Recognition of JLC Programs and Partners

The Junior League of Calgary's programs and seasonal projects conducted during the 2011-12 program year delivered over 2,700 volunteer hours, impacted over 3,500 youth and supported over 100 families. We were pleased to have many of our community partners join us at the Annual Celebration Dinner on May 28.

JLC Community Partners at the 2011-12 Annual Celebration Dinner

The JLC's program Moms U Matter(MUM) with Highbanks Society - a residential agency that offers a safe home to 16 -24 year-old single mothers and their children while the moms complete high school or a post-secondary program and create a career path - targets the issues of food preparation, meal planning, healthy eating, kitchen safety and food budgeting. We implemented eight MUM sessions between September and May.  

One of the programs under the umbrella of the Children’s Cottage Society is Brenda’s House, a re-housing program with a sheltering component aimed at supporting families toward independence and their own sustainable housing.The Treasure Trunk program targets key issues of nutrition and healthy eating (Kids in the Kitchen), literacy (Kids in the Story), music and movement (Kids in Motion and Music), the arts (Kids in the Arts) and reading to babies (or Babies in the Story).  We implemented twelve sessions of Treasure Trunk between September and May and a training workshop for Children`s Cottage Society and Brenda`s House staff and volunteers

The Fall Provisional Class members implemented our ninth year of Teen Totes providing bags for 350 Calgary teens. The bags were distributed in December through The Alex Youth Health Centre and Calgary Community Resource Centres. 

The Winter Provisional Class members learned about the JLC by implementing the seventh annual Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) event.  With the assistance of Chef Will Kwong and JLC dancers, Dr. Emily Roback and Natalie Wynn-Dempsey KITK inspired children to make healthy food choices and active lifestyle decisions.  The KITK program and tote bags were delivered to 190 grade 3-6 students at Rundle School on May 1.

In March, the JLC participated in Safety Expo demonstrating our kitchen safety booth to over 3,000 grade 4-7 students at this two-day event.

In May, we conducted a Done In A Day (DIAD) for The Alex Youth Health Centre to meet needs of their clients.  Hygiene items, basic clothing items such as socks, undergarments and belts, transit passes and gift cards for food and groceries were donated. 

Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House

Our eighth Treasure Trunk session, held at Brenda's House on March 7, was a great success! It was a busy night with lots of children, all of whom seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  Several were repeat customers who were looking forward to Treasure Trunk and added to the lively atmosphere.

Kids in the Arts (KARTS) started the evening creating rain sticks.  Everyone was so enthusiastic that the event started ten minutes early!  KARTS was led by Melanie Tewksbury and assisted by Marla McCutcheon-Grant, Jen Cox and Jocelyn Egden.  The 15 children assembled rain sticks out of materials that can be found around the home.  Many of the children showed their decorating creativity with stickers, markers and ribbons.  After most had finished, they sat in a circle and played with the sticks for ten minutes.

Kids in Motion & Music (KIMM) was led by Emily Roback and Nikki Stevenson.  They led a game of "Freeze" where we had some of the boys show off their ability to do the "worm", played hot potato with one and then two "potatoes", created what looked like a human puzzle called "tickle box" and then wrapped up with some stretches.

Babies in the Story (BITS), led by Tammy Figol and assisted by Christina Murez, had the mothers and babies listening to engaging stories and rhymes and singing along.

Sign up today to be a part of this terrific program!  The four remaining sessions of Treasure Trunk for this program year will be delivered at the Brenda’s House facility located in the SW neighbourhood of Killarney.

February 8 - Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House

Our February 8, Treasure Trunk at Brenda's House was a great success! It was a busy night with lots of children, all of whom seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Babies in the Story (BITS), led by Tammy Figol and assisted by Cyndi Cox, had the mothers and babies on their feet singing and dancing in between some engaging stories and rhymes.

Kids in Motion & Music (KIMM), led by Emily Roback and Nikki Stephenson and assisted by Robyn Ketchey and Jennifer Cox, had 13 children enthralled in a version of 4 square and "freeze".

