Highlights from the past 40 years.
The Kalamazoo Junior Women's Club has returned thousands of volunteer hours and dollars to the Kalamazoo community over the past 40 years. Service projects have included serving meals at local soup kitchens, sorting donations at a women's shelter, staffing a health clinic, shopping for local shut-ins, providing baked goods for drop-in centers, and working for the Red Cross. Our fund raising efforts have included the long-standing Santa's Workshop, New Vic Theatre ticket sales, the Annual Holiday Auction as well as many direct-sales fund raisers. At the year-end banquet, monies earned during the club year are dispersed to local agencies such as YWCA, Health and Community Services Foster Care Program, Second Time Around, The Gospel Mission, Generous Hands, Drop-In Child Care Center, Borgess Hospital Mammogram Program, Glowing Embers Girl Scout Council, Edison Environmental Science Academy and others. In addition to service hours, club members participate in many social and program activities such as cooking and floral demonstrations, progressive dinners, book discussions, and other topics of interest to women. Recently, the club has focused on literacy and literacy issues by participating in RIF (Reading is Fundamental), Books for Babies, and The Dictionary Project. Each year the club awards The Jane Smith Memorial Scholarship to a student attending Kalamazoo Valley Community College.