Junior Woman’s Club Says Farewell & Reminisces

Plantation says farewell to its Junior Women’s Club volunteer organization with a well-attended affair at the Plantation Central Park corporate pavilion. Members and supporters made sure to say goodbye with smiles on their faces.

The final event of the Plantation Junior Woman’s Club consisted of tasty snacks, browsing through photo books, and lots of shared memories.

The club’s signature event was “Art in the Park,” with rows and rows of artists displaying their wares for sale. The last “Art in the Park” was in 2019. Then Covid hit, and the club was unable to gather enough members to keep activities going. The club, founded in 1960, decided to disband.

“Things move on, things change”, said Jamie Eisenstein, a member of about five years.

The club was originally created for younger women in Plantation to work for common causes, with the intent of then moving on to the more established Plantation Woman’s Club. Once a woman crossed age 40, she supposedly “aged out” of the junior club, but many women said they declined to leave, and eventually the bylaws were changed. The clubs have different national charter organizations and have always been supportive of each other, members noted.

Susie Phelps, who served as president in the late 1990s, was a member for more than 20 years.

“It was unbelievable the things we accomplished,” she said. “We were actually doing some kind of project every month.”

The club had more than 70 members. In addition to Art in the Park (created in 1966), the club in 1982 was the fulcrum to launch “Make-A-Wish” in South Florida, provided scholarships each year to students, and helped the environment with “trash to treasure” days.

“The most important thing, though, was all the friends we made,” said Phelps, as people nearby pored over photo scrapbooks. “To see some of these friends today, my heart just went ‘oooohhh.’”

Plantation city council member Nick Sortal stopped by the event to thank the women for their years of service.

“We have a very strong spirit of volunteerism in this city,” Sortal said. “I’m just really proud of so many people who want to make our city better.”