Our History
The Northern Virginia Junior Women’s Club was organized and chartered on January 22, 2002. This great club could not have been formed without the help of the Northern Virginia District members. During the fall of 2001, the GFWC Virginia Northern District Second Vice President and Membership Chairman, Joan Rogers, sent out information to prospective members that had been compiled by the previous officer, Dale Fisher. Other interested young women were invited, and the meeting was also publicized in the local newspapers. During the fall, the group held three organizational preliminary meetings at the Charles E. Beately, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria.
From those initial meetings a core of young women became the first members of the Northern Virginia Junior Woman’s Club. The first officers were: President - Jennifer Leibfried, First Vice President - April Parker, Second Vice President - Angela Mojica-Madrid, Secretary - Beth Shorr, Treasurer - Geneva Hall-Shelton. There were eleven charter members including the five officers and Becca Firth, Sarah Mendoza, Regina Meade, Michele Watson, Joan Baird, and Roxana Stanila. While the club has grown tremendously, only one charter member still belongs to the club. When the club was chartered, congratulations were sent from the GFWC President Shelby P. Hamlett and GFWC Virginia President Leigh Wintz. A majority of the members attended the state convention in April 2002 and the Charter was presented to President Leibfried during the meeting.
Since that time, the club has been involved with various community projects ranging from feeding the homeless, wrapping birthday presents for disadvantaged children, volunteering at local community events and providing funds for specific charities. The organizations we have supported include the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network (ASPAN), Challenge Air for Kids and Friends, the Heifer International project, Greyhound Rescue, Birthday Blessings, the USO, Toys for Tots, Race for the Cure, the Red Cross Waterfront Festival, the Avon Breast Cancer Walk and soon, Doorways for Women.
During the early years, while working with ASPAN, the club members would gather on a Saturday and prepare sandwiches and hotdogs in a member’s home and also collect hot ready-made food from ASPAN headquarters. The women brought the food to specific distribution sites and provided it to homeless people in the Arlington area. It was truly a wonderful feeling to know that we were providing hot food to people less fortunate than ourselves during the year and especially during the winter months. The group also wrapped presents and donated money to Birthday Blessings so that specially wrapped gifts could be distributed to disadvantaged children in foster care.
The group enjoyed the days it spent with the Challenge Air Program where local pilots provided rides in small airplanes to children with physical challenges. For some children, it may have been the only plane ride they had and it was a joy for them to view the earth from so far above. The club is proud to have participated with so many local charities, whether it was distributing water to participants in the Race for the Cure, preparing hundreds of care packages for our troops overseas, helping to rescue greyhounds from the track, and helping feed poor families overseas through the Heifer project.
The group continues to grow and find new ways to help the community. It plans to continue helping the USO by collecting coupons for military families serving overseas and preparing care packages at Fort Belvoir to distribute to our troops serving in conflict areas. Soon, the group will make a commitment to Doorways for Women and help less fortunate women in the community. We will also continue to support Toys for Tots, Box Tops for Education, and seek new projects. The club now has 15 members, but plans to have a membership drive in September. We hope to continue to grow and participate with other clubs in the near future. |
