MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT

Welcome to our 103rd League year!

Spring coincides with turning the page on the Junior League of Seattle calendar. It’s a season of renewal when we can refresh and recharge, so it feels like the perfect moment to recommit ourselves to the mission of the Junior League and the impact we are capable of creating together, to bloom.

There are nearly 37,000 501(c)(3) organizations in Washington. Organizations that share a commitment to serving diverse needs in communities across our state. What they also share, according to a survey conducted across five states in the Northwest, is a lack of capacity: skilled volunteers and leaders who can help their missions thrive.

Creating these leaders is the mission of the Junior League.

I was lucky to grow up watching strong community leadership firsthand. As a military kid, I was surrounded by strong women, my mother among them, who served as community builders in our ever-changing duty stations. Because military life meant frequently starting over and not always having traditional career opportunities, many of these women poured their talents into volunteer opportunities: organizing auctions, fashion shows, fairs, and other events that brought people together while raising funds for scholarships and support for military kids. This is also where I developed my love of a good community cookbook collection!

Because I moved so often, I also learned how important community can be and how much work it takes to build one. Having put down roots in Seattle, the Junior League of Seattle has become an important part of my journey.

The League does not just support our nonprofit community partners with direct service. We develop the people who support them. The skills you build here do not stay here. They travel with you to the boards you join, the causes you champion, and the communities you serve.

And that is why our theme this year is “Invest.”

This year, I invite each of us to think about how we can invest, whether it’s in our own growth, in one another, in our mission, or in the future of JLS.

As a fully volunteer-powered organization, the core of our training here happens by doing. We learn by serving on committees, by showing up for service shifts, by leading, by trying, and by sometimes getting it wrong but showing up again with greater skill and confidence.

With that real-world training, we become our greatest asset.

The women who move through this organization go on to serve on boards, found nonprofits, advocate for causes close to their hearts, and strengthen communities across our region in countless other ways. When we invest fully in the League, we are building capacity that extends far beyond our organization and into the communities and causes we care about most.

I am so excited for the year ahead and for all we will learn and build when we invest together.

Thank you for showing up for the League and making the work we do, and our future impact, possible.

Best,

Rebecca Dolan

President, 2026–2027
The Junior League of Seattle

President@jrleagueseattle.org