President’s Note

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”-

Mother Theresa

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Management Team, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I cannot wait to see many of you at our upcoming Holiday Luncheon! This is my favorite time of the year; I love any reason to spend time with friends and family during this season. The twinkly lights, the decor, the music, and the fellowship, all give me that warm fuzzy feeling. The spirit of all the holidays currently happening is exactly what brought me to JLPB in the first place: to give to others and help make our community a better place for those in need. I could continue to wax poetic about the holidays, but luckily we have some very exciting League updates for you with regard to programming and some Nominating reminders.

First, the Board of Directors as adopted two new definitions that will encompass our community work and accompany our new mission statement adopted at our September General Membership Meeting:

The Junior League of the Palm Beaches is committed to providing meaningful opportunities for children and young adults to increase their levels of education and literacy in Palm Beach County. Our nonprofit specifically addresses these challenges through grade readiness, emergent literacy, and life skills programming provided to those in need. 

Junior League of the Palm Beaches also seeks to improve the health and wellness of women and girls in our community through our period supply bank, leadership training opportunities, and educational opportunities in order to empower strong female civic leaders.

We hope these statements will be useful in discussing our community work and impact. At the end of the year, we will have more impact data to accompany these definitions, which will help our members and community partners to better understand everything we do.

Next, JLPB will be hosting its second 5k “Spring Into Spring Training” on February 3, 2023. This event will be open to everyone and we highly encourage you to invite others to attend as we must fundraise in order to support our community projects. Sign-ups will be available online in December, but we cannot wait to host this event with the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. More updates will be forthcoming next month.

We are also excited to announce a new community partnership with Lean In Girls! In the program’s own words, this “leadership program helps girls see themselves as leaders in a world that often tells them they’re not…[w]e want to equip girls to be self-assured, resilient, and inclusive everyday leaders and inspire them to lead boldly. And we want to the world to remove the obstacles in girls’ way and encourage them to lead on their own terms.” If you would like to read more about the curriculum, you can do so here. AJLI brought this opportunity to local Leagues and the Board of Directors cannot imagine a better partnership at this point in time given our new mission statement and current focus areas. The Community Council will be working to roll out the program with existing partners but if you have any recommendations for potential partners who may benefit from JLPB leading these trainings, please do not hesitate to contact me at president@jlpb.org.

I also wanted to extend some friendly reminders on behalf of the Nominating Committee. JLPB needs you in leadership next year! So please submit your self-nominations for leadership positions by visiting the Nominating page on the Playbook or by clicking here. These are due December 8, 2023. It has been a truly rewarding experience leading the League, and I cannot wait to see who the lovely women are who will lead us next year.

Please remember to submit your absentee ballots for our special slate to secretary@jlpb.org by Friday, December 15th at 6:00 p.m. Late ballots will not be accepted. If you are an active member, you may also vote in person at the Holiday Luncheon on December 16, 2023 at the Four Seasons. Each member who casts a vote, whether in person or via absentee ballot, will receive points. Click here for an absentee ballot. As a reminder, the following ladies have been nominated:Treasurer: Kathryn Sexton
Treasurer-Elect: Cori Lorelli
Events VP: Kirsten Davis

Last but not least, we are still recruiting for the spring new member class, with the upcoming deadline extended to January 15, 2024 for those interested. Please share any prospective new member information with recruitment@jlpb.org and reach out to Membership Vice-President, Julia Roxas, at membershipvp@jlpb.org with any questions about our upcoming recruitment events or member requirements. For those  joining, a special arrangement will be made with their fundraising commitment for the next League year to ensure financial inclusivity for our new spring class members.

As always, if you have any questions or wish to share feedback with me, please do not hesitate to reach out. I will continue to have monthly office hours for those who prefer meeting virtually over zoom as well. Thank you for your continued membership and support of JLPB. We simply could not do what we do without you. We wish you the best during this holiday season, though I will check in once more next month.

 

Chelsea Bellew 
President
Junior League of the Palm Beaches
president@jlpb.org