The Story of the Guilds of Sunny Hills Services
During the 1940’s, Mrs. Russell Smith (Gladys) of Ross began to organize the guilds, which were then called Auxiliaries, “to work for the good of Sunny Hills.” Each guild would staff a booth at the annual Grape Festival and also hold individual fundraising events for the benefit of Sunny Hills.

At its height, there were nearly 40 active guilds in the community. While it would impossible to highlight the good works of each over their many years of support, we have mentioned a few here that had notable beginnings:

The San Francisco Guild had begun earlier in 1920 by Mrs. William Kent, Jr., Mrs. Edward C. Bull, Mrs. Harold Hill, Mrs. Bancroft Towne, Mrs. Henry Carlisle, and Mrs. Lawrence Bowes. They traveled across the bay to do odd jobs at the Grape Festival, then held at the Kent Estate in Kentfield. They later sold toys, then a surprise Grape Juice, and finally opened “Peacock Allee,” a booth for clothes and later, antiques.

The Ross Valley Guild had its inception at the Russell Smith home in order to mend clothes for the orphans and buy outfits for graduating seniors.

The Belvedere Guild, begun by Mrs. Harry Allen, Mrs. Edna Halloran, and Mrs. Harry C. Duncan, was so successful and popular that four more guilds sprang up in that area.

The Grape Booth Guild was formerly the Murray Park Guild although it dates back to the early days of the Festival where a place of honor was given to the Grape Booth run by the well known Boole sisters, Miss Lila Boole, Mrs. John D. McKee, Mrs. Arthur Wellington, Mrs. Winfield Davis and a friend, Mrs. Edward Gardner. Each year they journeyed to the ranch of a friend in Sebastopol where they picked the grapes. The Grape Booth remained a traditional focal point of the Festival for its duration.

Selling toys had always been an important feature of the Grape Festival and thus the Toy Booth Guild was formed to put all the toys in one booth. Founders were the wives of Marinship employees during World War II. Mrs. Paul Marrin organized the Guild and Mrs. William Waste helped recruit the first members.

The Strawberry Guild was one of the guilds formed by Board President Mrs. Arthur McAndrew—this one to help Mrs. John T. Beales who for 25 years had made and packaged candy and decorated the boxes with dried flower arrangements. Strawberry #1 took over making the candy leis which the Board of Directors had been doing.

The Kentfield Guild had been called the Powder Puff Guild because they sold cosmetics at the Grape Festival.