Kids in the Arts (KARTS) rounded out the evening, led by Melanie Tewksbury and assisted by Lily Mioc and Philippa Gear. The 13 children assembled kaleidoscopes out of materials that can be found around the home - paper towel rolls, wax paper and rubber bands to name a few. The kids loved the craft and clean-up was a snap with all the JLC volunteers pitching in.

Our seventh Treasure Trunk session, delivered on February 22, was a night filled with great stories, lively activities, and fun food creations in the kitchen.

BITS, again led by Tammy Figol and Cyndi Cox, offered reading and the singing of a variety of nursery rhymes with four babies and parents.

Elaine Tsekouras, Lily Mioc and Jocelyn Egden worked with ten children during the KARTS story time, where they read “How Do Dinosaurs Eat?”.  While creating bracelets, which the children loved making, another three children showed up and joined in.

Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) was very lively with 13 children and three babies with parents making Pizza Pita’s.  Robyn Ketchey and Carla Gustafson couldn’t tell what the kids loved more, creating the fun faces or eating the delicious fruits and veggies. All leftovers stayed at Brenda's House for the staff and families.

Several of our JLC volunteers who had attended our January 28 Brenda’s House Training Event commented on "how the training helped make the experience of working at Brenda’s House smoother".

Sign up to be a part of this terrific program!  The five remaining sessions of Treasure Trunk for this year will be delivered at the Brenda’s House facility located in the Southwest neighbourhood of Killarney in Calgary.

Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House

Brenda‘s House is a re-housing program with a sheltering component aimed at moving families toward independence and their own sustainable housing.  The Treasure Trunk program, presented by the JLC at Brenda’s House, targets key issues of nutrition and healthy eating, literacy, music and movement, and the arts.  We offer developmentally appropriate, themed activities for the various ages of children who may be in residence during our twice-monthly sessions.

Our fourth Treasure Trunk session of this season was delivered on November 9 with Babies in the Story (BITS), Kids in Motion & Music (KIMM), and Kids in the Arts (KARTS).  Twelve children and four babies were in attendance.  The night was filled with great stories, lively activities and a craft that really got the children's creative juices flowing. 

BITS - Jodie Bereznay, with the help of Christina Murez, led moms and babies through an evening of songs and stories.  Each child left with a bag that included a puppet book and other reading materials. 

KIMM - Emily Roback lead an exciting night of KIMM. The limbo stick was a huge hit and the children danced and sang and passed the bean bag.  Everyone had a blast and could have kept going longer but.... the KARTS craft was more than they could resist. 

Melanie Tewksbury guided the children through creating their very own ocean scene port-hole. This craft was made from everyday supplies that may be around the house.  Everyone was covered in glue and marker by the evening's end but the smiling faces made the clean-up a joy.

PLEASE sign up to be a part of this terrific program!  The remaining eight sessions of Treasure Trunk for this program year will be delivered at the Brenda’s House facility located in the SW neighbourhood of Killarney in Calgary.

Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House

Brenda’s House is a re-housing program with a sheltering component aimed at moving families toward independence and their own sustainable housing. The Treasure Trunk program presented by the JLC targets key issues of nutrition and healthy eating, literacy, music and movement and the arts.  We offer developmentally appropriate, themed activities for the various ages of children who may be in residence during our twice-monthly sessions.

Our second Treasure Trunk session of this season was delivered on October 12 with Babies in the Story (BITS), Kids in Motion & Music (KIMM), and Kids in the Arts (KARTS).

In Babies in the Story, the parents, babies and toddlers were engaged with reading books, singing songs, playing hand clapping games, and laughter within the shared delight of reading and discovery.  Each family left with a bag of reading materials and finger puppet books.

The Kids in Motion & Music component was led by JLC member Natalie Wynn-Dempsey, who had the young children dancing, moving with scarves, chasing bubbles and shrieking with laughter and delight at the various surprises she pulled out of her hat to engage and stimulate the children.

