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ROCWMAS

When the Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society held its Seventh Convention, it was decided to advance the sum of $1,000 to help organize a Women's Society that would operate separately, but bear the same name.  Russian Orthodox Catholic Women's Mutual Aid Society started its existence on July 1, 1907 under the direction of Rev. V. Turkevich.  

The first convention took place in Wilkes-Barre, PA with delegates from lodges in Bridgeport, Catasauqua, Edwardsville, an Scranton.  The very first Spiritual Advisors elected into office were Rev. I. Klopotovsky and Rev. B. Turkevich.  Elizabeth Lukach of Bridgeport was our first President; Ann Hlovach of Hudson was Vice-President; I. Drochak of Kingston was Treasurer; Mary Klopotovsky of Bridgeport was Secretary and Vera Bogoslavsky of Scranton was Assistant Secretary.

The first Controller, Elizabeth Pivovarnick, was elected in 1910 and became Treasurer in 1913 until she died in November 1944.  Mary Valkovsky succeeded here until her death in October 1979.  In 1913, Rev. J. Milosevich was elected Secretary, until May 1932 when Helen Lomakin then became Secretary until she passed on in August 1969.

In 1979, the offices of Secretary and Treasurer were combined following the death of Treasurer Mary Valkovsky.  At that time Martha Lomakin, who was Assistant Secretary from 1962 through 1969 and Secretary from 1969 through 1979, became the first Secretary/Treasurer, due to combining both offices into one.

Our Society was incorporated in the State of Pennsylvania in 1932 with assets in the amount of $193,195.

A major event that made our parents and grandparents aware of the need for insurance was the Jacobs Creek mine disaster in Westmoreland County, PA.  On December 19, 1907, a methane gas explosion killed 239 men of the 400 that were employed by the Pittsburgh Coal Company's Darr mine.  Many of our Orthodox men were in church for the services of Epiphany and escaped the disaster; however there were those that did not.

Our Fraternal Society catered to the Orthodox Church families who were immigrants struggling to get started in this country with very little money.  They would bring their nickels and dimes to pay $1 per month for a $750 death benefit and $.75 per month for a $500 death benefit, regardless of age.  The meetings took place at Churches for collection of weekly or monthly payments on their insurances.

Fraternal Societies are now under the regulation of the State Insurance Commissioner.  Their policies change frequently.  It was a struggle to keep up with these regulations.  Our statistics were changing also.  In the meantime, our assets had grown to $4 million and our surplus was over $2.5 million.  However, the number of member deaths was exceeding the number of new members.  If we continued operating as we had, we would have started dipping into the surplus.  

We considered hiring a person to do the marketing of our product, but then decided against it.  Our churches have not been growing either and other Fraternals were experiencing the same problem.  That is when we started thinking about merger-- while we still had a good surplus that our members could benefit by it to the fullest.  In choosing National Slovak Society, our members have gained considerably by getting generous additional paid up insurances from National Slovak Society.  ROCWMAS has several active assemblies (lodges).  We are reaping the rewards of fraternalism and contributing to our Orthodox Seminaries and Monasteries.