1916 – On October 17, 1916, Florence Ingram Gilson, Josephine Johnson Hall, and Margaret Rowland Delehanty incorporated the Junior League of Racine, making it the 18th League established in the world. Immediately upon its founding, the League supported St. Luke’s and St. Mary’s Hospitals (now All Saints Hospital) and Taylor Home, which housed and served more than 1,000 orphans from 1872 to 1972.

1917 – During the Great War , Junior League supported the American Red Cross, Destitute Orphans of War, and the American Fund for French Wounded.

1922 – Junior League and the Racine Community Welfare Fund (now the United Way of Racine County) opened a boarding home for children.

1924 – The Health Commissioner of Racine asked League to attend to listing and licensing of all boarding homes in the city to comply with the ruling of the Wisconsin State Board of Health.

1930 – The Racine Mayor’s Relief Committee asked the League to handle the distribution of clothing to needy families through a Clothes Exchange Shop. The League donated infant Drinker respirators (commonly known as iron lungs) to each of the local hospitals to help infants fighting polio.

1932 – In cooperation with the Junior League, the Racine Children’s Theatre, and the Woman’s Club, the Racine Public Library pioneered its first storytime for preschool children from three to five years old. The first group of 28 preschoolers attended a storytime session, conducted by children’s librarian Alice Davitt (Schowalter), at the Racine Public Library on February 10, 1932, at 11 a.m.

1933 – Aid to Taylor Home to repair and decorate recreation room, library, and other rooms.

1934 – Investigation to find means for League to set up a constructive child welfare program in Racine. 400 donated toward the salary of a part-time case worker supervised by Children’s Home & Aid Society of Wisconsin.

1935 – Child Welfare Council organized with help of League to correlate all children’s services in Racine.

1938 – Established full-time resident case worker at Taylor Home.

1939 – Established Children’s Aid Society as a part of the Racine Community Chest, it was later named the Children’s Service Society.

1941 – Aided in the formation of the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office.

1947 – $5000 toward the establishment of the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin Extension Center. Sponsored “Books Bring Adventure” series on WRJN Radio.

1948 – Sponsored Curative Workshop of Racine (now Lakeside Curative Services, Inc.) through 1954 with a total donation of $42,693.

1951 – Curative Workshop of Racine formally opened.

1955 – $10,123 donated for Health Lodge at Racine Girl Scout Camp.

1956 – $1000 appropriated for specific equipment for new YMCA.

1959 – Follies raised $15,740 for furnishing a Taylor Home Cottage.

1960 – Sponsored Racine Symphony membership drive and financed Children’s Concert.

1961 – Regional Meeting held in Racine. Children’s Symphony Concert.

1963 – $10,000 to Racine County Historical Museum (now the Racine Heritage Museum). Grand opening of The Attic in November.

1965 – Continued sponsorship of Youth Concert for another three years. Co-sponsored the Monument Square Art Fair in June.

1966 – Junior League of Racine worked with the Racine Art Museum (RAM) to launch the juried Watercolor Wisconsin exhibition at RAM’s Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, providing $10,000 for Salute to the Arts to commemorate the League’s 50th Anniversary and Wustum’s 25th Anniversary.

1967 – Continuation of Children’s Art Program with additional $500. Racine Street Project.

1968 – $2000 toward the Comprehensive Health and Welfare Survey for Racine County. Youth Concert turned over to the Racine Symphony Guild.

1969 – Initiated the Case Aide Project, a three-year pilot project. One year extension of the Racine Street Project. Sponsored Horizon Hall Group Home for Pre-Delequent Girls.

1970 – Conference on Pollution. Horizon Hall began $15,000.

1971 – Wustum Mini Gallery project. Volunteer Services Bureau begun.

1973 – Created Racine Urban Aesthetics Inc. with a $30,000 pledge and a 3-year agreement of support. This project was developed in response to the Racine Common Council’s Landmarks Commission. Racine Urban Aesthetics Inc. is now Preservation Racine, a 501(c)(3) non-profit volunteer organization whose mission is to identify and promote the preservation of buildings, districts, and sites in Racine County that have historical, architectural, archeological, aesthetic, and/or cultural heritage.

1974 – Junior League supported the River Bend Nature Center Environment Education Project – $5000. Learning Disabilities Project – $6500.

1975 – Attic contribution to the Community Trust Fund since 1963 reached $100,000.

