2023 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 48
BY SENATOR PEACOCK
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To commend the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc. on celebrating their ninetieth
anniversary.
WHEREAS, the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc. is an organization of
women whose mission is to advance women's leadership for meaningful community impact
through volunteer action, collaboration, and training. Its purpose is exclusively educational
and charitable; and
WHEREAS, the Junior League welcomes all women who value their mission and are
committed to sustaining inclusive environments of diverse individuals, organizations, and
communities; and
WHEREAS, Junior League volunteers provide approximately four thousand
volunteer hours annually devoted to its community projects; and
WHEREAS, on October 17, 1930, in the St. Mark's Parish House, ninety-eight young
women heard the reading of the proposed constitution and bylaws of the Junior Service
League, which three years later became the Junior League of Shreveport, Inc.; instrumental
in organizing the group were Mrs. Douglas A. Lee, Mrs. S.G. Sample, and Mrs. Wesley E.
Wheless; Mrs. Wiltz Ledbetter and Miss Elsie Jones assisted in organizing procedure; the
group concentrated primarily on social service, and among its first activities were social
casework, the maintenance of two clothing centers for the needy, bookbinding, and braille
transcription; and
WHEREAS, the Junior League's first project was the organization, with the help of
other community leaders, of the Shreveport Family Welfare Association, which later formed
the nucleus of the Community Chest, now known as the United Way; it was this constructive
action that brought about the acceptance of the league into membership in the Association
of Junior Leagues of America in February 1933; and
WHEREAS, Junior League of Shreveport, Inc. undertook its first major project, the
establishment of the Children's Service Bureau, now called the Family and Children's
Service Bureau, to provide casework and social work to needy children and their families,
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and the community assumed responsibility for this service in 1942; and
WHEREAS, the Junior League adopted the Caddo-Bossier Association for Retarded
Children (C-BARC) occupation center as a project in 1956 in order to provide evaluation,
training, and services for intellectually and developmentally impaired people who were
capable of eventually becoming self-supporting citizens in the community; because of
matching federal funds, the association was able to provide training for people between the
ages of sixteen and thirty-six; the Caddo-Bossier Association for Retarded Children is now
known as The Arc of Caddo-Bossier and is a United Way agency; and
WHEREAS, the problems of the aging were becoming apparent in Shreveport in
1960, and the Junior League joined the Community Council of Caddo and Bossier parishes
in an extensive survey of resources available to the elderly; as a result of these findings, the
Council for the Aging was established in 1966; and
WHEREAS, in 1973 the Junior League helped establish the Mollie E. Webb Speech
and Hearing Center, a center which grew out of Junior League studies that established the
need for a comprehensive facility for treatment and diagnostic services for children and
adults with speech or hearing impairments and other communicative disorders, and the
center operates to this day; and
WHEREAS, in 1974 the Junior League committed twenty-four thousand dollars to
start Rutherford House, a residential treatment center for eight to ten girls between the ages
of twelve and seventeen who had come to the attention of the juvenile justice system in the
area; and
WHEREAS, in August 1975, Rutherford House, Inc. expanded to include a home for
boys called Olive Branch which housed ten boys; in the spring of 1976, Rutherford House
II opened for girls; this center had residency facilities for twelve girls; the average term of
residence for boys and girls was four months, and follow-up help was provided for an
indefinite period; Rutherford House is still in operation; and
WHEREAS, the "Celebration of the Arts" is an eight-day arts festival for the
ArkLaTex held in October in Festival Plaza; winner of the 1988 President's Volunteer
Action Award, the Red River Revel, began in 1976 as the Junior League's bicentennial gift
to the community; the first Revel was co-sponsored with the Shreveport Regional
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Bicentennial Commission, and the Revel now attracts more than two hundred thousand
people to Shreveport-Bossier and has a ten million dollar impact annually on the
economy; and
WHEREAS, in 1978 a joint project of the Junior League and LSU Shreveport, the
Pioneer Heritage Center, was constructed as an education outlet for pioneer life in Northwest
