2000’s to Present

2000-01: We celebrated “60 Years of Service to the Community of the Palm Beaches”. We began the year with our Board/Chairman Retreat at the Hilton located on Singer Island. We were honored to have Past President Jane Smith discuss parliamentary procedure and Alicia Blodget inspire us regarding volunteerism and community service. Throughout the year, we honored our six decades of our legacy by spotlighting our accomplishments. In September, a Past Presidents’ Breakfast was held a the City Club in North Palm Beach. We walked down memory lane by sharing each Past President’s favorite Junior League memory. Our first General membership meeting spotlighted the 1940′s and 1950′s. Past President Margaret Harris joined us and gave us her memories of the 1950′s. We voted to change our logo by adding our name to surround our well-recognized palm tree. We held our first Women’s Health Symposium and partnered with the Jupiter Medical Center to promote awareness of women’s health issues. Done in a Day formed new alliances and continued existing liaisons-Fall Festival at Mounts Botanical Gardens, donation of school supplies, organizing a dinner for the clients of Harmony House, donation of car seats to the Head Start facility in Rivera Beach and South Bay, and organizing the volunteers for the registration days for the Race for the Cure. In honor of our 60th Anniversary, Done in a Day created a children’s library at the Head Start facility in Rivera Beach. Special Events hosted a Halloween event at Abacoa Golf Club and the 12th Annual Holiday Luncheon at The Breakers. Our January General Membership meeting spotlighted the 1960′s and 1970′s. We were honored to have Past Presidents’ Joan Bonafazi, Nancy Maas and Jo Turk. The Provisional Class of over sixty ladies joined in a collaborative effort to promote breast cancer awareness by selling pink ribbons to adorn Flagler Drive during the Race for the Cure. The Provisionals successfully raised over $10,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. We mentored the residents of Rebekah’s House. Xtreme Teens continued to promote volunteerism by partnering with the United Way. We began ensuring our financial future by collecting donations of approximately $4,000 to the endowment fund. We honored our Sustainers at the February General membership meeting. We partnered with the City of West Palm Beach and provided many volunteers for the Kaleidoscope Festival. We refocused our efforts in the community by establishing a new requirement for 15 volunteer hours. This will enable us to truly fulfill our mission of improving the community. We continued to screen and detect vision and hearing deficiencies in over 751 children from 18 schools and daycare facilities. We celebrated our 60th Anniversary at the South Florida Science Museum and were honored to have three of our founding members present. March 27,2001 was declared “Junior League Day” in West Palm Beach by Mayor Joel T. Daves. We approved a new project to provide mentoring to the girls of Nelle Smith Residence. We voted to increase our dues requirement to $100 for Actives and $85 for Sustainers. We partnered with First Baptist Church and Good Samaritan Hospital to hold a free health clinic which provided school physicals, immunizations, mammograms,and many more health services.The 3rd annual Woman Volunteerof the Year Luncheon was a smashing success. The keynote speaker was Pamela Fiori, Editor of Town and Country and we partnered with Peter Beaton hat Studio to showcase the “Hats Off To Volunteers” theme. Cotillion continued to instruct children on dancing and etiquette. The Annual Dinner was held at the Colony Hotel where fundraisers presented proceeds to the League: Thrift: $52,000; A Slice of Paradise $12,000; WVOYL $60,000; Cotillion $3,000. The Community projects recapped the year and demonstrated how the funds were utilized to improve the community. Quantum House opened in May 2001. The League donated the jungle themed children’s playroom. The Community Advisory Board presented five mini grants totaling $12,599 to local nonprofit organizations and Nominating presented a $1,500 scholarship to Megan Hoot. The Junior League of the Palm Beaches had a membership of 229 Actives and 619 Sustainers. (Kathryn L. Tignor, Esq.)

2001-02: “Our spirit is unbroken-in fact, it is stronger than ever.” The words of James Earl Jones gave us strength to keep to the tasks undertaken, though our hearts were broken. Tuesday, September 11, 2001 was the day our world changed forever. The attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon spoke a horror we have never experienced in this country. The heroes buried in a lonely field in Pennsylvania represented an American spirit that jumped to fight back. JLPB members were quick to jump to the rescue of other leagues in need, to help out the surviving firefighters in an FDNY station and still keep our projects moving forward. While Advocacy trained members in car seat and child safety, Eye and Ear Alert continued their tradition of helping hundreds of preschool children throughout Palm Beach County. In October, America went to war, but needs at home did not go away, so the league pressed on. On a light note, October brought us The Shopping Event, a unique opportunity for the community to support our projects while having a fabulous shopping day at Bloomingdale’s. Cotillion kicked off with a huge class of young people looking forward to learning about dance, contemporary culture and social graces. A Provisional class of nearly fifty women burst onto the JL scene in full training mode, ready to tackle their project of refurbishing the Thrift Boutique. The goal for the year was to raise more than fifty thousand dollars to benefit our community projects. Each month, the Cookbook provides a look into our membership to anyone purchasing “A Slice of Paradise” in bookstores throughout Palm Beach County. Our fabulous Cookbook committee also arranged trades with Junior Leagues throughout the world, so we could get a taste of what other Junior Leaguers are tasting! In October, the Education Committee hosted another Women’s Health Symposium. This event was outstanding, with four local physicians giving tremendous insight regarding health issues that face our membership, and women everywhere. November holidays brought another new event, a Holiday Bazaar that featured excellent vendors and opportunities to shop for the holidays while attending a Junior League meeting. Several Junior League members contributed their time, treasures and talents to make the holidays wonderful for the 8 young ladies living at the Nelle Smith Residence. This new project allow members of the Junior League to mentor and affect change in the lives of young women,that through various circumstances have become wards of the state of Florida. Our members see to it that these girls are clothed, cared for, and given extra attention by women from 3 generations. Undercurrents, our Junior League magazine, jumped headfirst into the new millennium with a new online version. The JLPB website is coming along nicely each new year, and members, Provisional to Sustainer learned the ins and outs of doing business with the Junior League, online. The holiday Luncheon at the Breakers was a wonderful, beautiful, restful event. The Breakers provides the perfect setting for a multi-generational gathering to share in family time, the most important time of all. Extreme Teens, an event that pairs volunteers with teen leaders in the community, worked hard with a project each month to help improve our community. It seems no one was able to take a rest after the holidays as we jumped straight to the Race for the Cure event on Flagler Drive. The Junior League has been such an important partner with this race for almost ten years, and the Done in A Day Committee as well as Sustainers helped with registration, the children’s races, and best of all, the Junior League of the Palm Beaches won the first “Circle of Caring ” award for the wonderful work we continue to do with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Fantastic! Quantum House, our project that allows families to stay close even in times of medical crisis, has benefited greatly from league members stopping by to bring baked treats, clean rooms, or just have a cup of tea, hold a hand and listen. It is one of the things we do best. April 3rd brought the Fourth Annual Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon. Our keynote speaker was Sylvia Jukes Morris, and she brought along her husband, best -selling author Edmund Morris to share in the festivities. The luncheon earned more than 36 thousand dollars, each of them going to the projects of our Junior League. With the May 21st Annual Dinner meeting, we all met at the Colony Hotel to celebrate a year of great successes and looked forward to a year with even greater accomplishments. (Stacie Porcher)

