From press release

In celebration of its 80th anniversary serving the Rockford area, the Junior League of Rockford, Inc. (JLR) is kicking off a new community service initiative for the 2010-2011 year called “8 Gifts to the Community.”

For the last eight decades, JLR has helped improve the Rock River Valley through community projects focused on helping women, children and families. To honor these eight decades, JLR is announcing “8 Gifts” as a way to help eight additional organizations from now through May 2011.

JLR’s members will lend a helping hand to eight different organizations/events through done-in-a-day type projects. From painting rooms to developing pre-teen leaders to cleaning up a park, JLR members will give back to the Rock River Valley in a whole new way.

To kick off 8 Gifts, JLR revisited one of its past projects, Bright Side Adult Day Center, Aug. 13-14 and painted some of the interior spaces.

“Since 1930, the Junior League of Rockford has established and developed many important and enduring community projects,” said Anne Helle, JLR president. “Our lasting impact has been, and continues to be, identifying needs in our community and providing plans and projects to serve those needs. Our 8 Gifts initiative allows us to help even more people this year.”

The additional 8 Gifts community projects slated for the upcoming JLR year include JLR’s Kids in the Kitchen event to be held in October at the Rockford Public Library and this Spring at the Discovery Center Museum (a past JLR project), a Halloween party benefitting the Ken-Rock Community Center (another past JLR project), a holiday giving campaign for families in need, a junior leadership program for pre-teen girls affiliated with Womanspace, and a spring clean-up day at the Rock River Discovery Park (yet another past JLR project).

The eighth gift that JLR will present to the community has not been determined, and JLR is asking for the community’s help to decide the project and non-profit organization. To help JLR decide, people and/or non-profit organizations can submit their project request or suggestion to JLR by completing the 8 Gifts Request Form by Friday, Oct. 15.

JLR representatives will review all of the project submissions and announce three to five finalists. JLR will then invite the community to choose the eighth gift by voting on the finalists through JLR’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/jlrockford ^[1]) during the official voting time period in late fall. JLR will announce the chosen eighth gift, the gift with the most votes, by Dec. 1.

8 Gifts is in addition to JLR’s current community project RAISE (Reaching and Inspiring Students for Education), a one-on-one mentoring program aimed at increasing access to and success in post-secondary education for financially disadvantaged, underrepresented and first-generation college students from the Rockford Public School system. Since 2007, JLR has developed and organized the RAISE program and announced last month that Big Brothers Big Sisters of the YMCA of Rock River Valley is its newest primary program partner.

For more information about JLR and its 8 Gifts to the Community program, call (815) 399-4518 or visit jlrockford.org ^[2].

From the Sept. 15-21, 2010 issue