Calling All Bargain Hunters!

The Junior League of Phoenix’s (JLP) 80^th Annual Rummage Sale is only a few short weeks away! The JLP Rummage Sale is Arizona’s largest indoor garage sale boasting thousands of bargains, including formal dining room sets, patio sets, big screen TVs, bikes of all sizes and types, baby clothes, books, designer purses, jewelry and collectibles, fax machines and office equipment, even brand new merchandise, and more!

All proceeds from the Rummage sale benefit our local community programs and training sponsored by the JLP. As our largest fundraiser, the event saw over 3,200 shoppers and raised more than $103,000 in 2016. As we celebrate our 80^th Anniversary of this sale, we hope to exceed those numbers, making this year’s the BEST SALE YET!

In addition to the amazing sale items, the JLP will be offering 40 FREE mammograms to uninsured or underinsured women thanks to the generous support of Fry’s Food Stores and the Desert Cancer Foundation of Arizona. Over the past 16 years, the JLP has provided over 600 free mammograms through this program.

The JLP Rummage Sale By the Numbers

80 Years – Hosted by the Junior League of Phoenix

50,000 – Volunteer hours donated

$7 million – raised to benefit the Phoenix community

180,000 – community members engaged

140 – community projects supported by the proceeds from the Rummage sale

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SALE DETAILS

When: Saturday, February 25 I 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Where: Arizona State Fair Grounds – Exhibition Building

The Rummage Sale is divided into two sessions; the morning session is held from 8 a.m. – noon and the afternoon session is held from 1 – 4 p.m. Admission to the morning session is $5 at the door, while admission to the afternoon session is free. All items are 50% off during the afternoon session.

For more information visit jlp.org or our Facebook page.

We can’t wait to see you there!

 

It All Began in a Place Called Seneca Falls

American women gained the right to vote in 1920, with the adoption of the 19^th Amendment and its ban on denying women the right to vote on the basis of sex.

But the road to women’s suffrage actually started some 70 years earlier, on two hot and humid days in July 1848, with the Seneca Falls Convention. That historic meeting brought together women – and men – who believed that equality between the sexes is a critical element of the American experiment. And a key tenet of their shared goals was the right to vote.

A simple idea today, but radical then.

And in the 100 years that followed the Seneca Falls Convention came a flowering of organizations—ranging from the Links, the League of Women Voters to The Junior League to the Girl Scouts—designed to ensure that women’s (and girl’s) talents would not be ignored.

Today, the achievements of remarkable American women can be seen in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls or the National Women’s History Museum (with its goal of building a Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC).

 

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*This article was originally published in The Civic Lede, an official publication of The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc., and has been reprinted with permission.  The Civic Lede spotlights notable developments in philanthropy, not-for-profits, women’s interests, voluntarism and leadership, and offers commentary on the issues on which The Junior League has been active for many years.

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Join us for the Legacy Celebration!

A Night of Fundraising: Celebrating Our Legacy and Building Our Future

November 11, 2016  6-10 p.m.
Arizona Science Center

The Event

The Legacy Celebration is an evening of fun and fundraising to support The Junior League of Phoenix’s focus on “Building A Healthy Arizona” and developing exceptionally qualified civic leaders who can identify a community’s most urgent and pressing needs and address them with meaningful and relevant programs and initiatives that not only improve lives, but change the way people think.

The Legacy Celebration features entertainment, silent auction, raffle, full dinner and open bar.  Purchase tickets now!

For over 80 years, the volunteers of the Junior League of Phoenix (JLP) have been at the forefront enhancing the social, cultural and political fabric of the Phoenix metropolitan area. We have amassed an archive of irrefutable results and an undisputed reputation as thoughtful and influential change agents for the public good, from bringing the Race for the Cure to Phoenix, starting Ronald McDonald House, founding the Arizona Science Center and being an integral part of the Emily Anderson Center, Ryan House, and the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, the nearly 1,000 members of the Junior League of Phoenix are invested in developing long term initiatives and programs that meet the ever-changing needs of our community.

Join us to celebrate and continue to build a legacy for years to come.

The Opportunities

The Junior League of Phoenix (JLP) consists of highly motivated, educated, and influential women who transform the metropolitan Phoenix community through advocacy, direct service and public education. Our ability to make an impact in Maricopa County can only be accomplished by continuous fundraising to support our community programs and leadership training opportunities.

