"Celebrating 80 Years:

Breaking New Ground in Community Service"

~ Historical Highlights of the Junior League of Nashville ~

• 1922 Under the leadership of Cornelia Keeble Ewing, the Junior League of Nashville is launched and quickly admitted into the Association of Junior Leagues.
• 1923-24 The Junior League Home for Crippled Children opens and the Junior League Paper Sale (later the Palm Sunday Paper Sale, now the Friends of VUCH Paper Sale) is initiated to raise funds for the Home.
• 1925-26 President Frances Dudley convinces the Junior League Association to hold its national convention in Nashville--the first time ever held outside NYC.
• 1927 President Martha Lindsey organizes the first JLN headquarters with a shop and tea room.
• 1928-30 A new JLN Home for Crippled Children is built on White Avenue.
• 1932 The Nashville Academy Theatre for children is launched with "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp."
• 1935-36 The JLN ventures into radio with a children's program and creates the Children's Theatre Board.
• 1939-40 The JLN participates in the March of Dimes and receives half of the local proceeds. The Home provides a new outpatient clinic.
• 1941 The Endowment Trust Fund is established to benefit the crippled child.
• 1942 The JLN celebrates its 20^th anniversary and receives national recognition for raising more annual funds than any other league: $33,490.
• 1944-45 The JLN provides seed funding for a new mental health organization.
• 1948-49 The Home for Crippled Children is expanded to include 25 beds, a school room and therapy rooms.
• 1950-52 The JLN Puppeteers make their debut.
• 1953-55 William C. Weaver, Jr. and W.H. Criswell give land (now 2202 Crestmoor) for a new headquarters. The Paper Sale breaks records with sales exceeding $134,000.
• 1956 The Dede Wallace Center, the first mental health center of its kind, is built on the property of the Junior League Home.
• 1958-59 Services at the Home are expanded to serve medically crippled as well as orthopedically crippled children.
• 1962-63 The Home for Crippled Children becomes an accredited hospital.
• 1964-65 "Nashville Seasons" cookbook is published. JLN funds music appreciation in the metro schools.
• 1969 With the assistance of United Way funding, the JLN helps launch the Volunteer Center.
• 1970 The JLN makes the far-reaching decision to move the Home for Crippled Children to the Regional Medical Center (later VU ChildrenÕs Hospital).
• 1974-75 The JLN Garden, a terrace play area, is opened at VUCH.
• 1977-78 The JLNÕs second cookbook, "Nashville Seasons Encore" is published. The "Ice Cream for Nashville" fundraiser is very successful.
• 1981 The JLN initiates The Curiosity Corner at the Cumberland Science Museum, a hands-on learning experience.
• 1982 The JLN sponsors the Artist in Residence program at the Nashville Institute for the Arts.
• 1983 In coalition with the National Council of Jewish Women, the JLN funds a pilot program called CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).
• 1984 With a grant of over $500,000 the JLN founds the Junior League ChildrenÕs Lung Center at VUCH.
• 1985-86 The first Designers' Show House nets $120,000.
• 1987-89 JLN resources are used to establish Recovery Residences for chemically dependent teenagers. The JLN Nashville General Hospital and Vanderbilt Hospital begin what is now called "Our Kids," to provide medical and psychological evaluation for abused children.
• 1990 The JLN and the Salvation Army launch "Kare for Kids" to provide child care to homeless children. WDCN and JLN produce "Heart of the Matter," a TV show focusing on community issues; with JLN members serving as camera operators, producers, interviewers, etc., it enjoys 10 years of air time.
• 1991 The Junior League of Nashville receives more awards than any other league in the entire association at Annual Conference held in May.
• 1992 The Junior League Center for Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities of Children (now the JLN Family Resource Center) at Vanderbilt is funded with $750,000 from the JLN. The JLN serves as the lead agency to form the Nashville Immunization Coalition. The JLN also is instrumental in beginning Teen Outreach at Oasis Center, a pregnancy prevention program.
• 1994 The JLN funds the entire cost of a Respite Care Center at VUCH that enables parents of chronically ill children to enjoy a night or weekend away; the program is only one of four such programs in the U.S.
• 1996 The JLN celebrates its 75^th anniversary and makes a Tennessee Bicentennial gift of a childrenÕs playground at Elmington Park.
• 1997 The JLN founds the Nashville Chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
• 1998 The JLN pledges $2,000,000 to support the new freestanding Vanderbilt ChildrenÕs Hospital. The proceeds from the sale of the White Avenue property, $435,000, were granted to The Salvation Army's Red Shield Family Initiative to build the JLN Child Care Center.
• 1999 Sustainer Martha Ingram is awarded the prestigious Mary Harriman Community Leadership Award at the AJLI annual conference.
• 2000 The JLN membership endorses a millennium gift of $750,000, to be combined with a $250,000 gift from the Curb Foundation, for the childrenÕs section of Nashville's new public library.
• 2001 With a lead gift of $125,000 from the JLN, LilyÕs Garden, a fully accessible playground, breaks ground.
• 2002 The JLN celebrates 80 years of "Breaking New Ground in Community Service" by bringing "Kaleidoscope" to Nashville, an art experience for elementary school children, and by hosting a reunion of the former patients of the JLN Home.