Louisiana in the early 1800s; the center comprises seven plantation structures, including the
Thrasher House, a log dogtrot, and Caspiana House, the big house from Caspiana Plantation,
both listed on the National Register of Historic Places; and
WHEREAS, in 1985 the Junior League began its largest coalition effort ever, the
LightHouse; volunteers of America's LightHouse reaches out to families struggling with
poverty, illiteracy, and joblessness; the LightHouse offers a wide range of programs serving
children, adolescents, and their families. Its goals are educational achievement, economic
self-sufficiency, and productive citizenship; and
WHEREAS, in 1994, the Junior League of Shreveport honored the community with
a gift of sixty thousand dollars celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, and this gift created kid
space which was a part of the exhibits when the Sci-Port Discovery Center opened; the
Junior League was the proud recipient of the Volunteers of America Humanitarian Award
because of its support monetarily and with trained volunteers; and
WHEREAS, the Junior League proudly received the Philanthropic Organization of
the Year Award from the National Society of Fundraising Executives in 1994; and
WHEREAS, after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,
Junior League members went immediately to work within the community to help at
emergency shelters and donated items as well as time to help comfort dislocated families;
members staffed the Relief Relay Center at the former South Park Mall and also volunteered
at the Humane Society; the Strategic Planning Committee made grants to many
organizations that had special needs due to the increase in services provided for hurricane
relief which included the Samaritan Counseling Center, Providence House, LSU Health
Sciences Center Social Services Department, Rutherford House, and the YWCA; and
WHEREAS, in 2008 the Junior League selected Sheriff's Safety Town as the
seventy-fifth anniversary recipient and donated seventy-five thousand dollars to build a
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Junior League Pavilion at the facility, and in addition, Junior League volunteers coordinated
Super Safety Saturday Clinics open to the public; and
WHEREAS, in 2013 the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc. celebrated its
eightieth anniversary by raising funds to plant eighty trees along Clyde Fant Parkway; and
WHEREAS, the Junior League's past projects include: Shreveport Family Welfare
Association - Community Chest - United Way, Family and Children's Service Bureau,
Community Council of Caddo and Bossier Parishes, Child Guidance Center, Deaf-Oral
Clinic at the Line Avenue School and West Shreveport Elementary, Caddo-Bossier
Association for Retarded Children, Alexander Speech Center, Council for the Aging,
Voluntary Action Center, motor-language perception summer clinics, the parents' league,
suitcase museum, Maddie E. Webb Speech and Hearing Center, Rutherford House, youth
advocates, Caspiana House, Pioneer Heritage Center, multi-faith retirement center, parenting
conference, coalition for parent education, Kids are the Key magazine, substance abuse
five-day program, McDade House, Louisiana State Museum, the LightHouse, Shriner's
Hospital PAL's program, friend-to-friend pet therapy, Volunteers of America Pregnancy
Service Center, Call Three, Christus Schumpert Adult Day Health Center, Literature to Life,
the Mendez Program of Substance Abuse Awareness, teen health fair, Sci-Port Discovery
Center, Caddo Public Education Foundation, gang awareness video, Forgotten Student
Mentoring Program, Volunteers for Youth Justice, food shuttle, HOSTS Atkins Technology
Elementary School, Habitat for Humanity, Providence House, St. Catherine's Community
Center summer day camp, Learning for Life, Dress for Success Shreveport-Bossier,
professional women's group, the Louisiana Heart Gallery, Sutton Children's Hospital bingo,
Greenwood Equine Assisted Therapy(GREAT), River Cities Youth Summit, Shriner's
Children's Hospital bingo, paired reading at Atkins Technology Elementary School, Kids in
the Kitchen, Between the Lines, Meeting with a Mission, bingo at University Health
Hospital, and Safe Sitter; and
WHEREAS, the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc. is currently involved with
projects including the Revel Artist for a Day, the Health Literacy Initiative, the Junior
League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc., Mentoring Ambitious Girls to Inspire Change, the Red
Apron Pantry, and Super Safety Saturdays at Sheriff's Safety Town.
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
commend the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc. on celebrating their ninetieth
anniversary.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier, Inc.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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