 Hi, my name is Sarah Aseves. I'm president of the Junior League of Champlain Valley. And I'm Olivia Taylor. I am the vice president of philanthropy for the Junior League. And so we like to call the Junior League of Champlain Valley JLCV for short, so that will be our shorthand, just to give a little background on what the Junior League is. It's an organization of women whose mission is to advance women's leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training. That is a mouthful, but I'll unpack it a little bit. We were started in 1901 by Mary Harriman, who was a socialite from New York. And we have expanded over 100 years to 294 leagues across four countries. And we have 171,000 members and counting, which is really exciting. So typically, each league has a focus area, our focus area, the JLCV's focus area. We have identified as affordable living. And that means we typically partner and work with community organizations in Burlington, as well as in Chinden County that work to improve the lives of those experiencing poverty and also struggling to afford the basics of life. This year alone, we've worked with almost a dozen organizations, including Spectrum Vermont, Sleep and Heavenly Peace, Wood for Good, and Girls on the Run to name a few. And we also started and operated the JLCV diaper bank for five years. So that's kind of our claimed fame in the area as the diaper bank. If you've ever heard of the diaper bank, that's us. And in 2023, our last year of operation, we distributed over 2 million diapers to 80 partners statewide. So that was a really successful endeavor. And just to give you a little background about our organization, in August of each year, we actively engage in member recruitment, where we spread the word about JLCV and the work we do and other women in the community. We really like to tout our membership because joining JLCV has a lot of different advantages, including getting involved in your community. We hear time and again from people who come to our recruiting events that they want to get more involved in the community and they want to also get to know other like-minded women. I think that's probably my favorite part of the Junior League is it attracts a certain type of woman who just really gets things done. And I love that. And you're also helping your neighbors. And you get to know people that way. And this year, we have an amazing new member class of, I think, 10 people or 12 people. And we will be voting them into active membership tonight. And this is a lot of jargon. So if you want to learn more about JLCV, you can visit champlainvalley.jl.org. We also engage regularly in funding initiatives to support the work of our league and our community partners. So to give you a taste of that, for several years, we organized and held a festival of reads during the holidays. And that raised thousands of dollars each year. And for the past several years now, we have leveraged the power of social media and have engaged in fundraising for Giving Tuesday, which occurs on the last Tuesday of November. And typically, fundraising will go toward our league operations as well as our work with community partners. And this year, we're excited to be doing something completely new and exciting. And that is our Little Black Flannel Initiative. And Olivia is going to let us know about that. Yeah. So I'm really excited. This is the first year we're doing something called the Little Black Flannel Initiative. And it is actually based on the Little Black Dress Initiative, which is a fundraising event that hundreds of junior leagues do around the world. It started in London, actually, about 50 years ago. Yeah. And they basically would wear a dress, a black dress, like you were wearing, for that full week to raise awareness about poverty and its effects on individuals and communities. So because Vermont is Vermont and different in so many great ways, we decided to do a Little Black Flannel Initiative. So our members are going to be wearing Black Flannels for the week starting this Sunday, the 14th, all the way until the 20th, April 20th, the Saturday. So throughout this week, we're going to have events that are open to all community members and a silent auction online. The purpose of this is to start conversations about poverty, challenge stereotypes, and support organizations that work to alleviate poverty. Specifically, we are working with the Wilson Food Shelf this year, so all funds raised are going to be split evenly with them. And we chose them for a really fun reason. Ginger Morton, who is the president of the Wilson Food Shelf, was actually one of the founding members of the Junior League of Champlain Valley. And we recently helped them with their turkey drive in November and have continued to build a relationship. So they are co-hosting and helping out with this event, this week-long fundraiser with us. And side note, I was at the turkey drive. And it was so fun. And Ginger is a Spitfire. And so she's reason enough to come to our event. Yes, Ginger is wonderful. And the Wilson Community Food Shelf is all-vaunteer organization. They focus on Wilson, St. George, and Richmond. And they serve an average of 280 families per month, with 17% being senior citizens and 30% being children. So they are doing a lot of really good work in our community. So what is the week? So starting on Sunday, our members will all wear black flannels with a little button that says, ask me about my flannel. And you can scan that and go to our website that will tell you what the events are, what the silent auction items are, and different ways to engage and donate. The first event we have is on Tuesday from 5 to 7. It's a mixer at the 126 bar in Burlington, where you get to come meet all the Junior Leaguers and get to know Junior League and see if it's something that you are interested in or want to help out with or even join. Yeah, so it's like a little black flannel event slash recruitment. Yeah, so you'll learn all about what it looks like to be part of the Junior League, what that could be, and then also just get to know us as people. And if you're looking to socialize with community members who care about our community, who want to do volunteer work, for me that was one of the big reasons I joined Junior League was I wanted friends, but I also wanted things to do and ways to help out in my community. And it's really fun to be able to do those things with friends. So the second event we have is an open house at the Wilson Food Shelf, which is in Wilson. And the Wilson Food Shelf has never done