Full History of the Volunteer League

THE BEGINNINGS

The year was 1952: high fashion was by Dior: High Noon won the Oscar and Albert Schweitzer the Nobel Peace Prize: General Dwight Eisenhower was running for his first presidential term; the juke boxes blared It Takes Two to Tango: and eleven ambitious young women founded the Volunteer League of San Fernando Valley.

What was the impetus for this group? Why was a need for organized volunteerism in the Valley felt so strongly by these women? The San Fernando Valley had blossomed after World War II from rural ranches into 32 communities, covering an area representing one-half the size of Los Angeles. Although a part of Los Angeles, the Valley was geographically separated, forming an entity of its own with a booming population that wanted “to make the San Fernando Valley their home.”

The eleven founders had been raised in the Valley or had lived there for many years. They knew each other from grade school and at UCLA and USC. All had worked together for several years as founders of the Mary Duque Guild of Children’s Hospital. They knew their Valley and saw the time had come to develop and train volunteer leadership for the duplicate agencies and services that Los Angeles would have to provide. They also knew that the Junior League of Los Angeles was not meeting that need as they had no demonstration projects in the area; and they were inviting very few Valley women into membership, and those members who had moved into the Valley needed to travel into Beverly Hills or downtown Los Angeles for meetings and project service.

Throughout 1951, while working on crafts for Children’s Hospital, they discussed the problem. By early 1952, they had decided that the San Fernando Valley needed to have its own League, develop its own projects and serve its own communities.

In the summer of 1952, the first meeting of the founders took place in the patio of Elna Burns’ Sherman Oaks home. Under sycamores and over sack lunches, they agreed to choose the Junior League format, they gave the League its name, and they elected their first offices: President, Elna (Burns) LeVan; Vice-President, Paula (Sprague) Dunn; Secretaries, Jacqueline McNary and Dorothy Gattmann; Treasurer, Jane Heiman; and Historian, Alice Alshuler. It’s notable that two of these offices, Alice and Paula are currently serving on the League’s 50th Anniversary Committee.

Later in the summer, Elna and Alice wrote the Bylaws and Standing Rules, with the help of the Association of Junior Leagues of America (AJLA) handbook, provided by friends in the Los Angeles League. With the guidance of the Los Angeles Region Volunteer Bureau, it was determined that the best project for the League would be a United Way agency, the McKinley Home for Boys. Throughout that fall, the project was developed with Lou Cusanovich, Program Director at the home (later elected State Assemblyman), names were considered for League Membership and invitations were mailed.

Twenty-five new members were invited to join the eleven founders, and the League held its first meeting in the Youth Log Cabin on the grounds of the McKinley Home for Boys in December 1952. At that meeting, the 36 hat-bedecked women heard their offices report-outside the winter winds were blowing and inside the warmth was provided by one fireplace! The League soon moved its meetings to the warmer, upstairs auditorium over the Home’s schoolrooms. Members were usually prompt at meeting as the creaky wooden floors always announced a late arrival! Since then, General Meeting have taken place in members’ homes, in church halls, in savings and loan meeting rooms, in department sores and in the League’s own home on Hamlin Street.

ORGANIZATION AND MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

The League’s internal organization was becoming more sophisticated and structured. In 1955 the League was incorporated, and by 1957 it received tax-exempt status. The first Directory was printed in 1953; and by 1959, Board Manuals, placement interviews, hourly record sheets, and nominating ballots for the slate of officers had appeared. These represented more than just paperwork. The committee structure of the League has kept the projects and activities advancing for 50 years. Many members have credited their successes in other organizations to their training in the League.

In addition to the Active members the Volunteer League has had several other membership categories: Provisional, Sustainer, Professional, and Active 8.

New members of the League are called Provisionals. Originally, these members spent their first year attending meetings to learn about the workings of the League. For the first 25 years, the Provisional course covered the entire year. They met with an Active Advisor and learned the “hows and whys” of the League, especially concentrating on the projects. At the same time, they got to know each other while planning and hosting the annual Christmas Party. In January of 1977, the 1976 Provisional Class assumed Active membership after a six-month training course. Today Provisional status has been eliminated and new members become Actives as soon as they join.

Sustainers are members who have completed at least eight years of active work in the League and are free to enjoy all benefits while volunteering to assist on projects, if they so choose. Their interest, support and experience have been valuable assets to the League throughout its history. Currently, the sustainers volunteer at Centre Clothes Corner, and they chair the Choral Music project and the twice-a-year Rummage Sale.

Each spring many of the Sustainers go on retreat for several days to a selected location. Friendships are further cemented as these members play tennis, golf and bridge with each other, along with a plethora of partying! At Christmas time, the party mood prevails again, as Sustainers and their significant others gather at a private home for their traditional Holiday Party.