#flashbackfriday – Becoming part of something bigger

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Did you know? Junior League of Phoenix‘s first application to AJLA (now AJLI) in 1931 was rejected due to a “conservative policy in regard to expansion”. Believed to be related to how small the actual city of Phoenix was, their subsequent application in 1933 included census data to help AJLA understand that Phoenix was part of a greater community, one which we now refer to as Metropolitan Phoenix Area or, for the locals, The Valley Of The Sun (then a population of 92,500 people).​

In April of 1933, Mrs Hill, a representative from AJLA in New York, traveled to Arizona and made it clear that it was her intention to sit in the sun every available moment as she stayed at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel.  AJLA scrutinized every aspect of the operations; from requesting changes to the by-laws and standing rules to how the Placement and  Admissions committees worked.  The official birthday for The Junior League of Phoenix is February 7th, 1935.

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 by, Blair Schweiger

Interested in other #flashbackfriday posts?

#flashbackfriday – the first Provisionals

#flashbackfriday – the first JLP focus area

#flashbackfriday – We owe our League to the original ‘transfers’!

#flashbackfriday – the first Provisionals

The first class of Provisionals (when still the Welfare League of Phoenix) consisted of seven members! The training Committee began their training with a class on parliamentary procedures and the recommended reading (as suggested by AJLA, now AJLI) was “How a Social Worker Views Her Community” by the Russell Sage Foundation. The League sponsored a three day seminar to members and interested community agencies on the theory and application of social casework. The first Placement Committee  was in charge of interviewing all members and finding their strengths and placing them accordingly. This was followed up with a telephone interview to determine her satisfaction. 

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 by, Blair Schweiger

#flashbackfriday – the first JLP focus area

Tempe bridge – Courtesy of Library of Congress

 

The first members of the Junior League of Phoenix looked at the community needs and thought that they might undertake the management of a salvage shop located at 16 W. Roosevelt with the idea that it would be a “preventatorium”- a tubercular center focusing on children. AJLA advised against this idea stating that it was too lofty a goal for such a small and a newly formed group.  Mrs. Katherine Van Slyck, from AJLA, instead recommended finding existing agencies and working with them to help ensure success. Volunteerism was untested in the early days of Phoenix and finding placements proved difficult.  By the mid 1930’s, the members were working in transient “tent cities” built under the Tempe Bridge (AKA Ash Avenue Bridge) as part of the initial wave of people heading west due to the “Dust Bowl” and the Great Depression.

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by, Blair Schweiger

Interested in other #flashbackfriday posts?  Click here!

#flashbackfriday – We owe our League to the original ‘transfers’!

On a hot Phoenix day in May of 1930, five women who had all come from somewhere other than the new state of Arizona, got together and wrote a letter to the Association of Junior Leagues of America (AJLA) requesting advice on how to turn their Welfare League of Phoenix into an official Junior League. All of them had been members in a Junior League of another state. Mrs. Harold Hess had come from Kansas City, Mrs. Charles Black had come from New Jersey, Mrs Maurice O’Bear had ventured from St Louis, Mrs. Edward H. Coe had hailed from Denver, while Mrs. Charles LeBoutillier had moved from New York City. As these five considered themselves to be slightly older they recruited five more members and those ten chose another ten. The first membership class of what would become The Junior League of Phoenix consisted of 20 members.

 

front row: Mrs. Robert Armstrong, Mrs. John M. Williams, Mrs. B.F.C. Miller, Mrs. Franky Brophy, Mrs. Paul Hayes.  standing: Mrs. S.L. Bloomhart, Mrs. Edward Coe, Mrs. Leslie Kober, Mrs. Norman Hurley. Pictured at a 1945 luncheon honoring the first ten presidents of the League.

Mrs. S.L. Bloomhart (Kathleen)

Mrs. LeBoutillier was the one who wrote directly to the flagship league in New York where she had been a member for six years. The first president of the Welfare League of Phoenix was a Mrs. S. L. Bloomhart (Kathleen) who wrote about her experience that first year; “When approached upon the subject of using volunteers, the agencies were skeptical both to our ability and dependability… Now at the end of the League’s first year of volunteer service, this attitude has changed; they not only depend on us, they need us.”

 

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by, Blair Schweiger

In Memoriam: The First Friend of the Junior Leagues

Doubtless the most famous friend of Mary Harriman, Eleanor Roosevelt died 53 years ago last month. Her early work with the Junior League of the City of New York helped the shy young woman find her voice, and the work she and other early League members did in the intense poverty of the settlement houses of the Lower East side was her introduction to the public service which became her life’s work.

