Susie Istock
19 March 2007

Exhibit Showcases 100 Years of Service by Women Volunteers

The Junior League of Boston partners with the Boston Public Library to mount an exhibition and lecture series to celebrate 100 years of JLB service to the community.

(Boston, MA) March 16, 2007 – The Junior League of Boston (JLB) announces it will host an exhibit entitled “Women Volunteers in Action, A Century of Commitment” at the Boston Public Library (Copley Square branch) from April 6 – April 27, 2007.

The exhibit celebrates 100 years of the Junior League of Boston’s volunteer work to improve the social conditions in the Greater Boston community and features archival materials from 100 years of innovative community service projects. Projects include the Embankment Gardens, a program in which the JLB worked with city children to create gardens along the Charles River Embankment that ran for more than three decades, teaching children about gardening while beautifying the city; creating of the first wheelchair guide to Boston; and mentoring programs in partnership with numerous schools and non-profits.

The JLB’s current community service initiatives will be featured in lively, large format photographs (produced as a pro bono project by Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts)  that tell the story about how the JLB’s 1,200 women volunteers continue to impact the community by working with the Department of Social Services to review cases of children in the foster care system; helping girls from the Boston Renaissance Charter School to find “the leader within” themselves; mentoring battered women to help them rebuild their lives; and in many other ways.

“This exhibit is an important acknowledgement of the contributions made by generations of women volunteers in Boston,” said Anne Benning, JLB past President and exhibit chair. “As we poured through volumes of archival images and documents housed at the Arthur and Elizabeth

Schlesinger Library, we were moved by the range of activities the JLB has sponsored over the decades and by the deep commitment that represents.”

April Lecture Series

The Junior League of Boston will also host a lecture series during the month of April centering on important topics related to the Junior League of Boston’s current focus area,The Health and Education of Women and Children. “We’re very excited to discuss women’s and children’s community service needs at the Boston Public Library this April,” said Kirby Lunger, President. “The lecture series will raise the level of dialogue around these community needs and trends.“

The Junior League of Boston warmly thanks “Women Volunteers in Action” exhibit partners: the Boston Public Library, Hart-Boillot LLC, Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts, Samuel Adams, and George P. Johnson.

The exhibit can be viewed in the Boston Room and Rabb Lobby between

9:00 am

and

6:00 pm

daily. For more information about the exhibit and lecture series please visit www.jlboston.org. For more information about the Boston Public Library, including complete hours of operation, please visit www.bpl.org. The exhibit is free of charge and the public is welcome.

About The Junior League of Boston

The Junior League of Boston is an organization of 1,200 women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. For more information, please visit our web site at www.jlboston.org.

The Junior League of Boston joins 293 Leagues across the world to form the Association of Junior Leagues International. These Leagues have nearly 170,000 members in Canada,Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. Together, they represent one of the largest international volunteer organizations for women interested in making a positive impact in their communities. For more information, visit the web site www.ajli.org.