Our Daily Show Interview! Junior League of Greater Alton: Food Drive & Retro Recruitment
ALTON - The Junior League of Greater Alton is looking for new members to help them with three projects before the end of the year.
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The women in the organization meet once a month. They have a “Retro Recruitment” event planned for Oct. 10, 2024, where community members are invited to the Sportsman’s Club in Godfrey to learn more about the organization. The goal of the Junior League is to bring women together to improve their community.
“We are an organization that is focused on helping women make a meaningful community impact,” explained Meredith Elfrink. “We do this, our mission statement says, through volunteer action, training and collaboration. We are a group of women that want to be the next leaders to make an impact in our community.”
The organization is currently collecting food for Community Hope Center and working with Caritas Family Solutions to help kids in the foster care system. They also hope to participate with the City of Alton’s child-friendly city initiative through UNICEF. At the end of the year, the Junior League will choose one project to focus on going forward.
In the meantime, you can drop off nonperishable food donations at Karen Wilson State Farm at 225 Tolle Lane in Godfrey or at the Retro Recruitment event in October. All donations will go back to Community Hope Center in Cottage Hills. They are specifically looking for pasta, sauce, cereal, canned chicken, canned tuna and other “ready-to-go items.” The food drive will continue until Nov. 14, 2024.
Fighting food insecurity is an important issue for the Junior League, but they’re also focused on helping teens in the foster care system. They started a Fostering Wishes program through Caritas where they provide gifts and experiences to local teens. Elfrink and fellow member Jama Fabry share that they recently reunited two young sisters for a day of getting their hair and nails done.
Moments like this emphasize the Junior League’s commitment to helping the community. They plan to work with the City of Alton to learn more about the child-friendly city initiative and how the organization can get involved. Helping kids is a major part of the Junior League’s international mission.
But the organization also offers major benefits for its members. Fabry and Elfrink said a lot of women feel guilty about taking time for themselves. The Junior League is an opportunity for members to socialize while helping others and building their own community of like-minded, “passionate” women.
“We want to know what’s going on in our communities, and we want to feel that we are a part of some of the solutions to help make a positive impact,” Fabry said. “When we talk to other women, very often they’re juggling many things, whether it’s taking care of elderly parents or their own children or husbands, or they’re working a job and trying to build a career, or they’re involved in lots of other community organizations already. You see a pattern, right? We see a similar type of woman: We like to be involved.”
If you’d like to learn more about the Junior League of Greater Alton and how you can get involved, you can stop by the Retro Recruitment event from 6–8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, at the Alton-Wood River Sportsman’s Club in Godfrey. For more information, visit the official Facebook event page or the official Junior League of Greater Alton website at JuniorLeagueAlton.org.
“You’re acting locally but you’re affecting globally,” Fabry added. “We meet some amazing women, and we got a bunch of new members last year, which is awesome because it helps create that legacy for the future of leadership and our league to continue.”
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