2002-03: The year kicked off with the theme “Be All That You Can Be.” We began the year with our Leadership Retreat at Headquarters to focus on setting goals and objectives for the year with the major focus to ensure long term financial viability of the league. The League’s community impact excelled as advocacy continued the legislative fight on the Retinoblastoma bill which was once again in the hands of the Florida Legislature. Done in a Day undertook the following projects: staffed the pumpkin painting booth for the Mounts Fall Festival and provided a $1,000 event donation; Purchased books and videos for Opportunity Inc’s Lending Library; provided volunteers for the City of WPB multi-cultural festival Kaleidoscope; purchased and collected books for Judge Colton’s “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover” program; Hosted a Spring Party for Connor Moran Children’s Cancer Foundation; Organized a Spring Story Stroll in conjunction with the WPB Library and provided funding for the library’s summer reading program. The League was recognized yet again as the largest non-profit team for Race for the Cure – 76 members participating and over $1,000 was raised for the Pink Ribbon Project. A home was adopted for Christmas in April, now known as Rebuilding Together, and received national media attention. Eye & Ear Alert went mobile 4 times. 729 preschoolers were screened, 62 children were referred to Physicians for vision and 105 were referred for ear problems. 19 children were referred to physicians for eye and ear. 16 young women at the Nelle Smith Residence were impacted by providing $6,000 towards the project and donating another $1,500 of clothing. Another $2,500 was donated by Aura Science during their grand opening at the Gardens Mall. The first anniversary of Quantum House was celebrated. Quantum hosted 825 guests this year and the League donated $1,500 of items and 200 volunteer hours at the home. Sensory Garden in conjunction with the City of WPB never got off the ground as the City never moved forward with its proposal to the league. In total, actives logged 2,374 total community service hours outside their placement. The League’s fundraising surpassed goals. The 5th Annual Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon was a huge success as we exceeded our revenue projections netting $52,334. The keynote speaker was Tania Aebi author of the bestseller “Maiden Voyage” with Alicia Blodgett serving as Honorary Chair and Veronica Furlo as Sustainer Chair. Cotillion proved to be the most successful year ever raising $10,654. The Thrift Store was renovated and operating procedures were streamlined in an attempt to reduce expenses. The store net $8,693. The Cookbook Committee continued to sell “A Slice of Paradise” and net $19,550, and serving as SunFest ticket takers netted $6,994. We made $3,145 with the Bloomingdale’s Shopping Benefit and as host of the Palm Beach Gardens Stein Mart Opening we raised $7,352 with 352 shoppers attending, the most successful in Stein Mart’s history. Finance Council worked to reduce $42,000 in overall expenses and increase overall revenue. Major changes included streamlining Greenbook, launching our first website (jlpb.org) and creating a Community Project Reserve Account which will hold funds set aside for Community Projects that are not spend within that budget year. The Community Advisory Board presented 5 mini grants at $2,500 each to C.R.O.S. Ministries, Wee Care Inc., Farrar Family Development Center, NOAH, Inc., and Hearts and Hope, Inc. We ended the year with a $38,000 surplus which was used to repair headquarters and repay some of the deficits from prior years. Membership Council developed a program for annual membership awards and the First Annual Membership Awards presentations were held as part of the May Dinner. Members were recognized for perfect attendance and length of service. The following members received a pineapple pin for service: Jane Tierney O’Neil, 19 yrs; Becky Isiminger, 15 yrs; PK Isiminger, 14 yrs; and Sara Peckham, 13 yrs. The following awards were presented: Fundraiser Award to Kelsey Kober; Golden Hanger Award to Active Kathy Tignor, Sustainer Wanda Jenkins and Provisional Stephanie Rockwell; Provisional of the Year Heather Campeau; Sustainer of the Year went to Sue Gordon (Eye and Ear) and Rosalind Bishop (Quantum). The Above and Beyond Community Service Award went to Kim Dahlmeier. Kim volunteered 49 hours outside of her placement and the 2003 President’s Award went to Ann Marie Pilling. The Junior League of the Palm Beaches had a membership of 229 Actives, 619 Sustainers and graduated 42 provisionals. (Dianna Dawson Craven)

2003-04: “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” Our year began with a successful Leadership and Goal-Setting retreat held at Headquarters. This was followed by a joint training session in September with the Leagues from Boca Raton and Ft. Lauderdale. The new JLPB website was introduced allowing members the opportunity to RSVP online for GM meetings. Two provisional classes were organized this year, one in the fall and one in the spring. Our projects had a positive impact on our community. Nelle Smith, Quantum House and Eye & Ear Alert all had successful years. 4U2Discover had a great beginning, holding 4 Teacher Work Day programs at the South Florida Science Museum. Million in a Month’s impact was felt throughout the community raising awareness about the hunger issues in Palm Beach County. Over 350,000 pounds of food were collected; JLPB received a great deal of media coverage in all mediums (print, radio and television). Junior Career Days had to be discontinued due to the temporary closing of the Mentor Center; the committee was reassigned. Done in a Day kept us all busy with a myriad of projects including the Fall Festival at Mounts Botanical Gardens; sponsoring a Hansel & Gretel candy factory booth at the Fairy Tale Festival; conducting a book drive for Quantum House; helping renovate an apartment for the Lord’s Place; Kaleidoscope Multi-Cultural Festival; and everyone’s favorite – Race for the Cure, where JLPB once again was recognized for having the largest non-profit team. The 6th Annual Wachovia Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon was a huge success netting over $55,000. The keynote speaker was philanthropist Catherine Reynolds; Lilly Pulitzer was the Honorary Chair and Sharon McCormick was the Sustainer Chair. Despite incredible effort on the part of the Thrift committee, the store continues to struggle netting less than $6,000. We continue looking at our options under the guidance of a special task force. Cotillion exceeded expectations netting close to $12,000 and the cookbook performed solidly with a net of $13,000. Our most successful fundraiser was the Nordstrom Gala netting over $66,000 which will go to the Early Learning Center at the Future Dekelboum Science Center. CAB grants were given as follows: Jupiter Preschool – $2,000; Adopt a Family – $1500; Very Special Arts – $2500; Easter Seals – $2500; JCC – $1500; and the Lord’s Place – $1500. May Dinner was held at the Sailfish Club. Members were recognized for perfect attendance and length of service. The President’s Award was presented to Elizabeth Bockmeyer; Sustainer of the Year – Sharon McCormick; Above and Beyond – Deedra Janney; Golden Hanger Award – Heather Andrews; Fundraiser Award – Maura Ziska and Nora Brunnet; Most Involved Provisional – Jennifer O’Howel (fall) and Janine Osborne (spring). The Junior League of the Palm Beaches had a membership of 246 actives and 519 sustainers. (Mary Zamora Cox)

2004-05: The theme for the year was Get into the Game, encouraging members to be all-stars in their role with the League. The year kicked off in June with an overnight board retreat held at the Singer Island Hilton. A board orientation was conducted with communications guru and leadership trainer Lu Dumas, from Raliegh, NC. The Leadership Team developed three key messages for use in PR materials and so that members could better articulate what our League was all about (Who are we?KEY MESSAGE 1 — The Junior League of the Palm Beaches is a nonprofit, 501C3 organization, of trained women volunteers.What do we do?KEY MESSAGE 2 — The Junior League of the Palm Beaches positively impacts children’s education in our community.Why should someone care? KEY MESSAGE 3 — The Junior League of the Palm Beaches specializes in community partnerships.) A changing of the guard took place at the Thrift Boutique with the hiring of a new manager and part-time staff. An on-line, eBay store was created and improved image and increased sales were the primary goals for the year. A check was presented to the So. Florida Science Museum for $50,000 to fund the Early Learning Center at the new Dekelbaum Science Center. The funds for this came from the Nordstrom Gala Opening. The remaining funds from Gala were earmarked for 4 U 2 Discover program at the museum. Past President, Dianna Craven was appointed to the museum’s fund development committee to oversee continued League involvement with the project. Discussion began regarding the change of the League’s focus area to children’s education. Two hurricanes struck our area (Jeanne on September 4th and Francis on September 25). Many of our members were without power or water for many days – our family was without power for a total of 16 days in September. We started a phone tree via Leadership Team to confirm that all of our members were ok and to assess damage with their homes, etc. Two members lost homes and many received damage. The League HQ and Boutique both received little or no damage and normal operation returned the first week in October. No board meeting was held in September. We did, however, manage to have a GM meeting in September at the Double Tree Hotel in PBG (all meetings were held at this venue). We collected funds to help Hurricane Charlie victims on the West Coast. Forty-five women began the provisional course. After two years in the making, The “4 S to Success Community Research” evaluation process was introduced by Strategic Planning Chair, Ms. Jodi Chapin. This would become the new way that Community Research evaluated potential community projects. Two SPAC public stands were approved (Guardian Ad Litem and Services for Female Juvenile Offenders). $500 was collected at the October GM meeting for hurricane relief efforts in Riviera Beach, Belle Glade, and West Palm Beach. President Elect Mary Reynolds and President Carolyn Stone attended the AJLI Fall Leadership Conference in Miami. Cluster Meetings were hosted by the Placement Advisors and Key Message trainings were conducted at each one. The 39 and holding, sustaining age requirements, and 15 hour requirements were revisited for possible revisions. The 14th Annual Holiday Luncheon at the Breakers had the largest attendance in recent years at 265 guests. A fashion show was the main event. A holiday party was held at the home of Carolyn Stone for all leadership team members, 75 in attendance (including spouses/guests). Two new projects were presented to the Board of Directors for consideration, Children’s Case Management Organization Families Building Solutions and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County Docent Program. A vote was taken to accept these projects to be presented to the general membership and to sunset the Quantum House project. The Board of Directors also voted to remove the maximum age requirement for provisional membership, to resign all members who have not paid dues as of September 1st, to provide a 50% discount to JLPB dues for the member who sponsors the most provisionals, to change the sustaining years of service from 10 to 8, and to remove the 39 and holding category of membership. Also, a value added for years of service was approved so that the more years you have in the League, the fewer service hours you have to complete. Thirty-five women began the spring provisional course. On Saturday, February 26th the League hosted a women’s motivational event entitled, ‘Step into the Dance’ with speaker Sharon Spano. The message was to lead a life from intention and was held at the Cohen Pavillion at the Kravis Center. Over 200 women attended the event (the majority non-league members). This event was a wonderful PR/recruiting event for the League. Members from the Jr. League of Martin County and Jr. League of Boca Raton also attended. Done in a Day co-sponsored the Children’s Symphony with Palm Beach Atlantic University for the second year. Community Research made the following recommendations for vote to the GM – New Projects: Families Building Solutions (CCMO – partner), Historical Society of Palm Beach County Docent Program, Returning Projects: Done in a Day, Nelle Smith Residence, Eye and Ear Alert, 4 U 2 Discover. Sunset Project – Quantum House. Fundraisers that were presented were the following: Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon, Cotillion, New Cookbook, Boutique (to sunset no later than August 2006 at lease termination), Sunfest Ticket Takers Program, and Bloomingdale’s Shopping Benefit. A yes vote was also decided in the event that Nordstrom requested our partnership for their Gardens Mall opening. Jodi Chapin and Kori Patterson attended the ODI conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.Community Advisory Board presented mini grants to the following organizations Busch Wildlife Sanctuary $1250, Community Childcare Center $2500, Community Back to School Bash $2000, The Farmworker Children’s Council $1500, KidSanctuary $2250, Urban League of Palm Beach County $2150 and VSA Arts of Florida $850. The Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon was held at the Breakers on Monday, April 11, 2005 with 500 in attendance (largest attendance to date). Eileen Cornacchia from the Center for Information and Crisis Service, Inc. 211 Helpline was the winner. Placement teas and cluster meetings were held in lieu of a large GM meeting. Sunfest Ticket Taker fundraiser was held. Mary Reynolds, Amy Triggs and Kim Reed attended annual conference in New Orleans, LA. Also, Amy Fleitas, new cookbook chair, attended Cookbook University. The May Dinner was held at the City Club in North Palm Beach. Final numbers for the year were as follows: Membership Count as of. April 30, 2005 actives 255, sustainers 409. Total members as of May 2005 796. Net numbers: WVOTY $56,432, Cookbook $13,288, Cotillion $15,129, Thrift, $($3,993), Sunfest Ticket Takers, $7500, Bloomingdale’s Shopping Benefit, $3031. Money given to Community Projects: CAB minigrants: $12,500, 4 U 2 Discover $5100, Done in a Day, $9,000, Eye and Ear Alert, $11,000, Jr. League Scholarship $2500, Nelle Smith Residence $5,000, Gift to So. Florida Science Museum $50,000, Quantum House $5,000. (Carolyn Stevens Stone)