During the Kids in the Arts component, the children made masks with an ample supply of objects, feathers, jewels and glitter to stick on them.  Several of the children stated they would use the masks for their Halloween activities, as they planned on being animals, princesses and pirates!

On October 25 we delivered our third Treasure Trunk session with the Kids in the Story (KITS) and Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) components presented to a house full of children by our JLC members.

JLC President Alice Gardner-Boreta (L) and local author
Lisa Youns share Lisa's book at Treasure Trunk

Local Calgary author Lisa Young came as a guest and read her book, “Friendship of Magpie and Crow” to all the children present.  She sat on the floor with the children, engaged them with her delightful story- telling style and had the children acting out parts of the book.  Each child was given a signed copy of her book for their personal libraries.  Many, many thanks to Lisa for adding such an enriching component to our Treasure Trunk!

KITS then progressed to the children making their own Friendship Bracelets, which complimented the theme about friendship in Lisa’s book.

Kids in the Kitchen capped a great evening with the children creating “spider snacks” with cracker bodies, pretzel legs, raisin eyes and Cheese Whiz gluing the animals together. Each child left with their own apron to wear in future cooking fun.

The nine future sessions of Treasure Trunk for this year will be delivered at the Brenda’s House facility located in the SW neighbourhood of Killarney in Calgary

First Fall Session of Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda’s House

Our first Treasure Trunk session of this season was delivered on September 28 with the Babies in the Story (BITS), Kids in the Story (KITS) and Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) components delivered by our JLC volunteers to a house full of children.  What a splendid time we had at this Treasure Trunk session!! With 12 children present, it made for a lively night.

BITS, lead by Tammy Figol with Marie Starich as her faithful assistant, engaged both babes and moms in books and song. Toes were tapping and hands were clapping!

Elaine Tsekouras read, "Caps for Sale" for KITS and then the children followed up the story by making their own caps. Glue, stickers and jewels were everywhere!

Yummy yogurt parfaits were on the menu for KITK. Nicole Nodolf & Jessie Seymour had the kids chopping and spooning and eating. Even a few parents joined in.

Fall Provisional Velvet Matheson floated between the parfaits and caps and helped both run smoothly, including a quick save of a leaking sink in the kitchen!

If all this sounds like the splendid but meaningful fun it is, please sign-up to volunteer for Treasure Trunk at Brenda's House. We'd love to see you there!

The 11 future sessions of Treasure Trunk for this year will also be delivered at the Brenda’s House facility located in the SW neighbourhood of Killarney.

2011-2012 Community Programs Off to a Great Start!

With MUM participants at the BBQ

Elaine enjoying the Kids in the Story
craft at Brenda's House

The JLC 2011-2012 program year has begun!  Through the MUM program at Highbanks Society, the Treasure Trunk program at Brenda’s House, Teen Totes, Safety Expo on March 20-21, 2012 and the Kids in the Kitchen initiative being delivered May 1, 2012 at Rundle School, we will continue to impact the Calgary community.  Our Future Program Planning Group will be exploring new directions in programming for the JLC.

Donna (L) and Tammy at the MUM program

Jessie, Velvet (back) and Nicole (R) in the kitchen during Treasure Trunk on September 28

Cyndi with tongs and Melanie

Making shish kebabs at the MUM program

Jessie helping at Kids in the Kitchen during the
Treasure Trunk program

JLC Community Impact for 2010-2011 Celebrated at Annual Dinner!

Our Issue Area of "Healthy and Active Living" was our guide to successfully promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving our community during the 2010-2011 program year. We delivered over 2,600 volunteer hours. We impacted over 3,000 youth and 120 families.

HIGHBANKS SOCIETY is a residential agency that offers a safe home to single mothers between the ages of 16 and 24 and their children while the mothers complete their high school or post-secondary program and create a career path. Cecilia de la Rocha, Executive Director, Stephanie Schoenberg, Community Coordinator and Bette Mitchell, Founder and current President of the Board of Directors, attended the Celebration Dinner.

