New Junior Service League Raising scholarship funds for the Abba House

Four local women have come together to form a new Junior Service League chapter in Perry, Ga. One of the first organizations they will partner with will be the Abba House to help women raise scholarships for more women in need.

Jennifer Wenkel, President of the Perry Chapter of the new Junior Service League, and three other women – Katie Pitts, Paloma Patel, and Kristin Settles – had a dream of doing more for their community. Volunteering is extremely important to each of these women, and allowing their daughters to see their mothers so involved in their community is one of their goals. They discussed how there aren’t a ton of opportunities to volunteer around the area and wanted to change all of that.

“Over mimosas and brunch, we thought, you know what? Let’s just do it!” said Wenkel excitedly. “All of our children go to school together. Through playdates, we all became friends. All of our girls are the same age, and we decided that they need to see that if they don’t like what’s going on in your surroundings, you do something about it. What better way than to just start doing it.” Thus began the process of officially forming the junior league.

The Junior Service League is a non-profit organization under the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI). According to the AJLI official website, “It’s an organization of women committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.”

“It is volunteering, but in doing that it’s also training women in leadership. There [have] been women who have been gone on to lead [everywhere in the world],” said Wenkel.

As a non-profit under AJLI, the Perry Junior Service League will have a board of their own within the chapter. The biggest benefit of being part of the chapter instead of completely forming a whole new entity is that they are able to go under the framework of women who have gone before them and know what works. Wenkel went on to say, “They basically hold our hand and help us. They tell us what we need to do and who to find.”

After contacting the AJLI in New York, the women found out that part of the foundation process is reaching out to some local community organizations to begin. All four agreed that the Abba House would be a wonderful first choice. Wenkel described the Abba House being almost exactly what they wanted to accomplish with their new junior chapter.

“It’s exactly it. The whole point of the Service League is basically to empower women – and what’s better than to help women who are trying to make a difference for their future and the future of their children – that will continue to grow into helping the community,” said Wenkel.

The Abba House is a ministry for women and children where one can come for drug addictions, alcohol abuse, eating disorders, shopping or sex addictions, being physically or emotionally abused by a man or a family member, etc.. Elizabeth Carter, Catering Coordinator for the Abba House, went on to say that the organization is perfect for helping with, “anything that makes you feel broken and in need of a savior – which is basically for everyone and everything.”

The Abba House is a Christian rehab program of a minimum of 15 months. Over the course of that time, women are to take 14 different classes of a biblical curriculum called “Being Made Whole” and they must do 15 hours of counseling a week.

“Our main focus is to restore families,” said Carter. “They come in broken and in a mess and before they leave our program, they have relationships back with their children – a lot of the children end up living here at the Abba House,”

In order for the women to stay at the Abba House, they have to either pay their way in or get in by scholarship. Scholarships are given based off of donations from others and through the money of women working in the thrift store or the catering company. Because money doesn’t come in abundance, there’s a limit on how many women the Abba House is able to house and help.

Carter went on to explain, “Right now we have 11 women and we have four children. We can house up to 32 women and children, but we don’t have the funds to do that.”

Carter spoke with Pitts about the opportunities to come with doing work alongside the Abba House. The plan is for the Junior Service League of Perry to help raise money for scholarships so that more women and children can come and get help.

Though the founders of the junior league are waiting until after the first official meeting to fully place plans in action, they already have a few ideas to help the women of the Abba House by helping with resume building, practicing interviews, pitching fundraising ideas, etc.

“We believe that we can change the future by changing the lives of women, therefore their children too,” Wenkel explained. “A lot of this is really the goal of targeting at-risk, young women and then single moms and basically women who are struggling and helping them. [We want to be able to] empower them for their futures.”

The first collaboration of the Junior Service League and the Abba House is tentatively set for December 10. The plan is to put on a benefit dinner for those in the community so that all proceeds can go towards the scholarships for women and children. The Junior Service League has generated a lot of interest from all kinds of women alike, and President Wenkel described the interest as “inspiring” as they have come to realize that there are so many in the community who truly want to help and be a part of something more.

“This is a bad time for people with any kind of mental health issues – even for people who didn’t have them before.” Wenkel urged, “We need to be coming together as a community. This is one of the things at the heart of this organization.”

For more information on how you can join the Junior Service League of Perry or help out with the Abba House, please email jslperryga@gmail.com or visit www.abbahousemiddlega.org.

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