2006-2007: The theme for this year was “Ignite Your Passion! Make It Happen!” with the goal of getting our members more motivated and more passionate about their involvement in the League! We tried to accomplish this by having more engaging General Membership meetings (by sitting at round tables to encourage more social interaction, having a social hour before and after the meetings, doing fun icebreakers, having amazing speakers and raffling off fabulous prizes like JL t-shirts & coozies, quotas and volunteer hours, among other things), having more Placement Advisor interaction, getting a new and improved website, starting plans for the much needed headquarters’ makeover, bringing back the Greenbook, launching our new cookbook and having more opportunities to get to know each other, develop our potential and make an impact in the lives of children in Palm Beach County. Conferences – Lisa Jaloski, our Delegate C representative, and I attended the AJLI Annual Conference in Salt Lake City. Since Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, Gold Medalist skier and Salt Lake City resident Picabo Street was one of the speakers. She was one of the highlights of the conference and gave an extraordinary speech about overcoming many obstacles in her quest for the gold, as well as the importance of volunteering and giving back to the community. We were also fortunate to be able to send several of our members to other exceptional conferences throughout the year for some excellent training opportunities – Christine Walter and Ashley Goins went to the Area III conference in Greenville, Jodi Chapin and I participated in the Fall President’s/PE conference in Memphis, and Becki Rundels and Kate Merrell attended the ODI conference in Tampa. Jaimee Peirce represented our League at the State Public Affairs Committee (SPAC) conference in Boca Raton with SPAC’s priorities being young adults emerging from foster care, booster seats, Guardian Ad Litem funding and the controversial HPV vaccine for girls to prevent cervical cancer. Leadership Team – We had an outstanding leadership team this year and had our first Board meeting and Leadership Retreat in June at the beautiful National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach. This year’s retreat focused on being an appreciative leader, delegating effectively and meeting management. We also had amusing team building exercises and icebreakers conducted by Operation Explore. We capped off our productive retreat with “Croquet and Cocktails” and had a really fun (and competitive!) croquet tournament. In January, we had a mini-retreat for our leadership team where we focused on the importance of keeping an organized notebook (which we are calling a “Bluebook”) because so few notebooks had been passed down to the new committee chairs during the last several years. Detailed and helpful information that should be included in the Bluebooks was presented, and the importance of going over the notebooks at the end of the year with the new chairpersons was stressed. Sustainer Patricia Lebow, the Managing Partner in the law firm of Broad and Cassel, also shared her insight and wisdom on being a good leader. We ended the year by having a huge celebration at my house to thank the leadership team for their hard work and dedication and to honor them for their accomplishments! Provisionals – We decided go back to having one provisional course lasting from September to May rather than having two shorter courses as we had been doing for a few years. This decision was based on the belief that the Provisionals received better training and got a more thorough understanding of the JL and its requirements by having a longer course and that we would have a higher retention rate by having a more intensive program. During their course, the Provisionals had several fun “girls night out” parties, had a Super Saturday project in which they helped make over the girls’ rooms at the Nelle Smith Residence, continued their PB & J project of feeding snacks to elementary school children and contributed over 350 volunteer hours to our projects. Sustainers – The Sustainers were extremely active this year with Bonnie Siegfried and Mary Kurucz leading the way and planning many exciting and well-attended events. It was fantastic to have them more involved in the League! They started the summer with “Dine-A-Rounds” at the Sailfish Marina and Cucina, followed by their annual Sustainer Breakfast at HQ, dinner and shopping at the Vendor Fair at the National Croquet Center, Holiday decorating at Quantum House, volunteering for the Race for the Cure, dinner and dancing at the Singer Island Ocean Front Pavilion and Victorian Tea at the Chesterfield (with founding JLPB member Virginia Wilson attending the tea!) The Sustainers also started a successful Book Club, continued to play Bridge and have plans for a Garden Club. This year, the actives voted to increase the Sustainer dues from $85 to $100. General Membership Meetings – Our annual survey revealed that our members wanted more meetings in the south end rather than having all of them in Palm Beach Gardens which we had done for several years. Therefore, we had our first three GM meetings at the National Croquet Center. In September, we kicked off the year with a wonderful buffet dinner on the veranda before the meeting. In October, we held one large shopping fair (rather than having a few vendors at each of the meetings as we had done previously) in which we had over 50 awesome vendors and made over $4000 to supplement the Arrangements budget. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we also had two breast cancer survivors and phenomenal speakers, Kristin Hoke (a prominent, local news anchor) and Elizabeth DeWoody (former Junior Leaguer and 2007 Komen Race for the Cure Chairperson) bring us to tears as they talked about their life changing experiences and courageous battles! In November, we held Cluster meetings at neat places such as Sushi Jo, Gatsby’s, O’Sheas Pub, Nordstrom’s, Saks, Whole Foods, Old Palm Country Club, Artist for a Day (painting pottery) and the movies! We had our fabulous 17th annual Holiday luncheon at the Breakers in December which included modern dance and ballet performances by students from Dreyfoos School of the Arts. For the February GM meeting, we were back at the Doubletree in PB Gardens and were extremely moved by Vicki Lukis, a new Sustainer transfer, as she spoke of her remarkable journey spending time in prison for mail fraud, the impact it made on her and her involvement with the GAP program. GAP is an amazing project helping girls in the juvenile detention system achieve emotional stability that was also presented that evening and voted in for the 2007-08 League year. In March, our membership was brought to tears once again by our guest speaker, Katy Kern, one of our active members who shared her touching story about adopting two siblings through the foster care system. Linda Pope from the Children’s Home Society also spoke about foster care in general. In April, we held our very successful Placement Fair during which the different chairs showcased their committees. We then handed out silly awards to different committees and individuals in a pep rally fashion to honor their achievements (i.e. – we gave some of our members a bucket for bailing out a committee, a key for being the key to our success, alka seltzer for adding extra “fizz” to our meetings, rakes for “raking” in a lot of money, etc.) Finally, the annual May dinner and awards ceremony was held at the beautiful City Club in North Palm Beach where we celebrated an extremely successful year! In addition, mini-grants were awarded to eleven deserving non-profits and the JL scholarship was presented to Miss Kaitlyn Snead of Palm Beach Gardens High School. Community Projects – The League was in its 2nd year of Children’s Education as its focus area. Our projects were: 4U2 Discover, our Signature Project, whereby we served over 500 kids in the Boys and Girls Club, Project Hope, The Lords Place, Opportunity Inc. and Adopt a Family by taking them to the Science Museum, the Dreher Park Zoo, the Maltz Jupiter Theater, the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, the Palm Beach Opera, the Dance Factory, Lion Country Safari, and the Kravis Center; Eye and Ear Alert, our Legacy Project and longest running one (over 35 years!), in which we screened about 780 preschoolers for vision and hearing problems; Done in a Day (events included Kids Fitness Festival; pumpkin painting at the Mounts Botanical Gardens Fall Family Festival; assembling centerpieces for Hugs for Kids Conference on Child Abuse; helping with the kids’ races at Race for the Cure – we also had a JL team of 57 people and raised $5115 in additional donations; Polar Express at the WPB library; Norton Museum Holiday Party; Palm Beach Atlantic University Children’s Symphony, AJLI wide program called Kids in the Kitchen where we helped to increase children’s awareness on nutrition, had cooking demonstrations at Whole Foods and kids made their own healthy dishes; Junior Achievement K-Day and Career Pathways after school program and Art-a-Palooza at Armory Arts Center); Nelle Smith Residence, our mentoring program for girls ages 12-18 in foster care, in which we provided life skills speakers once a month, had makeovers for the girls, took them on outings – dinner, the movies, the Rapids Water Park, concerts, the South Florida fair and the Ft. Lauderdale Science Museum, as well as funded a trip around the state to visit colleges and to St. Augustine to learn about Florida’s history; Bear Hug in which we assisted with arts and crafts, reading and tutoring for children at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital; and the Docent Program where we created a volunteer manual and worked on establishing a docent program at the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum (housed in the old historical courthouse in downtown WPB) to open in March 2008. Fundraisers – Many of our fundraisers had a monumental, record-breaking year! Our Fundraisers included Cotillion in which we raised over $21,300 by teaching etiquette and dancing to 125 kids from 15 schools, culminating in a Mardi Gras themed dinner dance at the Marriott; Bloomindales Shopping Benefit raising $11,298; Family Portrait Day netting $2950; and the Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon held at the Breakers in April with Lilly Pulitzer as the presenting sponsor. This was truly an exceptional event – the ballroom looked dazzling decorated in Lilly and many of the guests looked very festive wearing Lilly. The WVOY speaker was Victoria Colligan, Co-Founder of Ladies who Launch, an organization that helps women start and expand their own businesses and creative ventures. One of the highlights was having Peggy Reynolds, one of our League’s founding members, in attendance! Sustainer Kathryn C. Vecellio was the event benefactor & honorary chairman, and Past JL President Nancy Myers of the Science Museum was named Volunteer of the Year out of 21 nominees! An unprecedented $135,000+ was raised. There was even more excitement in April with the debut of our new cookbook, Worth Tasting, a Culinary Tour Through the Architecture of the Palm Beaches, with the beautiful cover designed by one of our own active members! About 1500 cookbooks were sold in less than a month raising $32,000! Other Points of Significance – The JLPB won the Bernay’s Community Service Award presented by the Gold Coast PR Council. We held a Past President’s breakfast in January at HQ with 18 past presidents in attendance! We made huge strides with Endowment by establishing the 1941 Society (because 1941 was the year the JLPB was formed). If a member donates $1941, they receive their name on a plaque at HQ and are honored with a pin designed by Sustainer and jeweler Zan Hogan. In just one month, five members joined this Society (Nanette Winzell, Kathryn Vecellio, Shirley Toothman, Dawn Burkhead and Vicki Lukis), thereby increasing our Endowment by almost $10,000! Our PR committee was exceptional – they distributed press kits to each member, developed an excellent one page fact sheet about the League and really increased our exposure in the community. We voted to implement a sponsorship committee to help maximize our financial goals and minimize our members’ quotas and monetary commitments. Undercurrents never looked better, and the ad revenue completely covered all costs of printing. We revamped and improved our annual Membership Survey to be able to learn more about member satisfaction, community impact and opportunities for growth. We ended the year with approximately 184 active members, 6 active transfers, 504 sustainers and welcomed 35 Provisionals at the May dinner. Our extraordinary members provided approximately 2000 service hours to the community this year! (Amy Teets Triggs)

