Invite your friends and family and grab a sweet treat on the first day of school! Visit Pineapple Dream and a percentage of the proceeds will help support the Junior League of Topeka! Interested in learning more about how you can advance your leadership while making a meaningful difference in the community? Want to develop a network and make friends? Stop by and learn about membership with the Junior League!
Thursday, August 11
5 – 11 p.m.
6750 SW 29th St.
Are you a Junior League of Topeka member? Now’s the time to rock your JLTopeka gear!
Join the Junior League of Topeka for the 3rd Annual Jockey’s, Juleps & Junior League, a Kentucky Derby Party FUNdraiser.
Wear your best outfit and don your most extravagant hat for the 148th Derby race. Guests will enjoy the race, entertainment, silent auction, and prizes for Best Hat and Best Dressed.
Tickets purchased before March 15 are $75 each, and will sell for $85 after that date. Additional items can be added to ticket purchases and include wine & Bourbon pull, Horse Bet 50/50 Race Raffle, and additional Drink Tickets.
| This Thanksgiving we’re thankful for your support! Thanks to your continued encouragement and support for the Junior League of Topeka, we were able to continue our work of connecting women, cultivating leadership and working together to bring lasting community impact despite the challenges we’ve faced the past 18 months. Over the last year—despite being in a worldwide pandemic—we have successfully: – Donated $5,000 and urgently needed supplies, to the YWCA which establish a children’s room at their shelters, – Executed the Little Black Dress Poverty Awareness Campaign and a month long Child Sex Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Campaign, – Provided leadership training for 1500 students from area high schools through the Capital Impact Leadership Summit, – Donated 460 pounds of food to Project Topeka, – Donated 120 towels to Operation Clean and Healthy by the Topeka Rescue Mission, – Donated 15,000 school supply items to The Boys & Girls Club of Topeka, – Packaged 2,000 STEAM kits for Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, – Donated 120 winter care kits to the Topeka Rescue Mission, – Painted Florence Crittenton Services to prepare new spaces for independent at-risk teens, – Donated more than 2,000 period packs to help fight period poverty in Topeka, – Donated more than $7,000 to Community Action, Inc. designated for the Diaper Depot, – Donated snacks and fidget gear to SENT Topeka & Ross Elementary’s Trust Based Relational Intervention Program, – Commissioned a local artist to paint a mural at the Boys and Girls Club of Topeka’s Teen Center in support of positive mental health, – Donated baked goods for Silverbackks Silver Sundays program, – Filled all Blessing Boxes in Topeka with non-perishable foods and Community Resource Pamphlets, – Created and donated a years’ worth of training manuals for CASA advocates, and – Provided eight training opportunities including the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge and the Day on the Hill Advocacy Training. |
| Next week is Giving Tuesday! On Tuesday, November 30, people all around the world will join together for a common purpose: to celebrate and encourage giving back. It unleashes the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and their world – just like the women of the Junior League have been doing for the past 85 years. Please consider making a donation to the Junior League of Topeka to continue supporting women building better communities. |
| Thank you, today and always, for your contributions with and support of the Junior League of Topeka. |
Poverty and lack of education form a vicious cycle that can be impossible to escape without the means to get a good job and change your life. This week was our 3rd Annual Little Black Dress Initiative campaign. Advocates have worn the same black dress for 5 days in a row to illustrate the effects that poverty can have on a woman’s access to resources, her self-esteem, and professional opportunities. Help us raise support efforts to break the cycle of poverty in Topeka. Thank you to the numerous women and community partners in Topeka who are helping #JLTopeka raise money for and bring awareness on the issue of community instability in Topeka. With your support we hope to meet our goal for this year! Click here to help make this happen:https://www.gofundme.com/charity/junior-league-of-topeka
Today is the 5th and final day of the “Little Black Dress Initiative.” Today’s collage features advocates wearing their little black dresses to help illustrate how poverty can effect women’s access to opportunities and resources. The good news here is that with your help and with the support of our amazing community partners like the YWCA of NE Kansas we CAN make a difference!
By Brie Engelken-Parks
It seems that everywhere you go these days you see 
HELP WANTED signs but that doesn’t mean people are doing just fine and don’t still need support –
Underemployment is a very real thing right now.
For this year’s Little Black Dress Imitative, I’m doing the #fooddessertchallenge where I has caused me to step back and evaluate how much items really cost.
A food desert is defined as an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. In Shawnee County, there are currently nine census tracts that are defined as “food deserts” according to the Shawnee County Community Health Improvement Plan from 2019.
The Food Desert Challenge rules (with some tweaks):
$5/day for all meals All groceries and necessities must come from a convenience store the same location because many impacted by food insecurity also live in a food dessert. Cannot use anything I had prior to this week I’m allowed to indulge in free offerings (free food at work, etc.) because this is often what gets many by each week!If you make $10/hr, or roughly $20,000/yr, and work 40 hours a week your take home pay each month is roughly $865/mo
A 2 bedroom apartment in Kansas is an average of $750/mo
Utilities would be roughly $150 on average 
And already your monthly income is gone. And that’s with a job!
The Junior League of Topeka’s Capital Impact Leadership Summit & Immediate Impact Projects help lift those impacted up and work to stop the cycle. YOU CAN HELP!
TO DONATE: https://www.gofundme.com/f/brie-parks-2021-LBDI-campaign
DAY THREE: Advocates have taken a pledge to “live with Limitation” for 5 days by wearing the same dress each day this week for the Little Black Dress initiative. Clothing can have a profound impact on a person’s outlook and access. And when you’re one of the mothers living in poverty while trying to provide for your family can make it nearly impossible to get ahead.If you’re a parent join us in supporting these women living in poverty. Help us remove barriers and break the cycle of generational poverty. Click here to help support programs that combat community instability https://www.gofundme.com/charity/junior-league-of-topeka
TODAY IS DAY TWO. If you agree this is unacceptable click here to donate and help #JLTopeka and our efforts to combat Community Instability.
https://www.gofundme.com/charity/junior-league-of-topeka
Capital Impact 