FORT MYERS, Fla. (Jan. 20, 2016) – The Junior League of Fort Myers, Inc. has met its goal of 225 participants for its 50th Anniversary 50 for 50 Challenge.
The community-wide volunteer challenge began June 1, 2015, and runs until May 31, 2016. The Junior League is asking adults to commit to volunteering 50 hours of community service and/or $50 to the local nonprofit(s) of their choice. Children, ages 6 to 16, are asked to donate 25 hours. Families are encouraged to take the challenge together if they wish. During this same time, JLFM members will also commit to completing 50 community service projects.
“Each volunteer hour is valued at $23,” said Danielle Lucht, president of the Junior League of Fort Myers. “When 218 people complete their 50 hours of service, this will equal $250,000 of service. Just think about the impact of 436 committing to the challenge.”
Because its initial goal has been met, the Junior League has set a new goal of 250 participants.
Participants may commit to the challenge and track their hours by downloading a form on the Junior League’s website at www.jlfm.org. At the end of the year, the Junior League will hold a celebration honoring all participants with a certificate and commemorative pin in May.
According to Lucht, volunteering can be done at houses of worship, schools, libraries, PTAs, service clubs and any nonprofit organization in Southwest Florida.
Links to volunteer opportunities for the 50 for 50 Challenge may also be found at www.jlfm.org.
“We hope participants will show us how they’re changing our community through volunteering by using the #jlfm50 hashtag on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Since its founding in 1901 by social activist Mary Harriman, the Junior League has evolved into one of the oldest, largest and most effective women’s volunteer organizations in the world, encompassing 150,000 women in 292 Leagues in four countries. Its mandate has remained the same: to develop exceptionally qualified civic leaders who collaborate with community partners to identify a community’s most urgent needs and address them with meaningful and relevant programs and initiatives that not only improve lives but also change the way people think.
Through the decades, the JLFM has made major contributions to Southwest Florida to support a wide variety of community needs, including founding the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium (1973), the Volunteer Service Bureau – Volunteer Action Center – now known as Volunteer Center (1992),
Teen Court (1992) and the Women’s Resource Center (1996). It has also been active in feeding the hungry in the five-county area through the food drive at the annual Taste of the Town, mentoring teenage girls in foster care, supporting self defense for women, preparing women to re-enter the workforce, creating a listening library for cancer patients, preserving historic architecture, supporting the Ronald McDonald House, distributing holiday food baskets, organizing holiday gift drives, providing gender-specific programming to teenage girls in juvenile justice, supplying backpacks to children in Harlem Heights Community and more.
A member of the Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc., the Junior League of Fort Myers, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization made up of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. The JLFM is also a granting organization, providing mini-grants to organizations through out Southwest Florida’s five-county area to programs that create better life outcomes for our area’s youth. JLFM memberships are open to all women aged 21 and older of all races, religions and national origin who demonstrate an interest in and commitment to voluntarism.
For more information about the 50 for 50 Challenge, email jlfm50@jlfm.org.
For more information about the JLFM, call 239-277-1197 or visit www.jlfm.org.