2007 – 2008: What an extraordinary year! Imagine a world where each individual, regardless of class or caste, economic or education status, asked “What can I do for you?” — what a difference this would make! The League year kicked off with this theme, lots of excitement and great appreciation for our Membership. We held our first Board of Directors meeting and Leadership Retreat at the National Croquet Center in June. The Leadership Retreat began early in the morning with Croquet and refreshments graciously served on the lawn. We teamed up by Council system and had a fabulous time learning the game and getting to know each other!

Susan Mayes and Hope D’Alessandro were the proud winners of the Croquet Championship at the end of the morning. We then headed in for 5 hours of fun and learning with a new leadership training program which included; the League Organizational Structure, Strategic Planning –The Power of One, Leadership Tools, Resources, Financials and Administrative Support.. *** From there, we were in full swing! The Summer brought about 2 very significant Votes; Web / Data (Chair – Aimee Shaughnessy) launched for the first time Online Membership Voting for our Headquarters Renovation, a Labor of Love, and Team Cocktail! – Celebrating Volunteerism, a new format for our 10th Anniversary Women Volunteer of the Year event. The August Meet & Greet hosted by Member At Large (Emily Perrotto) andProvisional Membership (Chairs – Rachel Dennehy, Meaghan Flenner) had a fabulous turnout by prospective candidates and sponsors! *** We soared into September with a new General Membership Meeting structure, a 90 minute format from start to finish – think Oprah-style with time even allotted for Membership Open Mike. Arrangements (Chair – Jill Pritch King) broke ground with a Pass the Piggy concept at each GM meeting to impact more personal areas of need in the community. The Pass the Piggy summary for the year was September: Kristen Hoke, Susan G. Komen ($165.00), December: Nelle Smith – Allowance Supplement ($1010.00), January: Lincoln Elementary School in Riviera Beach ($350.00) with a Planning Council Grant ($1000.00) in addition, February: It Takes a Village ($800.00), March: South Olive Elementary – Safety Patrol Sponsorship ($660.00) and April: In Memory Of A Hero ($300.00). Our Headquarters Renovation was underway spearheaded by Communications Council (Chair – Lisa Jaloski, Administrative Vice President) and Sustainer Chair (Lisa Lettenmaier). The $130,000 Renovations included all new wallpaper, carpet, Hurricane French doors & windows, paint, a new kitchen and appliances, furniture restoration – upholstered & stripped, new office furniture, technology upgrades (all wireless & internet access thanks to the support of member Ashley Shipman), cookbook shelving, and more! The large conference room renovations were generously underwritten by Sustainer and Past President Mrs. Kathryn (Katie) C. Vecellio, in the amount of $33,707. Our new JLPB Cookbook, Worth Tasting (Chairs – Kimberly Lyon and Kate Merrell), recipient of the Best Books Award Finalist from USA Book News in the Regional Cookbooks category, created a big splash at Bloomingdales with 3 culinary demonstrations and samplings. *** October began with our Sustainer Breakfast facilitated by Education & Training (Chair – Christine Walter) and hosted by Sustainers (Becky Isiminger, Susan Murray) at Becky’s beautiful home in North Palm Beach due to our HQ renovations. The Executive Committee (Jodi Chapin, Esther LaBovick, Lisa Jaloski, Tami Augen, Susan Mayes, Ashley Goins, Allyson Andres and Tricia Taeger) presented all of the amazing work each Council had planned throughout the year and our fist JLPB-designed apparel by Pink Gator was also introduced to enthusiastic response. Done In A Day (Chairs – Sachi Yannaccone, Jennifer Jones) team up with Provisional Membership to provide volunteers for the Mounts Botanical Family Fall Festival. As a first, the League provided volunteers for the entire Festival not just our traditional and loved pumpkin-painting booth. Led by the superb Arrangements Committee, our 2nd Annual Holiday Vendor Fair with 40+ vendors, including the launch of the Tiffany designed JLPB jewelry line, was a great success and raised $5,000 for the League. Our GM meeting recognized and awarded Senator Jeff Atwater for his tremendous support and dedication to the work we are doing with the Girls Advocacy Project (GAP), mentoring young girls in the WPB Juvenile Corrections Center. GAP (Chairs – Joella Davis, Maura Connelly) completed 14+ sessions by year end, including; health, beauty, nutrition, dance, jewelry making, job and money skills, addressing addiction, journaling and group discussions. GAP alone contributed more that 150+ Volunteer (15-Hours) completed. The AJLI President / President Elect Conference was held in Minneapolis, MN and was attended by Esther LaBovick, President Elect and Jodi Chapin, President. Done On A Dime (Chair – Tasha Dickinson) launched its record breaking year with the Bloomies October Charity event. Done on a Dime went on to support through out the year our 2nd Annual JLPB Crew Cuts Event, the Stuart Weitzman In-store Holiday Event, Saks 5th Avenue Milly Event and the Men of the League Celebrity Bartending Event at Amici, Palm Beach to raise more than $7,000 with 50+ Volunteer (15-Hours) completed. Due to the extremely successful Family Portrait Day (Chair – Amy Quattlebaum), it was expanded this year to include a Fall Holiday shoot and a Spring Mother’s Day Shoot. The October Fall event exceeded $2400 in net income to support the League and the Spring event sold out with 22 shoots and added beautiful bracelets to the repertoire for Mother’s Day. In support of our mission to train women volunteers, Education & Training hosted a very successful Public Relations and Media training for 25 members the last week of the month. *** November continued the tradition of Cluster meetings, lead by Placement(Chairs – Jennifer Donegan, Terri Fekete) and facilitated by the Board of Directors, were held at various and fun spots throughout the County; from Sushi Jo’s in WPB to meetings hosted in Placement Advisor’s homes. Women Volunteer of the Year – Team Cocktail! (Chairs – Carolyn Broadhead, Kristen Cashel, Kelly Ring) launched 2 pre-event parties; Café Boulud in Palm Beach and Metronome Grand Brasserie at PGA Commons Central. Active and Sustainer Members and guests had a fabulous time while building the momentum for our 10th Anniversary event. Eye and Ear Alert (Chairs – Mari Whittelsey, Teal Pfeifer, Lisa McAmis) celebrated the 39th year of the Legacy JLPB community project with screenings for 12 schools and more than 400 children giving more than 200 Volunteer (15-Hours) completed. Provisional Membership and the 2007 – 2008 Class were well on their way to a phenomenal year! This Committee and Class already had begun launching PMS (Post Meeting Socials) for get-togethers after GM Meetings and by year-end had contributed more than 650 Volunteer (15-Hours)! Their hands on support for both the girls of Nelle Smith and GAP, truly made a significant difference. Even their social events were the talk of the town; Provisional Retreat and Barbecue at Jupiter Reef Park, “Girls Night In” at the Dennehy household, and a fantastic “Girls Night Out” on Clematis Street! *** In December, Special Events (Chairs – Karin Brush, Laurie McCoy) kicked off a fabulous holiday season with the 18th Annual Holiday Luncheon at a new and beautiful venue, the Four Seasons Palm Beach, with more than 212 Members and guests and 40+ children in attendance. The Holiday Luncheon began with Trunk Show Shopping, then fabulous food and the incredibly talented production, CineMagic, performed by the students of The Benjamin School. There was special recognition of the girls of Nelle Smith Residence (Chairs – Amy Royster Bridger, Angelica Medina Wyke) and a Pass the Piggy to supplement the girl’s weekly allowance due to cuts in State budgets. Nelle Smith was very busy