By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer

Framingham Assembly #47 of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls members: (front, center) Dorothy Keown, (back, l to r) Kayla Cook, Kaylee Smith, Jennifer Zinkus, Ashlea Cargill, Katie Burdzel, Susan Kaiser and Julie Perrault. (Photo/submitted)
Grafton – A nonprofit youth service organization for preteen girls and young women ages 11 to 20 is based in North Grafton for its fifth year, but it has a much longer history.
The Framingham Assembly #47 of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls – also known as Rainbow Girls – was constituted in December 1939. When it was determined at the state level that most of its members were travelling to Framingham for meetings from their homes in the Grafton area, the chapter was transferred in December 2010 to the Franklin Masonic Lodge, 55 N. Main St. in North Grafton.
According to its website, “Rainbow Girls volunteer for their community and travel around the world, visiting other clubs and making lots of new friends. Along the way, they gather invaluable life skills that help them become the best daughter, sister, student and friend they can be.”
Leading the Framingham Assembly since 2009 as its mother advisor is Heather Cargill of Grafton.
“I transported a large number of the girls to and from the meetings in Framingham,” she relayed. “The move certainly strengthened the assembly itself. Being here allows them to work in the community where they’re based. It gives them a good sense of the community.”
Meanwhile, Cargill is experiencing a sense of nostalgia because she’s a former Rainbow Girl. She belonged to the Whitinsville Assembly #51 in the 1980s, which met at the time at the North Grafton lodge.
“It was a place to be myself without having the judgement that I frequently found in school,” she said.
The Whitinsville Assembly closed in the early 2000s while meeting in Douglas.
“At one point in time there were about 125 assemblies in Massachusetts, but through the years a lot of them have closed,” she noted. “We’ve opened two new assemblies since the time I’ve become involved. It’s slowly, but surely, climbing back in numbers.”
In the Framingham Assembly, there are currently 18 members, half of whom live in Grafton. Others live in Framingham, Marlborough, Milford, Millbury, Millville and Upton.
Meetings are conducted twice monthly from September through June. Monthly game nights are offered year-round, and twice monthly in July and August. Originally, the Rainbow Girls was created for Masonic daughters and their friends, but now any girl can apply to join. There’s a formal dress code for meetings.
“They wear white gowns,” Cargill explained. “The benefit of having that sort of dress code is that the girls have to learn how to carry themselves.”
Rainbow Girls are often seen around town less formally dressed while doing community service. They help the Masons with a child identification program at the police department during the annual Grafton Celebrates the Holidays and the local National Night Out. Members also distribute construction hats and firefighter helmets to children at the recreation department’s annual Big Truck Day. They’ve volunteered at the Brigham Hill Community Farm and Barn in Grafton, and Waters Farm in Sutton.
Cargill believes that Rainbow Girls develop a strong sense of community – locally and beyond.
“The girls just came back from their annual statewide convention in Plymouth,” she said. “At that time, eight of our members became grand officers. It’s a really good opportunity for the girls to interact with other jurisdictions because it’s not just in the United States.”
For more information about Rainbow Girls, visit gorainbow.org and massiorg.net/rainbow. Anyone interested in joining the Framingham Assembly in North Grafton, can contact Heather Cargill at [email protected].