The Recreation and Welfare Club Frederick (R&WCF) is hosting an exclusive membership evening at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in downtown Frederick, MD. The social and networking event will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m., and light refreshments will be served.
The event is free to R&WCF members and one guest each, and an RSVP is required to secure your spot. NCI Frederick and FNLCR employees who aren’t members can attend by joining R&WCF now for a flat $9 in annual dues—less than the cost of regular admission to the museum.
Geoff Seidel, a long-time R&WCF club member, had the idea to host the event there because he enjoyed visiting the museum in the past and has a special connection to the topic as a registered nurse and military family member.
Seidel, who is also a clinical project manager in the Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) for more than 24 years, said this springtime “cabin fever event” is a way to get people “doing something with family and friends and learn about local history.”
A historical trove, Frederick was the site of 29 hospitals during the Civil War, not counting private residences commandeered on a single-patient basis, and more than 9,000 soldiers were treated in the city during the war, according to research by Terry Reimer, the museum’s director of research.
To offer additional facts at the private event, docents will be present to answer questions and lead guests around the medical exhibits, which show the conditions endured by soldiers and surgeons during the Civil War and their innovations that continue to impact medicine in the present day.
R&WCF is an NIH-affiliated organization that offers off-the-clock, privately funded recreational activities such as sightseeing, sporting events, classes and lessons, and other events.
“We are here to try to help make connections outside the work environment that would still benefit work but also give people an opportunity to have things available for them that they don’t necessarily have to plan,” said Andi Zak, president of R&WCF.
The organization also sells FNLCR and NCI Frederick merchandise and provides exclusive discounts on local services like movie theater tickets. Purchases from R&WCF benefit three charities that support the NCI community: The Children’s Inn at NIH, Friends of Patients at the NIH, and Camp Fantastic from Special Love for Children with Cancer.
Karolina Wilk is a technical editor in SPGM, where she writes for NCI Frederick and Frederick National Laboratory’s news outlets and edits scientific manuscripts, corporate documentation, and other writing. SPGM is the creative services department and hub for editing, illustration, graphic design, formatting, and multimedia training and support.