this year expanding their support of the girls; 1st Night ‘Care Package’, cultural outings, tickets to popular concerts, birthday dinners, prom dresses, Holiday meals and presents, summer vacation to Orlando theme parks, Beauty Pageants, monthly Life Skills presentations, College campus tours, and a visit from House of Representative Taylor regarding issues in Foster Care in order to impact critical Legislation. They also implemented a Committee “Buddy System” to cement one-on-one relationships and Monday Night Tutoring sessions to assist the girls with homework and prep for tests. The League provided $10,000+ in funding and Committee member, Amie Swan, secured $3,000 additional in private funding. Worth Tasting formally launched the new JLPB Cookbook with over 200 Guests, press, media, and more than 150 Cookbooks sold at the fabulous Worth Tasting on Worth Avenue event! By year end, Worth Tasting sold more than 1,600 Cookbooks with $33,000+ to support League efforts. *** The New Year was off with a bang as the Leadership Team got back together again for the Mid-Year January Leadership Retreat. The training was a working-meeting which included Organization, P&L Budget Exercise, mid-year Accomplishments, Committee Evaluations, Leading the League surveys, and much more. Advocacy (Chairs – Jaimee Peirce, Noemi Coltea) was expanded tremendously this year in both committee size and scope. A new model, JLPB 360* Advocacy Model was created which linked 7 Advocacy Committee Members with each JLPB Community Project and SPAC Task Force / Position. The extremely successful January Legislative Reception was held at the National Croquet Center and included the Junior League of Boca Raton and key members of the Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation. Advocacy attended all SPAC Conferences – summer, fall and an impactful February trip to Tallahassee. With so much happening in the League, communication was in full swing and Web / Data kept everyone informed of each event, volunteer opportunity, meeting, and even news on the Legislative front! 4U2 Discover (Chairs – Elizabeth Bockmeyer, Gibbie Nauman) was well underway by January and by year end served 500 children; 225 school children from Boys and Girls Clubs, Urban Youth Impact, and the St. George Center, received a day at the Science Museum on two Teacher Work Days. 50 pre-school children from Opportunity Inc., children from the St. George Center in Riviera Beach, Girl Scouts and children from Urban Youth Impact also attended the Palm Beach Zoo. More than $6,000 of League funding was provided to support educational opportunities to the children of Palm Beach County. *** February was another over the top month! Cotillion (Chairs – Deanna Herbst, Yvonne Patterson), in its 49th year, celebrated their final dinner dance with 100 — 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls, boys and their families, to highlight their newly-learned ballroom dance moves and etiquette. Cotillion raised more than $14,000 to support the League and 150+ Volunteer (15-Hours) completed. The Women Volunteer of the Year 10th Anniversary ‘Celebrating Volunteerism’ evening cocktail event celebrated at The Beach Club, Palm Beach with more than 300 attendees, a live band and out of this world food. Led again by the invincible Chairs and Committee from the year past, the 10th Anniversary was a tremendous success with tickets sales, sponsor donations, raffle tickets and silent auction to raise more than $60,000 to support the League’s efforts. Lilly Pulitzer was also announced at the event as the JLPB 2008 Official Fashion Sponsor in concordance with the newly launched JLPB Sponsorship model. Sponsorship (Chair – Rena Toppe) launched this first year centralized fundraising model to provide greater benefits to Sponsors for League-wide benefits versus event-specific fundraising. Sponsorship was also extremely successful in signing National City as the JLPB 2008 – 2009 Official Financial Sponsor! In honor of the Lilly Pulitzer’s sponsorship, Lilly Palooza was born! Chaired by the incredible Provisional Social Chair (Karen Counes) and Provisional Member volunteers (Sue Gibson, Laura Wissa, Sandi McCullough and Courtney Stafford), a VIP bus was chartered to the opening of the Lilly Pulitzer store in Aventura. The Shop, Sip & Social trip included Pink Lilly cocktails, lite bytes, and even a custom made Lilly-inspired CD. Back in Palm Beach, the shopping continued into the next day at the C’Orrico “Enter the Dragon” event for a preview of the men’s line and Meet & Greet with the designers. Planning Council (Chair – Esther LaBovick, President Elect) presented the 2008 – 2011 Focus Area of Children’s Welfare which was voted and approved by Membership! *** March carried the momentum with a full schedule of fabulous projects, events and critical Membership meetings and votes. In our 3rd year of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County Docent program, (Chairs – Alice Randolph, Nicole Guari) it was a tremendous celebration for the City of WPB, and all of Palm Beach County, with the opening of the Richard and Pat Johnson History Museum. The committee created brochures and purchased & coordinated a ‘state of the art’ computer and software application for the Docent program. There is a plaque recognizing the JLPB located in the History Museum and a VIP Reception, in honor of the JLPB, was hosted by the Historical Society. The League provided $2,000+ in funding, bringing this multi-year project to completion. Fund Development (Chair – Kelly White) presented the 2008 – 2009 recommended Projects, income & expense, placements, and quota. Membership voted and approved to continue the following Fund Development Projects; Woman Volunteer of the Year Event, Cotillion (North County), Cookbook, Sponsorship, Done On A Dime Program(s) – Family Portrait Day, Website Links / Advertising Revenue, JLPB Designs Pinkgatoronline.com, Shopping Events (including Bloomies), and Store and Restaurant Openings. Membership also voted and approved to adopt the following new Fund Development Projects; Cotillion (South County) and a new Done On A Dime Program – The $20,000 Concept Online Program. Community Research (Chairs – Mary Bart Houston, Becki Rundels) presented the 2008 – 2009 recommended Projects, funding, placements and Membership Volunteer (15-Hours). Membership voted and approved to continue the following Community Projects and associated funding; Done In A Day ($10,000), Eye and Ear Alert ($5,000), 4U2 Discover ($10,000), Nelle Smith ($12,000), and GAP ($6,500). Membership voted and approved to Sunset the Docent Program since the 3-year project was complete with the March 2008 launch. Membership also voted and approved to adopt the new Community Project – PACE (Practical, Academic and Cultural Education) Center for Girls with funding of $7,500 to $10,000. Undercurrents (Chair – Tricia Wagner) our premier JLPB monthly magazine, arrived at our doors within the first week of each month. In March, the first JLPB Shiny Sheets edition of Undercurrents celebrated our gracious Giving Partners, Honored Volunteers, and Community Partners. The March edition, with 14 spectacular color pages, was also provided to Women Volunteer of the Year Sponsors, Honored Volunteers, Past Winners and our supporting Non-Profits. The Transfer Team (Chairs – Jen Kypreos, Pam Schanel) was at the top of their game all year organizing special events for Transfers and a pre-General Membership dinner. With the assistance of Web / Data and Membership feedback, the Transfer Team created the My Favorite Places Guide of Restaurants, Physicians, Recreation, Shopping, Personal Care, Children and Pet “Stuff” for all of our Members to use and add to for years to come! Kelly White and Ellen Vaughan represented the JLPB at the annual AJLI Organizational Development Institute (ODI) conference in Charlotte, NC and Education & Training conducted Closerware Web / Data Training for 30+ Members. *** April celebrated Done In A Day’s tremendous