At more Sustainers retire and move out of the Los Angeles area, several satellite groups have formed. These are currently located in the desert (the Road Runners), San Diego (the South Coasters), Santa Barbara (the Central Coasters), and Orange County. These groups are developing their own internal structures to suit their individual activities and interests. The ladies in the desert and San Diego have formalized their groups, the Santa Barbara Sustainers have an annual luncheon, and the Orange County group meets more informally.

There used to be a group in the League called the Professionals, composed of Actives who had returned to the work force. They assisted with Centre Corner and made props for Puppet People. In 1981 the Professionals began providing basic toiletry and hygiene kits to Clothes Corner in handmade bags (HELP – Hygiene Education for Little People). In 1984 they established and administered their Spotlight on Youth Award, a scholarship given to a deserving Valley high school student. The members eventually felt that they were losing touch with the League. They voted to phase themselves out in 1988. In 1984, a small-but-mighty group resurrected this category with a Working Women’s Group. They helped with Golf ‘N Gusto, the Rummage Sale, Clothes Corner, and they even produced the League’s Annual Report. There are still many Active members who work outside the home, and they are able to fulfill their project and committee obligations through flexible and understanding Placement procedures.

The Active-8 category was established in 1993-94. This allows members to continue their active membership in a more limited capacity after eight years of active service.

THE LEAGUE REPORT

All of these members keep up with each other through the League’s monthly newsletter, This publication was first issued in 1956 by Founder Elna (Burns) LeVan, and was reproduced on Marty Mortenson’s hand-operated mimeograph machine in her garage. For many years, it was printed on a temperamental Gestetner in the League Centre, and today it is produced by computer. Activities and meetings are publicized in The Reporter, and the Sustainers keep up with each other trough their own “gossip” columnists.

CHORAL MUSIC

When Choral Music (formerly Performing Arts) members walk among their elderly audience to encourage sing-a-long participation, faces light up and eyes shine brightly. This finale to their music program is a highlight for the troupers, who spend five months each year rehearsing and entertaining more than 1,000 people in convalescent hospitals, nursing homes and senior citizen centers. This is one of the hardest working projects in the League and one of the most fun-loving groups. It began in 1953 when the Provisionals sang carols at the Christmas party given at Pacific Boys’ Lodge. They made such a beautiful impression on everyone that the following year, Bee Jay Brown, the Provisional who had conducted the group, was asked to form a chorale of interested members to perform again. It soon became apparent that the League should share its enjoyment of this talented group, and they began to entertain elsewhere. Their first foray was to a Glendale retirement home. In 1985 and 1986 they sang at San Fernando Valley Day at Dodger Stadium. Anne Marie Sinclair has been singing with the group for 35 years, and Betsy Welsh is not far behind! Choral Music now travels in December and January bringing music to retirement and convalescent homes throughout the Dan Fernando Valley.

CENTRE COURT

In the fall of 1964, the League held its first tennis tournament, Centre Court. Under the leadership of President Char Carpenter and Chair Marily Throckmorton, the League mailed seven hundred invitations and charged $5.00 per player with a no-host cocktail party. The growing enthusiasm for tennis and the organizational expertise of the VL ladies assured the success of this event, and as the years went on, the first weekend in May became known to tennis lovers throughout the Valley as the time to reserve for Centre Court. For nineteen years, League members made lunches, court captained at private residences and clubs, and hosted a fabulous concluding party. Centre Court was the finest tennis tournament the Valley had ever seen, and it was the main source of income for League projects. However, in 1983, the beloved tournament was scaled down due to the lack of interest in tennis at the time, and the final “Tennis Ball” was held at Lakeside Golf Club.

COOKBOOKS

The seeds of Our Best were planted in 1966-67. Super chefs all, the League members decided to put together a cookbook for their friends, families, and each other. Thousands of recipes were submitted, tested and tasted, and accepted or rejected. Finally, in the fall of 1968, Editor Janie Smith presented the magnificent volume titled Our Best. The success of the book prompted the League to produce a follow-up volume, and More of Our Best was presented in 1976 by editor Jackie Miles and Chair Ginny Ueberroth. Both books brought in tremendous financial support for League projects for many years.

Several years after the reprint of More of Our Best, the League found that it had exhausted its marketing sources. Times had changed—foods were leaner and lighter, everyone was using the microwave, and it was impossible to sell the book in stores because there was no name on the binding (who could have thought that far ahead?) Cookbook chairs used many creative methods to deal with the surplus, including a “Cookbook Bistro” in 1984 with food critic Elmer Dills. It was great night publicity wise, but no books were sold! Used for favors, gifts, and promotions, the League finally ran out of copies. Keep your spaghetti-stained volume—it is now a collector’s item! League members know that both Our Best and More of Our Best are the finest cookbooks for offspring, spouses, entertaining, etc., and the faithful will never give up their quest to find Kitchen Bouquet and no. 2 ½ cans!