The Program Planning Group for Highbanks Society developed and implemented a program that benefits the mothers and children residing at Highbanks. The name of the program is "MUM", which stands for "Moms U Matter", and it targets the key issues of food preparation, meal planning, healthy eating, kitchen safety and food budgeting. We implemented eight MUM sessions between September and May at the Co-op Downtown Market kitchen; the Co-op location was required because the Highbanks Society facility was being remodelled. We look forward to refining the scope and components of the MUM program, running it in Highbanks’ new kitchen, which will be completed in June, and moving into the second year of program delivery.

One of the programs under the umbrella of the Children’s Cottage Society is BRENDA’S HOUSE. Brenda’s House is a re-housing program with a sheltering component aimed at supporting families toward independence and their own sustainable housing. Brenda’s House opened on February 1, 2009 and has served over 317 families. Joining us from Brenda’s House at our Celebration Dinner were Angela Hutchinson, Program Manager and Michelle Louisy, Child Development Team Lead and Patty Kilgallon, Executive Director of the Children’s Cottage Society.

Michelle Louisy (L) and Angela Hutchinson with Brenda’s House

The Program Planning Group for Brenda’s House developed a program that benefits the children and parents at Brenda’s House. The "Treasure Trunk" program targets key issues of nutrition and healthy eating (Kids in the Kitchen), literacy (Kids in the Story), music and movement (Kids in Motion and Music), the arts ( Kids in the Arts) and reading to babies (Babies in the Story). We implemented 15 sessions of Treasure Trunk between September and May. We look forward to refining the scope and components of Treasure Trunk as we move into the second year of program delivery.

The Fall Provisional Class members were given the opportunity to implement our eighth year of creating Teen Totes. Under the guidance of their advisors, class members planned and implemented the Holiday Tote Bags for 300 Calgary teens. The bags were distributed in December through the Alex Youth Health Centre and Calgary Community Resource Centres.

The Winter Provisional Class members learned about the JLC by implementing the sixth annual Kids in the Kitchen event. Advisors guided class members through all the components of a JLC project. The KITK program and accompanying Tote Bags were delivered to 175 grades four, five and six students at Cambrian Heights School on May 3.

In March, the JLC participated in Safety Expo at City Hall, demonstrating Kitchen Safety techniques at our double-wide booth, providing JLC members with the opportunity to impact over 2,500 students at this two-day event.

Check out this youTube video to see more highlights from the 2010-2011 year.   

• In the 2011-2012 JLC year, Community Impact program components will include: Treasure Trunk at Brenda’s House, which will start at a later time on Wednesday evenings;

• MUM program being delivered at the new Highbanks Society kitchen on Tuesdays and Thursdays;

•  Fall Provisional Class creating Teen Totes;

• Safety Expo on March 14-15, 2012;

•  Winter Provisional Class implementing KITK on May 1, 2012 at Rundle School in NE Calgary;

•  A Future Program Planning Group starting to explore new Community Impact opportunities within our Issue Area.

Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda’s House March Update!

The Junior League of Calgary is partnering with Brenda’s House/Children’s Cottage Society to implement the Treasure Trunk program. This program targets the key issues of literacy, nutrition and healthy eating and the fun of music and movement and the arts by developing a resource tool that staff will be able to utilize to implement developmentally stimulating activities with the ever changing residents in the home.

Our March 2 session focused on "Kids in Motion & Music" (KIMM) and "Kids in the Arts" (KARTS). The children were soon bowling, throwing bean bags, walking on a balance beam taped to the floor, talking about art, and making their own crowns. Each child was given a bag of arts and crafts supplies to create their own artwork and crafts projects and carry on with the impact that the JLC started with them.