year-long success with 16 completed Community Projects, more than 276 Volunteer shifts fulfilled, 600+ Volunteer (15-Hours) completed and $8,000 in funding provided to the Community! Projects included Mounts Botanical Gardens Family Fall Festival, PACE, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Halloween Party, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Turkey Gobble, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Secret Shopper, Boys Town Thanksgiving Basket Brigade, Polar Express, Hope for the Holidays, Race for the Cure, three Habitat for Humanity events, the 3rd Annual Kids in the Kitchen (the JLPB was chosen as 1 of 7 Leagues internationally to participate in a pilot program called The Healthy Shopping Challenge), Lincoln Elementary Bike Helmet project, and Greenacres Garden Project with the Sustainer Garden Club (Sustainer Chairs – Bonnie Siegfried, Mary Kurucz and Garden Club Chair – Laura McLeod) . With all of the amazing work by each Committee, Public Relations (Rena Toppe, Rebecca Seelig, Jennifer Jones, and support from Ashley Goins) had significant success raising JLPB awareness in the media; WVOY Celebrating Volunteerism – New York Social Diary, Palm Beach Post ‘Notables’, Palm Beach Daily News ‘Shiny Sheet’, Kids in the Kitchen ‘Healthy Shopping Challenge’ – Channel 12 News, Palm Beach Post Calendar, Docent – Palm Beach Post supplement congratulating the Historical Society and the History Museum opening, and many more. Recording Secretary (Ashley Goins) was a true historian as she logged the vast minutes for each Board of Directors and General Membership Meetings. Placement kicked off the April GM Meeting with a fabulous Placement Fair, representing 27 Committees, a Placement Fair Guide and Placement and Provisional Advisors available for all Q&A. Placement also concluded the year with more than 200 Golden Palms given for Member recognition! Nominating (Chair – Hope D’Alessandro) finished the year with another extraordinary team of Leaders! The 2008 – 2009 Executive Committee: President – Esther LaBovick, President Elect – Lisa Jaloski, Administration Vice President – Kelly White, Community Vice President – Mary Bart Houston, Corresponding Secretary – Jennifer Jones, Recording Secretary – Julia Pichette, Treasurer – Tricia Taeger, and Treasurer Elect – Kimberly Lyon. The 2008 – 2009 Nominating Committee new members are: Kim Dahlmeier, Allyson Andres, and Jodi Chapin. They will join existing members Sabra Ingeman and Chair Christine Walter. Delegate C Attendee to Spring 2008 AJLI Annual Conference in San Diego was Amy Quattlebaum. *** The amazing accomplishments by Membership continued into May! The month began with the long-awaited Open House of our newly renovated and gorgeous Headquarters! The HQ Open House Committee (Lisa Jaloski, Carolyn Broadhead, Kelly White, Esther LaBovick, Hope D’Alessandro, Jodi Chapin) launched the Board of Directors approved new Capital Campaign “The Giving Tree”. Sustainers received a special invitation to visit HQ in the morning to see the absolutely gorgeous renovations. Sustainer guests included Clare O’Keeffe, Past President Mary Reynolds, Tina O’Brien, Laura Burke (office manager extraordinaire), Sustainer Chair Lisa Lettenmaier, and honored Sustainer and Past President, Kathryn Vecellio. A special dedication was made to Mrs. Vecellio for her gracious underwriting of the Conference Room renovations. The evening brought about more festivities as the Provisional Class hosted the HQ Open House event for Active membership, featuring dishes from the JLPB Worth Tasting Cookbook and a special underwriting by Palm Beach Proper! An end of year in-depth Financial Review (Allyson Andres, Tricia Taeger, Kimberly Lyon, Esther LaBovick, Lisa Jaloski, Jodi Chapin) insured we had met the committed P&L for the HQ Renovations and were on target to meet our year-end League Budget! Strategic Planning (Chair – Tonya Love Cheatham) created a streamlined and focused 2008 Annual Membership Survey based on JLPB strategic initiatives and was able to turn the results around before the end of year concluded! An overwhelming 98% of Membership was Satisfied at year’s end with the largest percentage rating their League experience at the highest level – Extremely Satisfied – all due to the commitment and dedication of each Member this year! Strategic Planning also managed the year-long Power of One tracking with the Board of Directors to insure League alignment with our Strategic Plan. Before we knew it, the Annual May Dinner was upon us and we celebrated at the gorgeous Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach. We were honored by ~130 attendees including Active, Provisional and Sustainer members and their guests, Community Advisory Board (CAB) members and CAB Mini Grant Recipients. Dinner was underwritten from the generous donation by Calibre – Wachovia’s Family Office. Membership Council (Susan Mayes, Corresponding Secretary) presented the 2008 Membership Recognition Awards; both the Above & Beyond Award and the Fundraiser Award were presented to Tonya Siskind (Cookbook Committee). The nominees for the President’s Award were Sherry Gibson, Shelly Albright, and Aimee Dunstan with the President’s Award winner presented to Sherry Gibson. Provisional of the Year and the Presentation of New Actives was presented by Laura Coburn and Karen Counes, Provisional Advisors. Provisional of the Year was awarded to Susan Gibson and 41 Provisionals were inducted into Active Membership. Susan Mayes presented the New Sustainers of which there were 5 total. Hope D’Alessandro (Nominating Chair) presented the annual JLPB Scholarship to the winner, Juliette Joseph from Glades Central Community High School in Belle Glade. The 1941 Society was presented by Jodi Chapin in recognition of Sustainer Clare O’Keeffe and the Esther B. O’Keeffe Foundation for their $5,000 contribution to the Endowment Fund. Esther LaBovick, President Elect and Community Advisory Board Chair, presented $12,500 to the following 2008 Mini-Grant Recipients: Arthur R. Marshall Foundation – Ambassador to the Everglades (Josette Kaufman, Executive Director); Big Brothers Big Sisters of Palm Beach County – Enhanced Mentoring/Childhood Obesity (Terry Lee Kaly, Chief Executive Officer); Boys Town South Florida – Boys Town Family Preservation Program (Noemi Coltea, Associate Development Director); Holy Cross Catholic Preschool & Center – Family Literacy Integration Project (Ana Fundora, Executive Director); Kids in Distress, Inc. – Family Support Services for Foster Care and Diversion Program (Ellyn Okrent, Executive Vice President); Parent-Child Center, Inc. – Parent-Child Resource Library (Kelly McNew, Infant Mental Health Coordinator); Seagull Industries for the Disabled, Inc. – Art Appreciation Program (Linda Moore, Assistant Executive Director). The focus of the 2008 May Annual Dinner was a celebration of Membership, their incredible accomplishments this League year, and passing the baton to an amazing incoming Executive and Leadership Team. *** The End of Year marked significant milestones and measurements for the League in both Community Impact and Fiscal Health. Community Council (Chair – Tami Augen, Community Vice President) through each League Community project offered more than 3,000 hours for 15-Hour Volunteer opportunities and more than $35,000 in financial resources and donations to support League Projects. An additional $24,000 in funding was also given back to the community via Mini-Grants, Donations, Council Grants, Scholarship, and more. Finance Council (Chair – Allyson Andres, Treasurer) through each League Fundraising committee contributed more than $100,000 net income to support the League and provided more than 450 Volunteer hours (15-Hours). The Final Membership count for the year was 213 Actives and 484 Sustainers for a total of 697 Junior League of the Palm Beaches Members. The 2007 – 2008 League year is dedicated to each and every Member – You Made the Difference! (Jodi Leigh Chapin)