an open house. So this is a very new thing for them. We have a few different fun activities. We have some cookies donated from Great Harvest. We have some macaroons donated from Matrioshka Bakery in St. George. We have some, we will have ax throwing from Burley Axe so that their mobile ax throwing trailer will be there as well. And the Wilson Food Shelf volunteers will be giving tours of their location and basically different ways for you to help and support them. So if you live in the Wilson area or if you just want to get to know the Wilson Food Shelf, it'll be a really fun time on Wednesday from 5 to 7. And then the last event we're having is a flannel walk up Mount Philo in Charlotte. So we're going to walk up the road because it's mud season and the trails are muddy. But we're all going to wear flannels. We have coffee donated from Kestrel and bagels donated from Willows. And we're going to eat some coffee, eat some bagels, drink some coffee and walk up together and just talk and have fun. I'm going to bring my dog. Yes, yeah. Dogs, well-behaved dogs and children are welcome. And I guess I really do want to go back to, though, really, what is the purpose and why are we doing this? So we're really trying to talk about food insecurity and affordable living in Vermont. And according to Hunger Free Vermont, two in five Vermonters are experiencing hunger. And this was only one in 10 before the pandemic. So people are really hurting. And there's a lot of different ways and different organizations that we work with that are really trying to help with that. Something that I thought was really interesting as the Junior League is a women's organization. Women are 7.3 times more likely to face hunger in Vermont. So the Wilson Food Shelf does so much different stuff. They partner with the food bank. They do a plant a row for the hungry initiative. They do local food drives and partner with a lot of different people. And so we're really excited to work with them and continue our partnership with them. When I was there for the Turkey Drive, it was really amazing to see how efficient they are. And they actually don't, I think you said, they don't receive any kind of donations outright, monetary donations. So every month they have to go and outsource all of the food that is in the food pantry. And they're all volunteers. It's really, they're quite a force. It's amazing to see. Yeah, yeah. They are fully donation volunteer run. So they don't get funding outside of people donating food and their time and their money and volunteers like the Junior League and anyone else who can come and actually help them with that stuff. So it's so fundraising too. Super important. Exactly. So we're really excited to be able to help them, not just in our volunteer work, but also by helping them with fundraising as well. And then our silent auction, we've had a lot of really great things from that. I'm super excited about the silent auction. We have so many different items. We have Jpeak family pass to the pump house. We have a bunch of different museum memberships. We have some really nice clothes and jewelry and gift cards. We have a bunch of golf, like tee fees and stuff like that. We also have an overnight at Hotel Vermont. So we have a lot of really great items. It's going to open on Sunday. And bidding is online and available until Saturday. So for the week. How can people access the silent auction? Where do they go? So we have on our website a little black flannel page. And down the page, you can see links for where to RSVP for the events, where to check out the silent auction, and just where to donate to the Junior League. Wonderful. So champlainvalley.jl.org, that's where all the silent auction information can be found. Yes. And you might also see some posters around town that have a variety of different logos of different places that have donated. We also have posters around town with our three activities as well. So the three community events are open to everyone. And we want to get to know our community and talk to them about the Junior League, the food shelf, and just what we can all do to build community together. It's terrific. And I have to say, you have done an amazing job organizing this event. We want to pay you back for all your work by showing up. And so we really hope the community can show up too. Yes. I'm very excited. This was my first year as vice president of philanthropy, taking on a new activity, but something that really integrates us with the community was really important to me because I think not enough people know about the Junior League and part of the goal of the Little Black Flannel Initiative is to get more people to know about us and talk about us and talk to us and join us too. Great. Yes, 100%. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Olivia. Yeah. We're excited. So do we want to recap the dates and times? Yes. Great. So April 14th to 20th is the week when you might see people wearing black flannels and these buttons. We have three events, Tuesday, 5 to 7, at the 126th Bar in Burlington is a mixer with Junior Leagueers. On Wednesday, the 17th, we have an open house at the Williston Community Food Shelf. We are asking people to bring donations as well if you come to any of our events, but especially the open house. You can check the Williston Food Shelf website to see what they need the most. But I've heard they need laundry detergent, peanut butter, shelf-stable, things generally. But laundry detergent is something that they've needed more recently. And then on Saturday, April 20th, we will be doing a flannel walk, meet at 9 AM in the parking lot, get some coffee, bagels, and walk up with dogs or children. And the silent auction will be open until Saturday. So you'll want to get your bids in and keep an eye on that. But while it opens on this Sunday on the 14th, you can sign up for a reminder today. Perfect. And you can do all of that, find out the information. I have a broken record, ChamplainValley.jl.org. Yes. And our website has a lot of great things. Our community partners, our community projects, who we work with, information about the diaper bank and what we've done, and some pictures, too. We have some good pictures on our Instagram. Also would suggest following our Instagram because we will have a lot of updates about the Little Black Flannel Initiative throughout the week. And that's Junior League of Champlain Valley, the Instagram handle. Great. Yeah. Well, thanks, Olivia. Yeah. We're looking forward to the week. Yeah. All right. Hey, I'm too. Thank you.