Our March 23 session focused on "Kids in the Story" (KITS) and "Kids in the Kitchen" (KITK). In KITS, children listened to stories and then made crafts to reinforce the message in the story. Children were given their own books to take home to add to their personal libraries. In KITK, children donned aprons and cut food items on small cutting boards with safety knives, creating delicious snacks which they got to eat while chatting with JLC volunteers. Each participant took away their personal apron.

At both sessions several parents with young babies were engaged in our "Babies In the Story" (BITS) program, with JLC volunteers reading stories, singing songs and getting the parents to share their favourite songs as well. Each baby’s family was given a hand puppet book as a gift.

Many thanks to our JLC volunteers!

March is National Nutrition Month!

This March is Nutrition Month in Canada and it is the theme of our March General Meeting. Led by Dietitians of Canada, this annual campaign meshes well with our own Issue Area of Healthy and Active Living and The Association of Junior Leagues International’s league-wide Kids in the Kitchen (KITK) initiative.


Healthy eating is an essential part of a child’s normal growth and development. In Canada, rates of obesity among children and youth ages 2 to 17 has tripled over the last 25 years. In 1979, 3% of children and youth were obese. By 2004, 8% were obese. This number continues to climb, and Statistics Canada says that an additional 18% of Canadian children and youth are currently overweight.

While many factors impact this ever-increasing obesity of our children, healthy, nutritious eating and healthy food behaviours, including age-appropriate cooking and shopping skills, are vitally important in combating this trend and in reducing the risk of future chronic diseases such as diabetes and premature hardening of the arteries.

In this regard, KITK forms the foundation for our MUM (Moms U Matter) program at Highbanks Society, there is a KITK component in our Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda’s House and we will proudly be putting on our 6th annual KITK program this spring!

This year’s Nutrition Month theme is "Celebrate food…from field to table!"  In keeping with this theme, and our own Healthy and Active Living focus, please be encouraged to make choosing healthy and nutritious food, whether from a farmers’ market or the grocery store, a part of your and your children’s daily life.

Alice Gardner-Boreta
President, Junior League of Calgary
Reprinted from President's Message in Feb Lasso

Treasure Trunk Program Update!

Our February 9 session of our Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House focused on "Kids in the Arts" (KARTS) and "Kids in Motion & Music" (KIMM). The session started with our Theme Song and opening of a small treasure trunk to discover clues about what the activities would be. The children were soon singing, doing yoga, talking about art and making their own door hangers. Several mothers and a dad with young babies were engaged in our "Babies in the Story" (BITS) program with JLC volunteers reading stories, singing songs, and getting the parents/mothers to share their favourite songs as well. Each baby’s family was given a hand puppet book as a gift and each child was given a bag or arts and crafts supplies. Thus we introduced ideas, role modeled, engaged the children/moms/dad/babies and left them tools with which to carry on with their own growth and development.

For more information on our Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House, click here.

Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda’s House - Update!

Our first 2011 session on January 12 focused on 'Kids in the Arts" (KARTS) and 'Kids in Motion & Music'(KIMM). The session opened with our Theme Song and the opening of a small treasure trunk to discover clues about what the activities will be. The children were soon singing and dancing, tossing bean bags, talking about art, and making their own pictures. Several mothers with young babies were engaged in a spontaneous offering of our "Babies In the Story" (BITS) component, with JLC volunteers reading stories, singing songs and getting the mothers to share their favourite songs as well.

Angela Hutchinson—Program Manager, Brenda‘s House Leads Training at November General Meeting

Angela Hutchinson, Program Manager, Brenda‘s House, Children‘s Cottage Society, was our guest speaker at the November General Meeting.  Brenda‘s House is a re-housing program with a sheltering component aimed at moving families toward independence and their own sustainable housing. The JLC is partnered with the Children‘s Cottage Society to provide developmentally appropriate activities for the children in residence at Brenda‘s House through our
'Treasure Trunk" activities, which target nutrition and healthy eating, literacy, music and movement and the arts.

