One hundred years ago Henrietta Szold came to Kansas City, just a scant year after she founded Hadassah, met with friends and helped organize a local chapter. Next month members of the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Hadassah — a volunteer women’s organization founded with the biblical mission of Aruhat Bat Ami: the Healing of the Daughter of my People — will gather at Hallbrook Country Club to celebrate 100 years of helping others throughout the world.

Today it is known as Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and it has evolved into a volunteer organization that inspires a passion for and commitment to its partnership with the land and people of Israel. It enhances the health of people worldwide through its support of medical care and research at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. Hadassah empowers its members and supporters, as well as youth in Israel and America through opportunities for personal growth, education, advocacy and Jewish continuity.

The four values that motivated Szold to establish Hadassah, according to Marian Kaplan, president of the Greater Kansas City Chapter, still guide the organization today:

• Pikuach Nefesh — We must value life. One life at a time.

• Klal Yisrael — We must embrace that we are one.

• Tikkun Olam —We have a duty to repair the world.

• M’Dor L’Dor — We must teach the next generation to care for each other and the world.

“These four traditional values have been part of our organization from the very start,” said Kaplan, who has been a member for 20 years and will complete her two-and-a-half-year term as president on Dec. 31, 2014.

Szold, according to Rita Shapiro, president of the Great Plains Region, was an activist, a scholar and a feminist. Shapiro explained that while Szold was studying with members of her study group, she told them, “why are we sitting around, let’s do something.”

Kaplan continued Szold’s story, explaining that just before Szold made this declaration, she had visited Palestine with her mother and saw the terrible health conditions there.

“So Hadassah’s first project was to send two nurses to Palestine to help alleviate the situation there,” said Kaplan, noting they helped curb rampant eye disease and taught mothers hygiene practices such as washing their hands.

“Because of World War I they came home and were only there for a couple of years, but during that time they made a tremendous impact. That was really where the Hadassah Health Organization started. I’m very proud of that as a registered nurse,” said Kaplan, who is also the first registered nurse to serve as chapter president here.

The local chapter will stretch its anniversary celebration a bit into next year as it carries on the tradition of health education. It will host a Women’s Health Symposium March 23 at the Jewish Community Campus. While many details are still being worked out, it has already been determined that the symposium will be conducted in a style similar to the Rabbinical Association’s Annual Day of Discovery.

“Hadassah’s main United States initiative right now is women’s heart health,” said Kaplan, noting that the keynote speaker will focus on that topic. Following the keynote a series of small sessions will be taught by a myriad of health professionals including physicians, nurses and allied health professionals.

First things first, the November celebration is simply that, a celebration.

“We’re honoring the fact that we have been in Kansas City for 100 years and we are advancing our agenda. For instance now there is a campaign through national Hadassah where you can choose where you can make your impact, so members of our organization can really choose where they want contributions to go,” Kaplan said.

At the celebration, women who have been members for 50-plus years — Marge Adler, Ede Bratt, Rosie Lerner, Regina Pachter and Beth Smith — will be recognized. Families consisting of three, four and five generations of Hadassah members will also be honored.

Today, the local Kansas City chapter has about 1,000 members. Of those, it’s hard to pinpoint just how many are active.

“At a typical major all-chapter event, we can get anywhere from 60 to 150 people,” noted Shapiro, who has been a Hadassah member since 1985 and will serve as regional president through December of 2014. She presides over a six-state region that includes 9,000 members in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa.

Because Kansas City has several small interest groups, some events draw only seven or eight people. But organizers are hoping 175 people attend the Centennial Celebration.

“Of course we would like to have more of our members attend, but if you check the other organizations, we may be doing very well,” Shapiro continued.

Like most Jewish organizations, Hadassah is losing members. A little more than 10 years ago in 2002, its membership roster listed 1,400 members.

“I think there was a time when most every Jewish woman stayed at home and belonged to Hadassah,” Kaplan said.

“I think everybody joined everything and there weren’t as many organizations and women were not working,” Shapiro added.

Now younger women are busy and have a lot of ways to spend their free time. Older members are passing away.

“The challenge is to get younger women to give a little piece of their busy lives and make Hadassah one of their priorities,” Kaplan said.

At the time Hadassah was founded, Kaplan said, women didn’t have the right to vote. She said one of the organization’s strengths today is how it empowers leaders.

“We have so many opportunities to do that within Hadassah. That is so much more a part of our society today than it was in Henrietta Szold’s day. I think we’ve evolved with the times and definitely I think the advocacy piece is stronger now than it was in the beginning,” Kaplan said.

“We’re constantly evolving and changing.”

Both Hadassah leaders have made lifelong friends through the organization.

“Some of my very best friends are in Hadassah and I met them here and all over the country,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said it’s hard to predict where Hadassah will be in the next five to 10 years.

“We may be picking up some younger people who are finally thinking Hadassah’s goals make sense and Hadassah’s values make sense. I think Kansas City will still suffer from attrition and people getting older. It’s time for the young people to take over, but I think Hadassah will still be thriving in Kansas City,” Shapiro said.

“We are grateful for all the support our members have shown us during the past 100 years and continue to show us,” Kaplan said. “And that Kansas City has still remained a viable Hadassah town.”