Junior League Manatee County

We are accepting applications for our Fall Provisional Class. If you were unable to attend the New Membership Mixer on Tuesday, May 26, but are still interested in joining or learning more about the Junior League of Manatee County, it's not too late! Please see our Become a Member section on the left for more information.

The Junior League of Manatee County Inc. is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving the community through effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.

Letter From Our President

President’s Spring Perspective

Spring fever has hit our League! Our League Year may be coming quickly to a close but that hasn’t stopped the members of this group from getting much accomplished in a short period of time. In February, we welcomed the students at the PACE Center for Girls of Manatee County to our annual Women in Strength Awards Luncheon. The committee, led by active member Josie Brannon, put on a beautiful and moving event. The honorees were stellar, the messages to the girls were personal, encouraging and uplifting and those of us lucky enough to attend had a memorable experience to take home. This event would not be possible without the honorees’ willingness to share personal experiences with those in attendance and we owe our gratitude to these women for making a difference in all of our lives.

Less than a month after the luncheon, Junior League put on another big event with our first-ever American Girl Fashion Show. Both shows were sold out with over 300 people attending each show and the committee, led by active member Kara Schiavone and sustainer Annette Larkin, did the job of an army as they created a magical day for many little girls in our community. Daughters and granddaughters of League members shared the stage with other local girls and the American Girl dolls while the audience learned about fashion for girls through history. It was a wonderful event for our community and provided a great opportunity for us to get the word out about League’s presence and our continuing contributions to those in need.

The dust had hardly settled on the American Girl fundraiser when members geared up for our next event, a garage sale at League Office. Thank you to all of you who dropped off donations at the office, we had a variety of goods to sell. Thanks to our great location, committee members led by Ways and Means chair Rachel Adams were able to put on dresses that were a part of the sale and provide advertisement of the sale and the goods as they waved at and beckoned drivers on Manatee Avenue. I understand there are pictures capturing this committee’s dedication and I hope we can share them with everyone soon.

The following weekend, Junior League hosted our first ever members Easter Egg Hunt at League Office. The festivities, planned by active member Katy White, included a visit from the Easter Bunny, loads of eggs for the kids to find, a baby bunny petting zoo, egg dying and tasty treats for all. The party was a great success and the children had a ball. Great going, Katy!

This week we will wrap things up with the Provisionals’ Open House where they will debut the work they have done for the Safe Children Coalition. This group of hard working ladies has improved visitation and resource rooms used by foster children and their families and has timed their Open House to happen during Child Abuse Prevention Month.

As I say goodbye and my year comes to a close, I want to thank everyone, actives and sustainers alike, for the hard work and dedication this year as well as the unbelievable support that Executive Council and I have received. In a climate where the gift of your time is a bigger gift than ever, we came together with the common goal of bettering ourselves and improving our community. The journey is far from over, we haven’t quite solved the challenges with headquarters and there is always more to learn and unmet needs to answer but we made a difference, we have not given up and we remain Women on a Mission.

God bless you, Kara.

President’s Winter Perspective

Happy New Year, Junior Leaguers!
What an exciting time it is to be a part of this organization! We had a festive end to our 2008, with a Christmas Party at active member Jenny Peeples house. It was our first-ever all members Christmas Party and I hope it becomes a new tradition because everyone had a great time. Jenny was an amazing hostess and Executive Council didn’t do too badly with the food either. Thank you to Progressive Insurance for being our sponsor for the evening.

January started with a work day at League office, put together by our mighty Head Quarters Chair and committee all in one, Cheryl Askins. I am not one to get choked up often but walking around the outside of the house, watching the boys and men work on that yard like they were women on a mission, and seeing the storage room in the house along with the storage units outside get a cleaning out and working over by active, provisional and sustainer members, I was truly overwhelmed with gratitude and overcome by the sheer goodness of so many of our members, their spouses, significant others and children. I do not believe we have ever had a more productive work day! Feel free to come by and visit the empty storage room. Thank you!

That Sunday was quickly followed by the Backpacks Re-Stuffing Party for Manatee County foster care children, put on by Anna McSwain’s committee and bolstered by many League member volunteers. It was a picture perfect day in every way and the children played games in the yard, received new shoes, school supplies and bicycle helmets, and munched on popcorn and pizza.

And of course The Beer Tasting Gala! On January 17th, we put on our Beer Tasting Gala fundraiser, led by co-chairs Sarah Mackie and sustainer Sandy Mackie, stacked with a committee that didn’t know how to stop and made possible by the generosity of John Saputo and Gold Coast Eagle Distributing. I can confidently say we were all blown away by what this committee accomplished, not to mention for a fundraiser put together in three short months. It was a party, attendance was amazing and people had a great time. I want to express my immense gratitude for what the committee did for this organization.

Along with all the fun and gratifying work, your Executive Council has also been hard at work trying to put our League in the best place we can during these difficult financial times. We are going to make some changes to membership placement committees, adding a grants writing committee and exploring fundraising opportunities that fit for our membership. We are needed and wanted in this community and we have a strong future of continuing exciting, impactful projects and making a difference wherever we can, as we remain Women on a Mission.