2010-2011

  • 70th Anniversary
  • JL reconnected with and was honored by the South Florida Science Museum
  • Worth Tasting on Worth Avenue was made into a stand-alone event. It was moved out from under Cookbook to become a food and wine event
  • Tea and Tastings was created and held at Rosarian Academy, which was the first fundraiser for Worth Tasting on Worth Avenue
  • Republished the first cookbook Palm Beach Entertains for the 70th year
  • Honored the original Cookbook Committee at a luncheon held at the Ritz Carlton in Jupiter
  • Hosted the kickoff party at Tiffany & Co. where the Palm Beach Entertains ladies were in attendance and recognized

2012-2013

  • Undercurrents created a digital version.  Facebook page reached 671 likes. 
  • JLPB’s website was revamped and modernized. 
  • In addition to our 2 trainings for the leadership team, we created council trainings for the first time.  
  • Our new member class took on Kids in the Kitchen as their provisional project.  
  • Created a workshop for women who are interested in running for office or local leadership positions.  The “Women on the Run” event allowed 35 women the chance to learn about the process.  
  • This JLPB year, GAP got a new name, GEMS, and we added boy detainees to the mix. 
  • Pink Palm provided 325 care packages for 6 different organizations.
  • The Nelle Smith girls were starred  in a Fashion Show.  
  • We received grants from Enterprise Rental Car $2,500, SiSpa $5,000, Florida Community Bank $5,000 and The Great Charity Challenge $100,000. Total contributions income: $107,862.05 (includes $100k grant, all other grants & contributions/donations from members to our programs & matching donations)
  • We now have money in the bank to support our projects before we begin the year.
  • The Town Hall, presented by our advocacy committee, at JLPB Headquarters gave speakers from the community a forum to share their knowledge of our advocacy priorities, while we were able to truly learn about our communities’ issues.  
  • This year AJLI held a Hill Day during the annual conference.  We were able to partner with Junior Leagues across the country in Washington DC to lobby for our issues!  
  • We reinstated the Historical Bus Tour for our New Member class. The actives and sustainers came too.
  • We celebrated the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium this year through a special presentation during our Historical Bus Tour, the Family Fun Day and our Kids in the Kitchen event.   On June 7th, we participated in the unveiling ceremony of the newly transformed Center.
  • Community Open House for the grand opening of the Miami Children’s Hospital Nicklaus Outpatient Center in Legacy Place. 
  • Developed Strategic Plan, voted on the Governance and Management split, created a Bylaws ad hoc committee and revised the bylaws that were presented and voted on in 2013/2014, Fund Development: added Grant Writing and Planning for 75th anniversary, Kicked off Issue Based Community Impact process and Nominating added application for slated positions and earlier vote on nominating committee .
  • Heart of the League was created.
  • Lead Active positions were created.
  • First year that JLPB has had a Fundraising Council.   Laura Wissa, acting as our very first Fundraising VP,  We raised $102,962 through our fundraisers. 
  • We created a holiday market called Deck the Palms and held it out the South Florida Fairground.
  • Raised  over $210,000, volunteered numerous hours, branded ourselves in the marketplace,  and created  a year full of wonderful memories and community impact!
  • COMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL 
      • Our events were posted in blogs, websites, and charity registers all over the country, Undercurrents created a digital version, Facebook page reached 671 likes, and the website was revamped and modernized.
  • MEMBERSHIP COUNCIL 
      • Council Trainings  were created.  
      • Our New Member class took on Kids in the Kitchen as their provisional project and  the Historical Bus Tour was reinstated.
  • Heart of the League was created.  
      •  A Town Hall was held and gave speakers from the community a forum to share their knowledge of our advocacy priorities. 
      • This year AJLI held a Hill Day.  We were able to partner with Junior Leagues across the country in Washington DC to lobby for our issues!  
  • COMMUNITY  COUNCIL
      • GAP got a new name, GEMS, and we added boy detainees to the mix. 
      • Pink Palm provided 325 incredible care packages to for 6 different organizations and even held a build at a GMM.
      • The Nelle Smith girls kicked off our very first meeting  with a Fashion Show for us.  
      • We received grants from multiple companies including winning  The Great Charity Challenge . Total contributions income: $107,862.05    
        • Winning these grants changed our entire budgeting process.  
  • FUNDRAISING COUNCIL
      • This was the first year that JLPB has had a Fundraising Council.   Laura Wissa acted as our very first Fundraising VP. money.   
      • We parlayed the success of last year’s Sip N Shop to create a holiday market which we named, Deck the Palms.
      •  We raised $102,962 through our fundraisers. 
  • PLANNING COUNCIL
      • Developed a 3 year Strategic Plan, voted on the Governance and Management split, created a Bylaws ad hoc committee and revised the bylaws that were presented and voted on in 2013/2014, Fund Development: added Grant Writing and Planning for 75th anniversary, Kicked off Issue Based Community Impact process and Nominating added application for slated positions and earlier vote on nominating committee .
  • PARTNERSHIPS
      • We rejuvenated our relationship with the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium.  We participated in the unveiling ceremony of the newly transformed Center.
      • Community Open House for the grand opening of the Miami Children’s Hospital Nicklaus Outpatient Center was a special President’s Project.  
      • We partnered with several women’s organizations to host a workshop for women interested in running for office or local leadership positions.  The “Women on the Run” event allowed 35 women the chance to learn about the process.  
  • In total we raised a little over $210,000, volunteered numerous hours, branded ourselves in the marketplace,  and  created  a year full of wonderful memories and community impact!

2013-2014

  • Volunteered 3,000+ hours outside of committees
  • Provided $80,000+ to community partners and raised $90,000+ to spend in 2014-2015
  • Examined three possible impact areas – education & literacy, hunger & nutrition, and foster care:
    • Monthly speakers on each topic
    • Done in a Day projects working with partners in each impact area
    • Membership voted to adopt foster care as our impact area  
  • Board of Directors developed and approved investment and endowment policies
  • Bylaws significantly streamlined and member policies developed
  • Split governance and management with Christine Walter -first ever Executive Vice President
  • Moved Deck the Palms from South Florida Fairgrounds to Palm Beach County Convention Center
  • Hosted Worth Tasting on Worth Avenue sponsored by Braman Motorcars
  • Week-long volunteer event with Junior League of Boca Raton to celebrate National Volunteer Week 
  • Community projects: Done in a Day, Nelle Smith, Girls Education and Mentoring Sessions at the Department of Juvenile Justice, Pink Palm (creating baskets of essential items for children in various community programs), and eye and ear alert
  • Partnered with Junior Assembly to jointly host our Cotillion program on Palm Beach
  • Fall and mid-year leadership retreats open to all members and sent 10 women to Organizational Development Institute conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
  • Co-sponsored “Women on the Run” providing local women tools needed to run for political office

2014-2015

2014-2015 was the first League year under our new focus area: Foster Care. We launched a new community project to support this initiative, Junior MINTS. Today, the Junior League of the Palm Beaches mentors girls ages 12-15 by providing educational and recreational activities to help the girls flourish, build self-esteem and make connections. The program focuses on building skills that all girls need to become successful young women. 

Two successful fundraisers supported our community projects: Deck the Palms Holiday Market, and Worth Tasting on Worth Avenue. Both were huge successes. 

In order to respond to the needs of our members, we introduced two new initiatives: the Points System, and Active Gold Membership. Under the Points System, a JLPB member commits to earning a set number of points per year – which may be earned at GMMs, Volunteer events, trainings, and more. This change eliminated the requirement that a member must attend a minimum number of GMM meetings each year.  Members who have 8 years or more of service, can choose to be an Active Gold member. Under this program, a member can choose between either serving on a committee, or earning points – but she does not have to do both. 

All GMMs were held at PGA National Resort and Spa, and were contained to one hour. 

We also began planning for the 75th anniversary, including a signature project to renovate the Vita Nova house, and a black-tie gala.

2015-2016

  • Junior League of the Palm Beaches celebrated its 75th Anniversary
  • JLPB was the charity beneficiary of the Palm Beach Jewelry and
  • Antique show.  They hosted a cocktail event on opening night in our
  • honor and made a donation to the League.
  • Pioneer linens hosted a ladies’ tea in honor of our 75th anniversary.
  • Many actives and sustainers attended.
  • President Laura Russell filmed a Public Service announcement
  • highlighting foster care needs in our community.  The spot aired,
  • county wide, all year.
  • In commemoration of our 75th anniversary, under the leadership of
  • co-chairs Courtney Hickey and Stephanie Pittington, we began
  • renovation of Vita Nova Village, a residential facility for 27 boys and
  • girls, ages 18-25 that have aged out of the foster care system and
  • would otherwise be homeless.  We completed phases one and 2 of the
  • Renovation.  This included remodeling and redecoration of 8 units
  • and the outside common areas.  
  • Celebration of our 75th anniversary with a gala at the Eau Palm
  • Beach.  Over 300 people attended.
  • JLPB was honored by the Palm Beach County Commission for 75
  • years of service to the Community.
  • The Points system adopted by membership
  • This was the first year our League created the position of EVP Elect
  • We were Great Charity Challenge winners – $26,000
  • Most successful Deck the Palms to date (most money raised and
  • largest attendance)
  • Accepted 90 new members

2017-2018

The 77th year of the Junior League of the Palm Beaches experiences tremendous growth for the programs and opportunities offered in our community.  We relished in the 60th Anniversary of a legacy program of the JLPB and the return of Cotillion, now Junior League of the Palm Beaches Cotillion Academy , an 8 month curriculum designed to help our next generation of leaders and philanthropists be successful in the boardroom as well as the ballroom.  Our newly formed partnership with Palm Beach Atlantic University made it possible for our Cotillion Academy graduates to participate in courses and earn a certificate, taught by the Dean of the MacArthur School of Leadership, Dr. Craig Domeck. Students from across the county, celebrated the 60th Anniversary with a 3 course dinner and ballroom dance at the historic Breakers Hotel, Palm Beach.  We congratulate all our graduates and wish them continued success! 

This year, our members experienced an unprecedented number and quality of education and training opportunities offered by the Junior League of the Palm Beaches.  From an intense, day long media training offered at our JLPB Headquarters by nationally renowned trainers, to hosting a series of content driven General Membership Meetings dedicated to Leadership Development, Women and Mentorship and Women in Business, our members truly benefited from unique member experiences that added value personally and professionally, in more ways than one.  Finally the Symposium on Human Trafficking, convened record breaking membership numbers at the Pavilion in Downtown West Palm Beach, exposing the devastating prevalence and effects of this modern day epidemic, sadly prevalent in our county.  