1976 – The Landmarks Committee, a joint initiative by the Junior League of Racine’s Urban Aesthetics and the newly-formed Preservation Racine, researched and registered its first historic district, the Southside Historic District. The district was recognized by the National Register of Historic Places the following year

1977 – Extension of 1888 Bohemian Schoolhouse for one year. The 1888 Bohemian Schoolhouse was constructed as part of the desire for Bohemians, from what is now known as Czechia, to keep their heritage alive. It provided weekend Bohemian language and culture lessons to children who attended regular Racine County schools during the week.

1980 – Junior League of Racine started the Racine Zoo “A.D.O.P.T an Animal” educational displays and program. Funding and volunteers to start the Racine Council on Alcohol/Other Drug Abuse.

1982 – Attaché Fund Raiser. Operation Snowball, coalition with the Medical Auxiliary, $10,500.

1983 – 20th Anniversary of The Attic.

1984 – Formed Community Advisory Council. $9000 and volunteers to the Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Two-year, $21,000 commitment and volunteers to the Racine County Opportunity Center, Inc., now known as the Hands of Opportunity Center, to provide services for families with individuals with special needs in Racine County. Kaleidoscope Art Experience for children.

1985 – Co-sponsored the sale of personalized bricks with the Downtown Racine Corporation for Festival Park. $8700 for the Racine Zoo.

1986 – $4950 to Arc of Racine County for “Kids on the Block” Program, $860 to Women’s Resource Center for Sexual Assault Awareness Program.

1987 – Exhibited “70 Years of Sharing” at the Racine County Historical Museum in honor of 70th anniversary. $9568 to the Wisconsin Alliance for Children project, in cooperation with the Junior League of Milwaukee.

1988 – New projects: Jordan Hall Restoration, Adolescent Pregnancy, YWCA Open House Teen Parenting; extended Women’s Resource Center Sexual Abuse Project ($800) and Kids on the Block Project. First Legislative Forum.

1989 – Continued with Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Project, YWCA Teen Parenting Project, Wisconsin Alliance for Children, Kids On The Block. Began Racine Public Library Expansion Drive and restoration of Jordan Hall. Published cookbook, “Udderly Delicious”. Sponsored 2nd Legislative Forum.

1990 – New project, Earth Keepers. Continued Homeward Bound and Jordan Hall projects.

1991 – A 75th Anniversary program and reception in October 1991 at Prairie School. The Junior League helped River Bend Nature Center start its new environmental education program, Earthkeepers. Since then, River Bend Nature Center has been known for its wide variety of naturalistic programs. It is not uncommon to hear college students today tell us about when they were in an Earthkeepers or other program at River Bend. Over the years, River Bend has served as many as 10,000 school children in a single year

1992 – Sponsored First Congressional Forum and approved projects: Jordan Hall, Earth Keepers II, and Downtown Farmer’s Market. First ever Gift Mart.

1993 – Supported Earthkeepers II, Jordan Hall, and Downtown Racine Corporation Farmer’s Market.

1994 – Continued membership growth with rolling admissions and elimination of upper age limits. Voted in new child focused projects: OIC – Positive Socialization Program, SAFEHAVEN-A Parent Connection, and FASTWORKS.

1995 – Funded Charity Crafts Program with Racine Correctional Institution, distributing teddy bears made by inmates to children.

1996 – Celebrated 80th Anniversary in October with public reception and May with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Supported projects: Charity Crafts, YWCA Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy Curriculum, booklet “Supporting your Adolescent: Tips for Parents” with Innovative Youth Services. Volunteer “Spirit Award” created, along with Sustainer Skill Bank.

1997 – Completed Strategic Plan with focused vision and goals.

1998 – Hosted “Oliver” theater night, and Theater Works at Winslow School. Fresh Start, Imaginarium, Kaleidoscope and Safe Start.

1999 – Kaleidoscope served over 10,000 children over 3 weeks. Funded Fresh Start program and gave volunteer assistance. Collaborated with Safe Start to host “The Yellow Dress” theater production on relationship violence at four area high schools. Over 3274 books collected for Julia Burney’s Cops ‘N Kids reading program.

2000 – Expanded “The Yellow Dress” collaboration and added “Remote Control.” Gave $1000 and volunteer time to Kids Connection Playground. Adopted three projects: Yellow Dress, African Savanna at the Racine Zoo and Foster Care Backpacks. The Junior League made a two-year commitment, for a total of $13,750, to the Zoo for educational signage and teaching packets for teachers to use as follow-up aids in the classroom, as part of the new Racine Zoo African Savanna exhibit.

