Junior League Training Program Becomes Holiday Volunteering Tradition

When the Junior League of Toronto asked Geneva Centre for Autism if it could help organize and run the annual family holiday party, the Centre was glad for the help. The holiday party welcomes 500 guests, requires some 300 ready-to-decorate gingerbread cookies, and takes up an entire floor of the Merton Street headquarters.

It’s a lot of work, as Junior League members learned first hand when they volunteered four years ago to help staff the party. They felt the project was such a worthwhile cause that they came back the next year to ask if they could organize it.

“Part of our new member training program is to do a project,” explains Jennifer McGregor, the chapter’s director of community action, “and three years ago, that project was the Geneva Centre’s family holiday party.”

‘Done-in-a-Day’ projects
A charitable organization made up of women committed to volunteerism, the Toronto chapter of the Association of Junior Leagues International began working with Geneva Centre when past president Brenda Hogan organized a series of ‘Done-in-a-Day’ projects like planting a garden in front of the Centre, painting some of the family rooms and helping with the holiday party.

“We’re interested in working with women and children, and we believe all children should have the opportunity to grow, develop and learn in a safe, healthy and nurturing environment, so from that perspective Geneva Centre is a really good fit for us,” says McGregor.

A Group Effort
For one day in December, each room throughout the Centre’s second floor host fun-filled activities. With everything from games, crafts, face painting and gingerbread decorating, parents follow excited children from room to room as everyone gets caught up in the excitement and anticipation of Santa’s arrival.

The party has become one of the highlights of the Geneva calendar year and provides a warm and accepting environment for the kids. And for as much as our families have come to rely on this event as a time of respite, Geneva Centre for Autism has come to rely on the generosity of volunteer teams like the Junior League of Toronto.