Downers Grove Magazine | In The News
JUNIORS CELEBRATE AT A SUCCESSFUL MARDI GRAS EVENT IN MARCH.
Photo courtesy of Greg Kozlick of 726 Visuals
Doubled in Growth, Double the Giving Despite the pandemic, the Downers Grove Junior Woman’s Club’s membership and philanthropic contributions to the community have soared over the past two years.
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n a rainy Saturday evening in March, upwards of 100 active and prospective members of the Downers Grove Junior Woman’s Club (DGJWC) – along with spouses and friends – converged upon the Chateau Orleans banquet hall, a sea of green, gold and purple, sequins abounding. Some wore masks (not the surgical kind we have grown so accustomed to, but Mardi Gras masks aligned with the event’s theme). For many of the Mardi Gras Masquerade’s approximately 250 attendees, this was their first large-
BY VALERIE HARDY
scale indoor event since March 2020, when the DGJWC hosted its Havana Nights-themed fundraiser a week before the coronavirus shut the world down. Some participants may have felt a bit uneasy and out-of-habit after a two-year hiatus, but overall, the room was buzzing with excitement. At one point, though, the mood grew more somber. The DGJWC – a philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting and raising awareness of charitable organizations, individuals in need, and the community – had selected the Clear Ribbon Foundation as its charitable partner for the Mardi Gras fundraiser, and 52
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members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors were speaking about their heart-wrenching experiences that led to Clear Ribbon’s creation. The Foundation is a not-forprofit organization committed to supporting individuals who have lost their spouse to cancer along with their surviving children, helping them toward healing and hope. Two men and two women, each of whom had become a young widow(er) after their spouse’s death following a terminal cancer diagnosis, founded Clear Ribbon to help others in similar situations, and as they shared their stories and gratitude for DGWJC’s