Finally, as we successfully implemented the final stages of the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan, this year celebrated genuine and rewarding member satisfaction experiences at all levels of our organization.  Our then newest program, Internal Mentorship, was designed and launched with the purpose of facilitating meaningful connections between our over 770 Junior League of the Palm Beaches members.  We were positively overwhelmed by the number of past presidents, sustainers and active members who participated in this collaboration, one that celebrated the hard work, determination and perseverance of women, who are invested in developing their full potential, personally and in the community, today and everyday.

2018-2019

Board of Directors – The Board of Directors consisted of 11 women including President, Courtney Stafford Hickey; Melissa Perry, Executive Vice President; Laura Wissa, President-elect; Carley Bockmeyer, Treasurer;l Alex Chase, Secretary; Ilene Passler, Nominating Chair; and Board Members At Large, Marcelle Burke, Pam Schanel, Xiomi Penn, Sue Gibson, and Sabra Ingeman.

The BOD members began the year by mapping out a new Strategic Plan identifying what we see for the future of our League. These 11 women worked collectively to identify Diversity & Inclusion, Community Impact, Fiscal Responsibility, Brand Awareness, Creating Community Leaders, and Increasing Engaged Membership as the pillars by which we are going to strive and work into the future. 

Looking at these initiatives the BOD voted unanimously to approve the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. For the first time, this organization started meaningful conversations around Diversity & Inclusion and what it means to our members and the future of JLPB. The task force was spearheaded by Board member Marcell Burke and Xiomi Penn and past president Shelly Albright and went on to include 10 more equally amazing women. These women unilaterally sought out and partnered with other non-profits in our area who shared the same Mission as JLPB but whose membership looked a little different than our own. Our outreach included Compass, The Links, Best Buddies, Urban League of Cities, The Jewish Women’s Foundation, and Women Helping Women in Recovery.

The Task Force successfully integrated D&I into all four of our councils. The Communications Council reflected our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion in all internal and external communications from social media, Eblasts, agendas, and marketing materials. The Community Council held volunteer sessions and socials with our newfound partners. The Membership Council incorporated Education and Training sessions and General Membership Meetings around D&I topics to raise awareness. And more than once, we have hosted these community partners at our fundraisers. We look forward to the Task Force continuing their work into the 2019-2020 year.

The BOD to also began work on Community Impact. The BOD identified an unmet need in our community that was in our focus area of foster care. They researched and developed a plan by which JLPB could address the need with a potential brick and mortar project. Research indicated group foster care homes were closing due to federal legislation and sought for a way to address the need in PBC for more residential foster care homes. 

ChildNet’s statistics indicated that 68% of the sibling sets that are placed in foster care are separated from their siblings upon removal from their biological parents. As such, JLPB will further research a program called “Operation Impact” to investigate how to address this need in Palm Beach County. Operation Impact is proposed to be a residential home aimed to keep foster siblings together as they navigate the foster care system. A Case for Support was written and shared with the membership. An Ad Hoc was formed for the 2019-2020 year to work towards further research into creating a new 501c3, writing a Mission, planning a budget and timeline, carrying out a feasibility study and executing grant writing and a capital campaign for the project. 

The BOD began and completed Bylaw and Member Policy revisions with the guidance of Board member Pam Schanel and Megan Rogers. Both revisions were passed by the BOD and the membership. The BOD also established the first set of written Management Policies and Procedures and officially adopted BOD Policies and Procedures. The Board went on to assess and adopt additional Risk Management Policies and Procedures. Sixteen more policies addressing emergency preparedness, the angel fund, investment policy statement, endowment policy, independent candidate policy and many more were adopted and can now be found in Digital Cheetah. These governing documents aim to make our League stronger, fairer, more efficient, and more effective moving forward into the future.

Community Advisory Council – This year the Community Advisory Council, spearheaded by Laura Wissa, the President Elect, was comprised of 8 community leaders: Katie Alexander an active volunteer; Jessica Cecere, CEO, Non-Profits First; Julie Demar, Chief Program Officer, ChildNet; Jeff DeMario, CEO, Vita Nova; Stephanie Glavin, Community Engagement, Bank of America; Christina Lambert, City Commissioner, City of West Palm Beach; Charlotte Pelton, President, Pelton & Assoc.; and Jill Weiss, Attorney, & President of the Board of Directors, Susan G. Komen. 

This Council allocated mini grants, distributing $15,000 to support other non-profit’s missions and community programs. Out of 18 applicants, 6 were awarded grants. The mini grant winners are: 

  • Compass – $1500 toward the Lavender Graduation and the Equality Prom for LBGTQ Teens 
  • Dress for Success – $2500 toward their Next Step Job Readiness Program for children who are aging out of Foster Care and need guidance in the job process. The goal is to help break the cycle of poverty 
  • Friends of Foster Care – $3500 for the Kinship Care Program so children in Kinship care can attend and be involved in extracurricular activities.
  • Homeless Coalition – $3000 toward first, last month’s rent and security deposit for an apartment to help a young man or woman aging out of foster 
  • Path to College – $1500 – a new non-profit helping high performing, low income Teens get to college This organization helps with filling out applications, interviewing skills, applying for scholarships and grants and understanding campus life.  
  • YWCA – $3000 – to purchase computers for their children’s program at Harmony House.  Finance Council – This year, the Finance Council took a closer look at JLPB’s Endowment.  

The management documents were updated to allow JLPB more flexibility in how to use and manage the funds, and we are now working on advertising the Endowment in order to make it an integral part in our community project funding streams.

Membership Council – The Membership Council under the leadership of Kristin Kellogg (Membership VP) worked tirelessly to provide a variety of engaging programming for our membership over the 2018-2019 year. 

The New Member Committee welcomed 100 New Members to our League in the Fall and continue to have exceptional retention as the year ends. Those New Members, along with the KITK co-chairs, hosted almost 400 attendees during Kids in the Kitchen at Mounts Botanical Gardens. For the 2019-2020 year, we already have 35 New Members (with a goal of 100) as a result of the efforts of the Recruitment Committee, including a well-attended mingle at 123 Datura. 

The Special Events Committee hosted the Holiday Luncheon at The Jupiter Beach Resort and the theme was “Winter White Wonderland.” May Dinner was at Eau Spa and the theme was “Ocean Breeze and Palm Trees”. 

The Education and Training Committee excelled in planning numerous forums for us to grow and learn. Some highlights from our Education in Training programming include the panel on opioid addiction, a course on financial literacy, a floral arrangements class, a grant writing workshop, and this committee hosted a panel discussion at the January GMM on “Focusing on Foster Care.” 

The Arrangement Committee oversaw our General Membership Meetings which were held at Doubletree Hotel in Palm Beach Gardens in the fall and at South Florida Science Museum in the spring. At the April GMM, the Arrangements Committee hosted a Placement Fair where we“Taco’ed About Placement.” 

Member Engagement hosted Cluster meetings in November and March around Palm Beach County and the Transfer Liaisons hosted a variety of socials from North to South County, making sure to offer something for every member’s geographical location. The Member Engagement team called and emailed all members to keep them up to date and check in throughout the year regarding dues, financial obligations and points requirements. 

Behind the scenes, the Points Trackers posted points in record time to keep all member obligations accurate on our Digital Cheetah program throughout the year. 

The Membership Chair processed countless status changes, including welcoming several Sustainers back as Actives. We also began outreach for exclusive JLPB Member Benefits to be made available for all members soon.  

Communications Council – The Communications Council under the leadership of Sarah Kudisch (Communications VP) was hard at work this year and achieved all goals set forth on the JLPB Annual Plan. 

The Communications Chair position was truly established this year as the right- hand to the VP.  This role helped keep projects on time and helped organize various requests as they came in. 

The Digital Media team oversaw the branding project for this year with JLPB and streamlined our visual appearance and messaging.  We also received a free version of Canva to help create graphics on the go which was helpful.  Creative items were saved so future use could update with brand creative and use the templates to cut down on time. This team also successfully visually incorporated our D&I Commitment into all creative. 

The eLeague Committee had an overwhelming amount of accomplishments, but to list a handful:  

  • Aligned our volunteer hours with spokes of our Mission
  • Updated member playbook and public website
  • Rolled out Merchant Corner for DTP
  • Incorporated new fundraiser into website
  • Added SEO into our public website to help us achieve a high organic search rankings
  • Researched and implemented new modules in Digital Cheetah for Donor Relations & Self Check-In. 

The Publishing Committee successfully completed three Undercurrents on time and within budget. 

The Historian added historical information from Closerware into DC. 

Community Impact worked with Digital Team to create the first JLPB infographic. 

The PR Committee was grateful to PATHOS for their in-kind donation and for oversight of social media platforms on Facebook and Instagram.