the club’s message boards to provide virtual support to each other and to reach out when another member or chapter is in need.
“If a tornado rips up someone’s house and such, we raise money and gather clothes and whatever people need,” she said. “Even if they’re someone in another state, lots of the other chapters send their support and love to that mom because she’s one of us. It’s like a sorority of mothers.”
A tragedy
Undoubtedly, the chapter’s most difficult period of its existence came in the summer of 2007, when founding member Paige Birgfeld disappeared. The tragedy touched off a media firestorm as the police and volunteers from around the city and state scoured the high desert country around Grand Junction searching for the divorced mother of three. When it was revealed that, in addition to her several side businesses, Birgfeld also secretly ran an escort service, the club came under scrutiny from a few reporters.
“We got a lot of negative press too,” Land said. “To a certain degree, anyway. It wasn’t even necessarily stuff that wound up in the paper, but (some) journalists could be very suspicious and cynical and probing to see if there was some dirty underbelly to the moms’ group. It’s like, ‘Look, we’re just a bunch of stay-at-home moms, and we really didn’t know what she was doing or not doing. But we know Paige and we love her, and she’s missing. And her child wants to know where her mom is.”
The club participated in the extensive search for Birgfeld, but to this day she has yet to be found. In the aftermath of her disappearance, club members struggled with their shared grief and shock. The close-knit bond they had worked so hard to develop and maintain rescued them in this, their darkest hour.
“Moving on at this point is kind of impossible until there’s some sort of closure,” Land said. “It’s really hard to just move on, but we have bounced back, and a big reason for that is because we know that the last thing she would have wanted is for all of us to fall apart and not enjoy our lives or pay attention to our kids, or not enjoy that fact that we’re all still here together.”
Expansion and growth
Now, six years after their founding, the club is ready to take its membership to the next level. Beginning this summer, the chapter will divide into three — Grand Junction East, Grand Junction West and Fruita — to better accommodate its growing membership. Land is confident that the new groups will be better able to serve the needs of stay-at-home mothers throughout the Valley.
“There are events almost every day, and there are enough members who attend so that there’s plenty at each event,” membership vice president Amy Cyr said. “We get to know each other very well. We share babysitting every now and then so it’s not hard to find babysitters if you want to go out.”
Among the many activities moms can participate in include a recipe club, an annual Easter egg hunt, craft days, the monthly Mom’s Night Out and community service projects. The Grand Junction chapter has adopted Ariel Clinical Services for the last three years and has organized holiday parties, turkey drives and gift-exchanges for the foster children served by the agency. Membership is open to any stay-at-home mother of any age, and mothers who work part-time or who own a home-based business are also welcome.
“I’ve never found a better support group for women,” said Jennifer Schaefer, a member since 2007. “I really like the fact that you have other moms who’ve been there before. If you get frustrated with your kids or you’re having a bad day or even a really good day, there’s someone you can call and say, ‘Guess what?’”
“When I first joined, my kids were three and one,” Land said. “Those first three years (as a mother) were pretty hard. It would have been great to have MOMS Club then. So I’m really thankful to have it now. It’s such a powerful force in the world and makes motherhood so much more enjoyable.”
To learn more about the GJ MOMS Club, contact Cyr at (970) 623-1840.
