By Melissa Santos

Special to the Enterprise

For today’s senior women, fun is everywhere – and it comes wearing a red hat.

More and more women are joining the Red Hat Society, a group for women age 50 and over whose members don mismatched red hats and purple clothing for meetings. The group started in 1998 among women in Fullerton, Calif., who chose “to greet middle age with verve, humor and elan.”

The national organization’s mission is, “Fun and Friendship Before and After Fifty,” and its purpose is entirely social. Typically, women meet for tea or go out to lunch dressed in their red and purple outfits. Each chapter develops a fun name for itself and give its founder the title of “Queen Mother.”

Last fall, members of the Northshore Senior Center started up a chapter in Mill Creek.

“It’s hard to describe it, because there really is no theme other than to have fun,” said Dolores Clarkin, the Queen Mother of the Mill Creek Red Dahlias. “We don’t have any dues – it’s very relaxed, very easy-going.”

The logic of wearing purple dresses with bright red hats came from the poem “Warning” by Jenny Joseph, which humorously details the perils of aging. Joseph writes, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple/ With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.”

According to the Red Hat Society Web site, founder Sue Ellen Cooper “felt an immediate kinship with Ms. Joseph” and began presenting her friends with red hats and copies of the poem. Eventually, the women decided to complete the poem’s image by wearing their red hats with purple dresses out to tea.

For local women, dressing up is a way of embracing their inner child.

“I was born to be a Red Hatter,” said Diana Berg, 69. “I love to dress up.”

“It’s just a fun way to express yourself,” Clarkin said. “You can be as extravagant and silly as you like to be.”

The women enjoy seeing what combinations other members come up with, Clarkin said.

“One of the most interesting parts is … you have no idea what kind of outfit each person is going to wear,” Clarkin said. “Most of these women are extremely creative.”

Clarkin was one of several women who came to a meeting at the Northshore Senior Center last year interested in joining the Red Hat Society. Phyllis Hanson, a member of the center who lives in Mays Pond, held the meeting with a friend to see if they could start a local chapter.

“She and I were talking one day and we got on the subject of Red Hats,” Hanson said, “and I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ “

Hanson expected about 30 women to come to the meeting, she said, but the actual turnout was 84. The women split into groups based on where they lived, and six new chapters of The Red Hat Society were born that day.

Clarkin and two other women took the reins of the Mill Creek chapter, and since then it has grown to 24 women. About 17 of them attend a lunch meeting on the first Thursday of ever month. The chapter is growing at such a rate that Clarkin said she believes a second one may be needed to serve Mill Creek.

“We’ve grown to 24 because every time we go out to a restaurant with our red hats, a woman comes up and asks, ‘Can I join your group?’ ” Clarkin said. “It is a challenge to find a restaurant where we can have a nice lunch without having to sit at a separate table.”

Hanson and Odette Winship, the Queen Mother of the Northshore Red Hot Rockettes, went out shopping with members of their groups last week.

“Shopping is now noted as the national sport of the Red Hat Society,” Winship said. “They’ve finally recognized it.”

Afterward, the women ate lunch and talked about what they enjoyed about being in the Red Hat Society.

“The best thing about it is people’s reaction,” said MaryAnne Hunt, 70. “People come up to you that never normally would.”

The group also helps women of all different kinds to meet each other and develop relationships, said Arlene Cipriano, 74.

“We were all strangers before this,” Cipriano said. “Now, we’re the best of friends.”

The organization provides social opportunities without a lot of responsibilities, which appeals to many women, Hunt said.

“A lot of the women feel like, ‘Okay, we’ve raised our children, we have grandchildren… we don’t want any pressures or dues,’ ” Clarkin said. “There’s no seriousness, no talk about illness … just, how can we just have fun?”

Though fun is the main priority of the Red Hat Society, Hanson says she wants to get her group more involved in fund raising.

“It’s important to be community oriented,” Hanson said. “We all understand that.”

In that spirit, she and the six Red Hat Society chapters associated with the Northshore Senior Center are putting on a concert benefiting the center on Sept. 25.

The show is called “The Illusion of Elvis,” and stars Elvis impersonator Danny Vernon. Tickets are $10.

“It’s really just about giving back,” Hanson said. “We have fun, but there are other important things, too.”

Melissa Santos is a student in the University of Washington News Lab.