2001 – Celebrated AJLI’s 100th anniversary and the 85th JLR anniversary with the theatre production of “Annie”. Participated in four projects – African Savannah at the Racine Zoo, Trefoil Oaks fireplace project, Foster Care Backpacks and our third year of “The Yellow Dress” and “Remote Control. Cookbook selling out and raising over $6000

2002 – Donated $10,000 over two years to support Taylor Home’s Gang Diversion Program and $6000 to Camp Anokijig to send 15 youths to camp. Also, created three spot placements on the YMCA Camp Anokijig Scholarship Board. Voted to support the Yellow Dress and Remote Control in 2003-2004 with $2,000 along with four JLR members to sit on the collaborative committee. 16 Yellow Dress performances to approximately 3100 people in Racine County. The Endowment Fund was established at the Racine Community Foundation

2003 – Donated $10,000 and many volunteer hours to the “Kids Cove” playground project.

2004 – Donated $10,000 each to the Health Care Network’s Dental Clinic and the Hand-to-Hand program.. The League moved its headquarters from Jordon Hall to The Attic.

2005 – Many mini projects were funded–$1500 to Girl Scouts, $1500 to Cops ‘N Kids hygiene kits, $1500 to Main Gallery, $2000 to Camp Anokijig and $1100 to the Ophelia Project.

2006 – This was a year of great change. The Junior League logo was updated to better reflect a contemporary organization. The membership investigated the viability of The Attic and ultimately decided to close its doors after 43 years of service to the community and fundraising to League. Three projects: $9000 to HALO for the building of a children’s playground, $8000 to the Racine Public Library to fund their production of “Julius Baby of the World” in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of preschool story time, and, $1000 was donated to River Bend Nature Center. We celebrated our 90th Anniversary at our “Wine Tasting”, and continued the celebration with a “Through the Ages” fashion event at our annual meeting in June.

2007 – Many initiatives were funded, including $3000 to Racine Heritage Museum, $2900 to Women’s Resource Center, $2600 to Margaret Ann’s Place, $1500 to Youth Connections, $1500 to Girl Scouts of Southeastern WI and $1250 to Racine Family Literacy.

2008 – “Community.” It has been established that many league members enjoy group volunteer activities that benefit our community, and for us to focus on our League community as well. This year we came within $300.00 of our fundraising goals. We brought in $8,182.00 from the newly created Parade of Playhouses (the 2008-2009 portion), $3,397.99 from our 3rd Annual Bunco, Blue Jeans & Bling, $200.00 from our Boston Store coupon books for community days, $257.04 from our annual Barnes and Noble Book Fair, $12,443.43 from our 7th Annual Wine Tasting event, and $2,797.15 from our newest event, May Mall Madness. We were able to fund several initiatives as well; $4,572 to the YMCA for Teen Fathers program, $2,568 to the Racine Heritage Museum for the steamer trunk exhibit within the Spirit of Innovations exhibit, $2,160 to Next Generation Now to support the Cribs for Kids program, $2,000 to the Racine Zoo to sustain their Wildlife Explorers educational program, and $1,000 to Darlene Turner for the Sparkplug Tutoring program.

2009 – “Let’s get physical” was a call to action. Even with the current economic challenges, the Fund development committee did a fabulous job of exceeding the $20,000 budget by $881.41. The Fund development committee was up for the challenge this year, and came up with the “Tossed and Found” rummage sale that was held May 6-8, it generated a whopping $8105.37. We saw success with the 4th Annual Blue Jeans, Bunco & Bling event, and our annual wine tasting. We also funded two significant organizations that serve children in the Racine community; $8,200 was donated to the Child Advocacy Center of Racine County and $2,050 was donated to the John XXIII Educational Center.

2010- “Encourage, Engage, Empower’ was a reminder that as active, provisional, and sustaining members we can all support each other, get involved and be open to learning new skills. We had a great opportunity for training when we collaborated with the Milwaukee Junior League to bring Vicki Clark to our area for a day long joint training session. With a generous gift from Luella Burgess’s estate, the Communications committee executed the launch of a new website to increase our awareness and communication both in League and out. Through the new website we added the ability to donate, pay dues, and register for events online which was very well received. The Fund Development committee had an incredible year and with highly successfully events like the Wine Tasting and Tossed & Found in addition to a new sponsorship campaign they surpassed their goals for a total net of $38, 948.31 in funds raised.