Kara Bettle, President 2008-2009

A Note from the Junior League's President on the New League Year. . .

The Junior League of Manatee County is a volunteer organization of women dedicated to developing the potential of women, improving our community, and promoting voluntarism. We are a part of the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) along with 294 other Junior Leagues in four countries comprised of over 200,000 volunteers. The first Junior League was founded in 1901 by Mary Harriman, at the age of 19, in the City of New York and comprised of 80 young women looking to improve the living conditions of immigrants living in the Lower East Side of the city. Over the years, the focus of the Junior Leagues has shifted to many different social, educational, health, and environmental issues. The Junior League of Manatee County, originally founded in 1978 as the Manatee County Service League, focuses on the needs of women and children.

During the 2008-2009 League year, the Junior League of Manatee County will continue its focus on the welfare of women and children with three community projects. With “Backpacks for Foster Care Children”, we participate in a tri-county back to school party that provides foster care children in Manatee County and neighboring counties with school supplies, backpacks, and bicycle helmets. We also will hold our own party in January at our League Headquarters that will benefit foster care children in Manatee County and their families and provide the children school supplies for the latter half of the year. We are continuing our participation with the international Junior League initiative called “Kids in the Kitchen”. This program is designed to combat childhood obesity by educating children and their families on healthy eating. With our “Women In Strength Awards Luncheon” we will again honor women in the community who have overcome difficult obstacles in their lives and have made a difference in the Manatee County community. Over the last seven years, the Junior League of Manatee County has invited the students at PACE Center for Girls of Manatee County to the awards luncheon and, each year, has honored a graduate from PACE.

Our League members have a 4-hour community service obligation each year which they are to fulfill by volunteering in community projects outside of Junior League. Our Community Affairs committee provides monthly volunteer opportunities by having contact with other non-profit organizations that are in need of manpower.

We are introducing two new community fundraisers this year, a Tasting Gala on January 17, 2009, and the American Girl Fashion Show, which will be held March 21, 2009. The Tasting Gala will feature beers from Anheuser-Busch, a sampling of beer-friendly food, and a live and silent auction. We have also been selected as the exclusive host organization to hold an American Girl Fashion Show fundraiser in the Suncoast region. Members of the community are invited to call our League office at (941) 748-0101 to inquire about purchasing tickets to these events.

The members of the Junior League of Manatee County come together for 2008-2009, under the theme of “Women on a Mission”, as we better ourselves and our community.

JLMC News

Finally Fall

As I write this, Fall is just a day away. We are truly into our League year together. As Women on a Mission, our theme for this year, we have already completed one remarkable project with our summer Backpacks for Foster Care Kids Party. I can still see the faces of the children as they lined up to receive their bicycle helmets, each individually fitted by President-Elect, Mimi Sheffer. What a gift to be able to share in their joy as they also received backpacks stuffed with school supplies, flip flops and an afternoon at a water park. Anna McSwain’s committee served us well and worked hard to treat the children to a special time.

Our organization reunited for our annual Back to League Night where we voted in our first of two new fundraisers to be held this year, the American Girl Fashion Show. You can read much more in Memos about the big plans co-chairs Kara Schiavone and Sustainer Annette Larkin have for this community fundraiser which will be held March 21, 2009. What a wonderful event to offer to the public, celebrating American history and the power of girls.

We have also had our first general membership meeting where we enjoyed a training session on public speaking, brought to us by Blair Dalton with Game On Media. Education and Training co-chairs Cyndi Dunn and Mimi Sheffer are working hard to further our mission of training our members and are focusing on areas where members have requested assistance. At the meeting we also welcomed a large Provisional Class (26 and counting!) and voted in another new fundraiser for the year, a (yet to be formally named) beer tasting gala to be held January 17, 2009. Again we have had tremendous Sustainer support this year and sustainer Sandy Mackie, along with active member Sarah Saputo Mackie, will be chairing this exciting new event. Much more information is available so just keep reading.

We also had our first donation opportunity at the meeting and had a HUGE response, with many members donating items to at-risk children at Orange-Ridge Bullock Elementary School. Orange-Ridge is Manatee County’s largest Title I school, with over 93% of the students receiving free or reduced lunch. Thank you to Sustainer Tracy Acquaro for inviting us to support children participating in their Positive Behavior Support program. Just another step in our mission.

I cannot end this month’s perspective without saying that I had expected October to be all about Holiday Gift Market. I know many of us enjoyed the community feeling of the event and took pride in putting on our aprons and nametags to work our shifts. As an organization we have much to be proud of with our history of putting on festive markets that became a regular start of the holiday season for many in Manatee County. For many years this fundraiser nearly single-handedly enabled us to select projects that have made a difference in the lives of many in our town. I want to thank all of you who put tireless, cheerful hours into Holiday Gift Market, from the year it first began through the crew that worked this spring and summer trying their best to make it happen. We say goodbye to HGM for now but not necessarily for good and we embrace our future as we continue on our mission.

Kara