First Freethought Volunteer Extraordinaire

Blanche Fearn, a Foundation member from Florida, received a plaque at the 1991 annual Foundation convention in October. The plaque named her "Freethought Volunteer Extraordinaire" for her generous giving of time, energy and talent to the Foundation. Blanche's volunteer efforts included a Foundation fund-raiser: T-shirts bearing the Margaret Sanger motto, "No gods, no masters," which Blanche individually handpainted with flowers. Hundreds of freethought shirts and thousands of notecards which Blanche has painstakingly decorated with gorgeous flower designs have been sold to benefit the Foundation, and to educate (and beautify!). Convention-goers also knew Blanche as a convention hostess, and for the handpainted, decorated name tags she made for each attendee. Blanche also arranged Florida publicity and events for Foundation staff, and commissioned a videotaping of a freethought concert by Dan Barker. Following her death, the Foundation named its annual high school essay contest for Blanche, a life-long learner who never had the opportunity to attend college.