2011 – To celebrate our 95 years in the Racine community the theme “UP” was an Uplifting way to celebrate the past years, and a way to encourage new ideas for the next 95 years. We celebrated at our 10th Annual wine tasting with a “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall” theme featuring many artists that repurposed mirrors for the auction as we were “looking back” at the past 95 years of JLR. A total of $14,963.58 was generated from this event. The 3rd Annual Tossed and Found Rummage sale held in May was just shy of the previous year coming in at $7524.27. League also made a big push for sponsorships and generated $7234.55, thank you to all of our generous sponsors! The Community Research committee spent a lot of time researching and created the Learning Inside Out Upside Down program “LIOUD”. This program is focused on Racine’s most at risk communities to help children ages 0-5 get ready for school!

2012 -G ♥ I ♥ V ♥ E. Get Involved Volunteer Exceed was the message for the 96th Year of Junior League. Members were encouraged to Get Involved with Learning Inside Out and Upside Down. The LiOUD project showed growth 2012-2013 year. The Strategic Plan was revised and voted on. We celebrated our 11th Annual Wine Tasting Event “Four Weddings and Fundraiser”. With the advance of technology in our website we can track volunteer hours. This tracking has showed over 4000 hours that have been volunteered by our membership. The Endowment Fund celebrated its 10 year Anniversary. Thank You to the Ladies that had vision to sustain the Junior League of Racine!

2013- Junior League continued support of LiOUD with a $25,000 endowment donation as the Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare – All Saints Foundation took over operation of the program.

2014 – Our Wine Tasting fundraiser, “A League of Our Own”, showcased the history of the Racine Belles. Junior League held the 7^th Annual Kids Café Christmas Party and continued to support Empty Bowls, Community Meals and Cops ‘N Kids. Funding and volunteer support were approved for the Salvation Army Kid Pack weekend food program, a new Born Learning Trail to be built at Knapp Elementary in 2016, and Family Literacy of Racine.

2015 – The 99^th year of Junior League of Racine. This team created the Uniquely & Utterly Delicious Cookbook, still available for digital purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Hosted the Haven’t Got a Clue – Craft and Cocktail Tasting and the Winter Wonderland Fashion Show featuring 13-year-old Prairie students. They also embarked upon a significant community project to address the issue of child abuse, homeless children, childhood hunger, human trafficking, and mentoring for youth. The committee found the Women’s Resource Center of Racine’s new facility – Dover Healing House. This year’s league participated in multiple done-in-a-day activities helping this old schoolhouse be converted to a safe and comfortable shelter. Thank you to all that made this year a success. Junior League also supported the United Way of Racine County’s School of Hope program, in which first, second and third-grade students at eight local elementary schools received regular tutoring from nearly 300 trained volunteers to help them become more confident, capable readers. At the end of the school year, each student received a backpack containing 10 level-appropriate books, a summer reading journal, a bookmark, stickers, and resource information for their families. The backpacks contained materials similar to those used during tutoring session,s so that the students can continue reading over the summer and combat summer slide.

2016 – To celebrate 100 years of the Junior League of Racine, the Junior League showed how She Believed She Could, So She Did! This group partnered with the United Way to create the Born Learning Trail at Knapp Elementary and updated the Born Learning Trail signs at North Beach. The League held a 100 years of Junior League Racine celebration at Preservation Hall, highlighted the history of the Junior League with an exhibition at the Racine Heritage Museum, and received a proclamation from Mayor John Dickert. The League also held our annual funding Grand Gala – Prom Through the Decades. League also supported the Higher Expectations for Racine County‘s Higher Expectations Kindergarten Readiness Network. This program aims to prepare three- and four-year-old children for four-year-old kindergarten (4K) and kindergarten (5K).

2017 – Imagine – Believe – Achieve was the message for the 101^st year of Junior League. This started out with training from Lisa Vaughan for how to be an effective organization with the new logo aligned with AJLI. The League then got out in the community by having a table at Monument Square during Party on the Pavement. Our first Giving Tuesday Campaign was launched and raised $1200; while the annual grand gala – Wines & Steins Around the World successfully earned $14,000. The Community Research team brought in multiple community needs found throughout our community and surveyed the active members to identify the next initiative; mentoring the youth.

2018 – Transforming League. Transforming Communities was the call for all active members this 102^nd year. This year was a transformational year in adopting a split governance model; board and leadership. They board also introduced the three-year slate that would coincide with the strategic plan. The committees were also reviewed, and the work reduced to the critical activities to support the Junior League of Racine for the future. The Fund Development team launched a joint funding campaign with the Marcus Center of Performing Arts. As well continued the Grand Gala – Wines and Steins Around the World. With sponsorships and these events, the funding goal of $20,000 was reached. The Community Committee worked to identify the program that would be created to Mentoring Youth. They have secured a partnership with Big Sisters of Greater Racine to pilot our program this next year.