Three times a first lady, the first U.S. delegate to the newly established United Nations, chair of JFK’s Commission on the Status of Women and a forceful advocate for the rights of workers, women, and children, she wrote in her (still very active) final years, “I could not, at any age, really be contented to take my place in a warm corner by the fireside and simply look on.”

Her future husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, reminisced that when he first began to court Eleanor, she surprised him with an invitation to visit the settlement house where she worked as a Junior League volunteer. She showed young Franklin a side of New York he had never seen before, and he credited Eleanor’s activism as the inspiration that awakened his social consciousness and led to their lifelong partnership and commitment to social change.

While previous first ladies gave up any social activism upon entering the White House, Eleanor set out to change that precedent. She continued with the active business and speaking agenda she had before becoming first lady, and with the full support of her husband, she became the “eyes and ears” of the New Deal. She is well-remembered for her work in social reform, tackling homelessness, civil rights, and women’s rights (among many other issues). In 1936 she began writing a syndicated column “My Day,” which appeared six days a week until her death, in which she voiced her humanitarian concerns.

And Eleanor never forgot The Junior League, about which she once said: “There is a most remarkable group of women, led by Mary Harriman who do important work. I want to be a part of that spirit.” She continued to champion the work of the Leagues and members took great pride in “one of their own” being in the White House. In 1938, she wrote an article for Reader’s Digest (then perhaps the most widely read magazine in the country) praising the Leagues. Titled “Lady Bountiful Rolls up Her Sleeves,” she said, “The Junior Leagues, which too many people think of only in connection with parties and the Social Register, have accomplished an almost impossible task. By making it fashionable, they have induced debutantes to give a certain number of hours every week to serious study and work.” She called the 31,000 young women in the Leagues “as conscientious a group of volunteer welfare workers as can be found anywhere,” and cited numerous League projects as examples of their outstanding work.

At the memorial service held after her death, prominent American politician and diplomat Adlai Stevenson remarked of Eleanor, “What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many?” He further praised her by stating, “She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.”

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*This article was originally published in connected, an official publication of The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc., and has been reprinted with permission.

In Canada, remembering what women did in WWII

History is made in a lot of different ways, and often by people whose names we will never know.

This is a story about one Canadian woman—now almost 93—who participated in the making of history during the dark days of World War II as well as what is being done now, some 70 years later, to recognize the contributions she and thousands of other Canadian women made in the war effort.

The woman is Betty Shuter Oland, a long-time member of the Junior League of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Betty’s story is eloquently told here—how she joined the Canadian Red Cross at 20…how she arrived in England two years later (a week after D-Day) to work as an ambulance driver with the British Red Cross…how she took cover in air raid shelters as the Blitz raged over London…and how she and her friends waded with other happy celebrants in the fountain in front of Buckingham Palace on VE Day.

What Betty Oland and so many other Canadian women did during the war, both at home and overseas, is now being recognized by the Halifax Women’s History Society in a monument planned for the Seaport Market on the Halifax waterfront.

Why now?

Because the Halifax Women’s History Society realized that their city—a major embarkation point for troop ships and convoys setting out across the Atlantic—had no memorials to the women who provided so much support for the war effort, both in Halifax and across Canada. And in 2017, if the group’s fundraising plans are successful, Halifax will have its monument.

As for Betty Oland, after the war she simply moved on with her life—resigning from the Red Cross, marrying Donald Oland, a businessman who had lost a leg in the war, moving with him from her native Montreal to Halifax and remaining active in her community, including The Junior League. A quiet life—except for those war years.

 

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*This article was originally published in connected, an official publication of The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc., and has been reprinted with permission.

Junior League Magazine Archives Hit the Ivy League!

Harvard Here We Come!

Through an exciting partnership with the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, which is housed at Radcliffe College at Harvard University, The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) are able to make seven decades of The Junior League Magazine available online. Widely considered to be the leading historical resource on the women of the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, the library has partnered with AJLI to provide public access to one of The Junior League’s most prized archives.

The digitized content of the magazines have been added to the library’s vast holdings, which document women’s lives and women’s issues both in the past and in the present—and focus specifically on suffrage and women’s rights, social reform, family history, health and sexuality, careers and professions, culinary history and gender issues.

We think this esteemed library is a fitting spot for so profound a record and we think you will, too.