[2] Allen also helped found the Women's Employment Network of Kansas City and Central Exchange.
In April 1983, Allen received an earnest letter of request from Mr. Charles S. Douglas, who, at the time, was a relatively new member of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City.
Mr. Douglas wrote in hopes of obtaining a grant for $20,000 in order to build a new observatory on land leased to the organization by the City of Louisburg, Kansas in Lewis-Young Park.
Remembering that her father, George E. Powell, who had established the family's foundation, Allen incrementally granted the organization their initial request which she generously expanded to nearly $48,000 to ensure the observatory would be equipped with restrooms and a computerized system for the extraordinary telescope built by the society's members which houses a nearly 30-inch mirror.
[4] When she died after battling a long illness,[5] her memorial celebration was held on the grounds of Powell Botanical Gardens.