THE FIRST LEAGUE CENTRE

Kathy Olson, League President in 1969-1970, surely recalls the highlight of the year as the purchase of the League Centre. Chairing the first Search Committee, Polly Biedebach checked many possibilities, including the magnificent Edward Everett Horton home in Encino. Plans of grandness and luxurious living, however, soon gave way to reality under the sagacious pressure of legal advice; and anyway, it proved to be more fun that way. In 1969-1970, Co-Chairs Joanne Singleton and Edie Thoreson located the first League Centre at 14428 Hamlin Street in Van Nuys.

As the Centre became an official project, other projects were being phased out. Tutoring at Sylvan School was discontinued as was the similar work being carried on at Dubnoff School; volunteers in the community had been recruited to fill in where necessary. Another project, the Monlux Science Center, was a pilot program for the year and was not continued, and the League’s official sponsorship of the Valley section of the Master Calendar was also terminated.

CENTRE CLOTHES CORNER

The League was in the able hands of President Ann Von Gremp in 1972-1973. This was a most important year in setting the directions of the League in regard to the use of the League Centre. In October of 1971, the General Meeting was held at the Assistance League in Los Angeles with a tour of their project School Bell. From this came the inspiration of the League’s own Centre Clothes Corner. From the auspices of Project Potpourri, led by Chair Sheilah Ross, this project was developed to provide clothing to those Valley children who were unable to attend school because of lack of adequate apparel. Centre Clothes Corner first opened on March 6, 1973. Initially, the project was open each Tuesday during the school year.

Today in 2002, the entire upper floor of the second League Centre is devoted to Centre Clothes Corner. School children, referred by authorized schools, churches, and social services, receive two complete sets of new or used clothing, new shoes, new underwear and socks jackets, and bags of toiletry items. The children try on clothing in curtained dressing rooms while the volunteers located outfits in the two stockrooms. From its beginnings in 1973, when it was open every Tuesday, Clothes Corner has expanded its hours and its numbers. When the League was at its height of membership, Clothes Corner clothed over 2,000 a year. Today, although the Active membership is reduced, approximately 1500 children are clothed each year, thanks to the help of Sustainers and community volunteers. The project is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and the budget is $45,000. In addition to receiving clothing and toiletry items, each child selects a toy and chooses a book suitable for his or her age level.

The community has embraced this project. Many Valley schools hold used clothing drives and contribute unclaimed lost and found items to the Centre. For many years, Hazel Hand—her name is so apropos!—sewed and knitted items for needy children of the Valley. In 1982 Chair Marya Hicks began a relationship between Clothes Corner and the West Valley Occupational Center, which produced clothes as a training exercise for their students. The following year this project was used to good effect as the focus of solicitations for underwriting from the corporate community. The Los Angeles Dodgers were another alliance most helpful to the League; the first Dodger Day was in January 1985 with Terry Whitfield and Ross Porter.

TODAY’S LEAGUE CENTRE

For nine years the two small houses of the first League Centre were used for project work, committee meetings and a central office. In 1975, it was felt that larger quarters were needed, and with the assistance of League member and realtor, Joye Adams, a new Centre just two blocks away was located. In 1977, the League moved into the charming two-story California bungalow at 14603 Hamlin Street, which was purchased to house projects, committees and General Meetings. A garage sale was held in order to purchase china; members donated furniture; walls were painted and papered; and creative doors were installed between the living room and the CCC waiting room to allow for quieter meetings (no-it didn’t work, but they’re still there!) The General Meetings were comfy, cozy, and crowded—very crowded—and after much thought, reason prevailed, and the meetings were moved out of the house to other locations. Today meetings are once again frequently held at the League Centre, and its facilities house projects and the administrative office.

During the second year of ownership, the Centre was declared Historical Cultural Monument Number 293. The original owner of the house was Robert J. Baird, one of the first Valley nurserymen to specialize in homegrown fruit and walnut trees; this explains the many splendid fruit trees on the west lawn. The second owner, Mark Sutton, was the Valley’s second pharmacist. The report from the Cultural Heritage Committee indicated that residents of the Centre had been active in community service and civic affairs for fifty-seven years—a tradition the Volunteer League continues.

AUTHOR
Soni Wright

In 1976, League President Joan Thye asked me to write a 25-year history of the League to commemorate that anniversary. Five years later, I wrote an update, Jo Usher wrote the next five years, and then Mary Jane Cooper compiled 1977 through 1992 and a 40th Anniversary booklet was produced. In writing about these Fifty Fabulous Years, I have reworked and condensed much of the earlier version with an amazing amount of assistance from Mary Jane. We have both enjoyed the memories, the nostalgia, and even some of the craziness. We both love the League—and, if you’ve read this far, we know you love it too! Stay tuned for the Diamond Jubilee in 2027—you may be writing it