President’s Corner

We are ready to “fall” into a new League year! In preparation for this year, our BOD and Chairs met over the summer for a fun retreat and informative workshop where we took the True Colors personality test and got to know more about ourselves, one another, and how to better communicate with our respective councils and committee members. We also worked to establish goals and focus on our community impact area of “Women and Children at Risk.” Everyone is focused on their committee, invested in their members, and ready to make a difference in our community.

I’m thrilled to announce that TLC has chosen Riser Elementary for our adopted school. We look forward to working with the teachers and students there. Thank you to all our members that donated to our Adopt a Student program. We have currently raised over $4600, an increase from last year! This is such a worthy cause and will impact those students’ lives in a BIG way, so thanks again!

We have two new fundraisers to look forward to this year. Our fall fundraiser, the Cotton Country Shoot Out, a sporting clay tournament, on October 21st and a spring tennis tournament. This year we are celebrating our 20th anniversary with the Spring Market and plan to make it extra special! So mark your calendars for March 23-25th. We hope these events are successful so we can continue to help more people in our community.

Education and Training has many activities planned for our members to make our General Membership Meetings more informative and enjoyable. We also plan to have a couple JLM Universities – an opportunity for members to learn more about Digital Cheetah and a leadership workshop. Education Task Force is currently preparing applications for our annual teacher grants. We plan to give over $20,000 in grants to area teachers again this year. Our Board of Trustees recently voted to increase our Endowment Fund to $16,500 to give to deserving non-profit(s). We also hope to start a mentoring program with our First Year Actives. We hope this helps with retention and gives them a sense of belonging in the League.

This year our theme is “Mission Possible.” I chose this theme after careful thought as to what the Junior League is all about…our mission. We are an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Similar to the movie, “Mission Impossible,” we are a group of women with unique abilities that plan to work together to diffuse a major crisis. Our crisis is women and children at risk. With your help, I hope to make this mission, possible.

Melissa Kiper,
President 2017-2018

Be The Difference

Let us be inspired
Let us inspire others
Let us work together
Let us give back
Let us as women of the Junior League of Monroe Be the Difference in Ouachita Parish!

Be The Difference for the Junior League of Monroe through Social Media!
You can find us on the following sites:

Facebook! @ The Junior League of Monroe
Twitter! @JL_monroe
Instagram! @JLofMonroe

And don’t forget the hashtags!!
#jlmonroe #jlmbethedifference #jlmproud