President's Welcome

Welcome to the Junior League of Spokane!  We have been a force in the Spokane community for over 85 years.  The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. is comprised of more than 160,000 women in 292 Junior Leagues throughout Canada, Mexico, the UK and the USA. Collectively, we constitute one of the largest, most effective volunteer organizations in the world. 

What do we do?  Junior League women make things happen -- we form strategic partnerships, we create innovative programs and we raise funds for exciting community initiatives. Our goal is to train women to become effective community and civic leaders, who create lasting community impact.  What sets Junior League volunteers apart from the rest? We are not only women who want to improve communities, we are women with the training and skills to make it happen!

Since Mary Harriman convened the very first Junior League in 1901, The Junior League's emphasis has always been on learning. Members benefit from extensive training in leadership and organizational development, community needs assessment, strategic planning, communications, advocacy and fundraising. Through this unique training, League members learn to manage and train volunteers, unite communities and form partnerships. We try to collaborate with other leagues locally, as well as nationally. 

For example, the Junior League of Spokane is a member of the collaborative group the Junior Leagues of Washington State.  JLWS meets regularly to exchange ideas and information, and we head to our state capitol once a year to meet with our legislators and to advocate for our programs, issues, and projects.  We also participate in an annual regionally based conference called Northwest Exchange that draws representatives from Leagues in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. 

The Junior League of Spokane holds an annual event we call the Foster Santa Breakfast. On the first Saturday every December, we serve foster families and children a delicious breakfast, Santa arrives, and we provide gifts – both for the foster parents to give to the children, and for the children to give to the parents.  The breakfast began in a school cafeteria with a modest number of attendees.  We now hold the event in a beautiful ballroom at a local casino, which underwrites the delicious breakfast.  In 2010, we served over 400 guests, and had over 20 trees, lavishly decorated with many gifts, as free raffle prizes for the children.  We have over 20 community partners who donated more than $7,000 to make magic happen for these families. 

 In short, we make life-long friends, we learn, we laugh, and we make our community a better place.  We teach women how to change the world.  Join us.