Angela spoke to JLC members about Brenda‘s House and its goal of providing developmentally appropriate activities to their children and modeling for parents on how to deliver these activities. She stressed the important role that the JLC "Treasure Trunk" program plays in helping Brenda‘s House achieve its goals and how it is helping to nurture and enrich the development of the children.

In the second part of her presentation, Angela provided members with sensitivity training and trauma informed practice. The training was aimed at helping volunteers understand the children at Brenda‘s House and how their parent and family backgrounds are the context for their behaviour. She provided examples of interpersonal and external personal trauma and discussed complex trauma.

JLC members learned about the common signs of trauma in children, the triggers that can cause outward manifestation of trauma-induced behaviour, and helpful hints on how to deal with the children. Angela further outlined the impact of working with trauma survivors and stressed the importance of self-care in one‘s personal responses to working with trauma survivors.

(Angela earned her BA degree in International Development from the University of Guelph and her Masters of Social Work from the University of Calgary.)

AJLI President Visits Brenda’s House!

Delly Beekman, President of The Association of Junior Leagues International, spends a lot of her time visiting Junior Leagues in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and England. With each League she always aims to learn about their programs and Community Impact.

During her October 17-19, 2010 visit to the Junior League of Calgary (JLC) she toured Brenda’s House to learn about the "Housing First" concept being implemented there and the unique Treasure Trunk program that the JLC has developed for Brenda’s House residents and staff.

Carrie Kerr, Team Lead - Child Support Program, Children's Cottage Society - Brenda's House, conducted the tour of the house, explaining that Brenda’s House is a family-centred facility that welcomes homeless families with children to come and live there while they work towards the goal of moving into their own sustainable housing.

President Alice Gardner-Boreta and VP Community Marilou Mitchell accompanied Delly on this tour, giving us the opportunity to share details of our collaborations with both Children’s Cottage Society, Brenda’s House and Highbanks Society and the tremendous work both the Brenda’s House and Highbanks Society Program Planning Groups and JLC members are doing.  Delly was very impressed with the programs we are developing and will take this knowledge back to AJLI and onwards to other Leagues.

At the JLC Annual General Meeting later on October 18 are (L to R): Alice Gardner-Boreta, Delly Beekman, Carrie Kerr and Marilou Mitchell

Brenda's House Treasure Trunk Program Begins!

Brenda's Treasure Trunk Program project began with its first event last Wednesay evening, and the impact was already being felt by participants.  Read JLC volunteer Susan Cruess' impressions:

"I attended the first session for the Treasure Trunk program on September 29th. It was great fun to interact with the kids as I helped with the craft activity. As we were leaving, one of the staff members told us that a 9 year old boy wanted to share something with us. I can’t quote him exactly but he told us that "I had a good day - I got to school and back on time. We had the Terry Fox run and I made some friends. Thanks for the activities tonight – they were a lot of fun".  As he left the room with a big smile on his face, the staff member said that nothing could make her happier than that simple statement. As we reflected on the small things that can brighten a child’s life, many of us had tears in our eyes." - Susan Cruess

For more information on the Brenda's House Treasure Trunk Program, click here. 

Junior League of Calgary signs a Memorandum of Agreement with Children's Cottage Society!



On September 29, 2010, the Junior League of Calgary signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Children's Cottage Society to begin our partnership on the Treasure Trunk Program at Brenda's House. Children’s Cottage Society/Brenda’s House is the sheltering component of a "Housing First / Re-Housing" program that serves families experiencing temporary homelessness.  The aim of the program is to have a repertoire of developmentally appropriate learning and engagement activities that will be delivered twice a month to those parents and children in residence at the time.



Back row: Rosemarie D'Avella, part of Brenda's House Program Planning Group; Carrie Kerr Team- Lead - Child Support Program,  Brenda's House;  Marilou Mitchell, Angela Hutchinson and Kathy Deyell, part of Brenda's House Program Planning Group
Front row: Patty Kilgallon, Executive Director of Children's Cottage Society; Alice Gardner-Boreta, President, Junior League of Calgary