President
LETTER FROM THE INCOMING
As we wind down the 2020-2021 League year, I think of how far the women of our League have been stretched and challenged, and how much each one of you have responded to those challenges with grace, creativity, and ingenuity. The last year has not been how any of us envisioned it—in the League or otherwise. Many have experienced loss, sadness, and overwhelming anxiety due to the global pandemic through which we have navigated the last year. The League was not immune to COVID-19. Every event we held was somehow influenced by the pandemic, and we worked hard to make sure that the events we hosted were socially-distanced and responsible. Starting early in the League year with Super Safety Saturday, the committee quickly transitioned and made that event a monthlong virtual event, culminating in a drive-through “touch a truck” event at the end of the month. While we are all excited to get back to the traditional Super Safety Saturday event, there is an upside to a virtual event, and that is that we can reach many more people through a virtual event, as opposed to an in-person one. Even as recently as last month, our Designer Bag Bingo committee adapted their event to be a virtual “Bags, Bourbon & Bling” online raffle, where they raised over $20,000! Designer Bag Bingo is another event we cannot wait to have in person again (and we are already hard at work planning an in-person event next April—stay tuned!), but we were again able to reach more people with a larger geographic reach with our virtual event. All of that to say, there have been some silver linings to the changes brought during the last year. All of our community projects were able to go on in some form. As mentioned above, Super Safety Saturday went virtual. MAGIC also went on completely virtually. The Health Literacy Initiative was almost completely virtual, with a few socially-distanced, in-person activities. Safe Sitter was able to have a class late this year. While they had hoped to host more classes, they were only able to safely do so beginning in April. We so appreciate the committee’s pressing on with the event in April, but waiting until it was safe to do so. Red Apron Pantry never stopped serving clients, and the need for the pantry was even greater this year as people dealt with loss of jobs and income, and therefore increased food insecurity. It was our first full year of having the
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Sarah Giglio
Red Apron Pantry in Suite E and being the only food pantry in the 71104 zip code. What a huge success this has been. Finally, the Artist for a Day committee made sure the event went on even though there was no Revel—what amazing creativity the committee showed! They “took the show on the road” and exposed children to art in coordination with schools, our JLSB Pumpkin Patch, and other groups. Our fundraising committees—Designer Bag Bingo, the
