Back Row (L-R): JLFM President-Elect Erin Velotti, JLFM Past Presidents Sasha Warren, Anita Duenas, Nicole Brenner, Carolyn Baker-McCord, Anne Hansen, Deanne Kyle, Shirley Snyder McLaren, Helen Crumbie, Barbara Hansen and Kathleen Williamson Front Row (L-R): JLFM Past Presidents Gloria Fassett, Mary Lee Mann, Mary Kay Sidell, Linda Uhler, Lou Pontius and Nannette Miller

Back Row (L-R): JLFM President-Elect Erin Velotti, JLFM Past Presidents Sasha Warren, Anita Duenas, Nicole Brenner, Carolyn Baker-McCord, Anne Hansen, Deanne Kyle, Shirley Snyder McLaren, Helen Crumbie, Barbara Hansen and Kathleen Williamson
Front Row (L-R): JLFM Past Presidents Gloria Fassett, Mary Lee Mann, Mary Kay Sidell, Linda Uhler, Lou Pontius and Nannette Miller

FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 7, 2016) – The Junior League of Fort Myers, Inc. recently hosted more than a dozen of its past presidents at a luncheon at Mimi’s Café, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the organization.

During the luncheon, 16 past presidents were honored and thanked for their service to the organization.

Since 1966, the JLFM has contributed more than one million volunteer hours to community projects and programs. Through the decades, it 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 its 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.

The Junior League will host a public celebration to honor its 50th anniversary on Saturday, April 23 at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers. The ‘60s chic themed event will take place at 6 p.m. and promises an evening full of fun, food, dancing, open bar and a silent auction as well as a historical look back at the organization’s 50 years of volunteering and making a difference in Southwest Florida.

Proceeds from the event will support the Junior League’s work in the community. To purchase tickets or tables, visit www.jlfm.org.

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.

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. It 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, call 239-277-1197 or visit www.jlfm.org.