A FAMILY Legacy

Inhonor of Mother’s Day, we celebrate the many mother-daughter pairs within the League, past and present. Thank you for your decades of leadership and service and your family’s legacy of volunteering!

We talked with Johnnie Broussard and daughter

Kate Thorne, Mindy Victores and daughters

Laura Victores Wyman and Nina Victores, and Paula Atkins and daughter Allie Kelley to learn more.

What led you to join the Junior League of Beaumont and what is your favorite memory of your time in the League?

Paula: I was nominated and said yes because I enjoyed volunteering in our community. It was fun to be with other ladies and enjoy camaraderie and give back to the city and community doing service that made a difference in many different areas.

Johnnie: I joined the JLB because I wanted to make our community a better place. The Junior League of Beaumont has always done a lot of good for our community, and I wanted to be a part of that. Also, a lot of my friends were members, which made it fun. While I absolutely loved being League President and working with so many amazing women, some of my favorite memories are from serving the community and serving on committees. I loved participating in Imagination Station. When we built Imagination Station, it pulled together so many different people in the community all working together to accomplish a common goal. There was also another project where the Junior League sponsored children’s activities down at Riverfront Park during the Neches River Festival week. Nancy

McGrade and I chaired the committee, which created free games and activities for the children with a pirate theme. The children had so much fun and so did all League members who volunteered.

Mindy: Unknown to anyone in my family until this very moment is the fact that as a youth, I was a Volunteerism Junkie!! By the age of seventeen I had participated in, or originated, usually in leadership roles, approximately forty different volunteer organizations. I was the only high school student in the United States to be invited to attend, as a participant, the First National Congress on Volunteerism and Citizenship held in Washington, D.C. My interest in volunteerism extended through college, where as a Georgetown University School of Foreign Service student studying in Costa Rica, I created my own independent study three credit course entitled “Volunteerism in Costa Rica.” This resulted in a survey and publication with the same name.

So, how does this lead to my interest in the Junior League? As a high school student interested in everything “Volunteer,” I had read about the impressive history and good works of the Junior League. I then wrote a letter to the Junior League with a desire to participate in it. I was told that I was too young and needed references. Disappointed at that time, but continuing to have the Junior League on my radar, I was thrilled to learn that Beaumont had a chapter of this wonderful organization! I leapt at the opportunity to join it! When my daughters returned to Beaumont after pursuing their education elsewhere, the first organization that I recommended they join was the Junior League! I have since sponsored both of my daughters and my daughter-in-law for membership in this organization. One of my most memorable Junior League experiences, believe it or not, was working as a food preparer and server for the May meetings at the Beaumont Country Club! The gatherings were so elegant and special. The group had one goal: to make this event the most fabulous and soughtafter event of the year. Everyone worked extremely hard. The job was very physically demanding, and it took me a couple of weeks afterward to recover! But it was immensely worth it for the camaraderie and excellent results!

A bonus memory from Kate: At May Dinner my provisional year, my mother was receiving the Sustainer of the Year award and I had helped coordinate photos for the video that would be played. In the weeks leading up to and the night of the event I was coordinating with my dad and my husband to be there to surprise her after the announcement was made. Unbeknownst to me, I was receiving the Provisional of the Year award, and my mother was coordinating with my dad and my husband as well to ensure that they were there for me! They were getting double texts with play-by-plays for where we were on the agenda and when they would be needed. I am still so impressed that my mother and I both managed to keep a secret from each other and that my dad and my husband managed to keep the secret from both of us! It also made receiving an award that night so much sweeter that we were able to share it with each other.

How has your mother influenced you, within a JLB setting or otherwise?

Allie: My mom has been involved in numerous volunteer positions over the years. I always admired my mother for showing up and giving back. I saw the importance of sharing your time and service.

Nina: My mom is the rock of our family. She is the person we all call when we need help or just someone to talk to. She has done a lot for me and for my siblings. I don’t know where I would be without my mom!

Laura: My mother is the kindest, most supportive person in my life. She is hardworking, tough when needed, and so encouraging. She raised our family with her great sense of right and wrong as well as her ability to find the funny, even when going through the challenges of school, career, and life. I remember Mom being busy with work and different volunteer activities throughout my childhood, and I believe that her actions firmly established for us the importance of diligence and service to the community. I always knew with great conviction that I could accomplish difficult things because my mother had done it, and she told me that I could too! I owe any success that I have as a student, career-person, or mother directly to my upbringing and the example that I had in my own mother. She encouraged us in all things, guiding and supporting us in the paths that we have accomplished. I ask my mother for advice all the time and value her opinion when making big decisions.

Kate: I grew up watching my mother participate in the Junior League. When she held office hours at League Headquarters as Treasurer or President, we all went along and read and played while she worked. My siblings and I would help put together packets of papers before meetings and would crawl under towers of stacked chairs like they were our forts. When I moved back to Beaumont, it was all of those fun memories and of course her example that really pushed me to join, to be a part of something bigger than myself, and to help our community just like my mother.

What are some of your favorite mother/daughter activities or traditions?

Kate: Our family always served the community as a family. When Johnnie helped with the Junior League or church or Neches River Festival, it was and still is a family affair. Any organization that one of us is involved in has our full family participation!

Mindy: The answer to what do we like to do together is EVERYTHING! And I literally do mean everything!! We see or speak to each other daily. We consult each other on major and minor life decisions. We take trips together. We share home cooked meals, handbags, jewelry and cosmetics! My son is a member of this club as well! We do not discriminate based on sex or lineage. My daughter-in-law, sonin-law, husband, and grandchildren are honorary members and have standing invitations to all events and discussions!

Laura: Growing up, Mom made sure to have as many sit-down family dinners for us as possible despite our busy and divergent schedules. She is an excellent cook and still brings us all together on Friday nights. She also read books to us every night when we were children and gave us the gift of loving to read. It is something that we all still share.

Allie: My mom and I love to bake Italian cookies during the holidays and make suga (Italian sauce for pasta) to share with the family. We like to do a lot together. From shopping and antiquing, cooking and baking, catching up on the latest episode of a fun reality series and of course, chatting over coffee about life’s ups and downs.