By Susan Lucking, President 1998-2000

In 1996, my daughter Kristina and I joined the Phoenix Chapter of National Charity League as provisional members. During my daughter’s 7th grade year we had wonderful experiences together in NCL working on volunteer opportunities such as packing food boxes for St. Mary’s Food Bank, playing with toddlers in a day care center at the United Methodist Outreach Ministries (UMOM) homeless shelter, baking cookies for the UMOM shelter, making and serving dinner at UMOM, acting as hostesses during the Phoenix Art Museum’s Festival of Trees, and preparing and serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House.

In 1997 our family moved to south Tempe. With this move, we were challenged with the long commute between Phoenix and Tempe and found we were unable to continue our rewarding work with NCL. We had started an incredible journey together during our volunteer experience with NCL and missed the camaraderie with our Phoenix NCL friends. I contacted Lennie Griego, president of the Phoenix Chapter of NCL to inquire about forming our own chapter here in the East Valley. Lennie was very excited about the possibility of a new chapter forming in the East Valley and put me in touch with Pat Sloman, NCL National Vice President – Expansion. I received a letter from Pat in January of 1998, explaining the steps to be taken in order to form a new chapter. We were off and running.

During my work as a volunteer at my children’s schools, I met some very dynamic hard working women who expressed interest in becoming founding members of our chapter. We met several times and were set to begin the hard work as we became the National Charity League, proposed East Valley Chapter. In March 1998, we wrote a letter to the NCL National Council Board of Directors requesting permission to organize our chapter. On April 18, 1998, we were granted status as the EAST VALLEY PROSPECTIVE CHAPTER OF NATIONAL CHARITY LEAGUE.

On April 23, 1998, Gay Hulke and I hopped a plane to San Francisco to attend the 1998 NCL National Convention. The theme of the convention was “Building Bridges” and Gay and I were truly inspired with the dedication to volunteerism and the desire to positively influence the personal growth of young women that we observed in NCL members across the country. We were establishing invaluable contacts and “building bridges” between our new prospective chapter, other prospective chapters and provisional chapters, and the chartered chapters throughout the country.

During the convention, the National Council Board of Directors appointed Sally Hartley, current president of the Phoenix Chapter of NCL, as our Prospective Chapter Director. This dynamic and very talented woman was our mentor and guide as our chapter journeyed toward the status of provisional and then charter membership of NCL, which typically takes about three years.

A Mother-Daughter Informational Tea was held on May 17, 1998. Sabra Bordas, Western Region District Chapter Liaison, traveled to the East Valley from California, as a representative of the National Board of NCL. Sally Hartley, as our Prospective Chapter Director, and Ticktockers from the Phoenix Chapter of NCL were there to answer questions from prospective members.

The journey begun! We all looked forward to the adventure of establishing this unique mother-daughter organization in the East Valley and to fulfilling the needs of our community through future philanthropy projects.

The inspiration and leadership of this founding group led to the East Valley Chapter of the National Charity League achieving Charter status on April 7, 2000. Today the Chapter is over 300 members, serves over 20 individual philanthropies, and contributes over 7000 hours to our local community each year.

In 1925, a small group of women interested in philanthropic work founded the Charity League in Los Angeles.   They worked quietly, doing Red Cross work, making layettes and assembling and delivering baskets of food to the hungry at holiday times. Sometimes they brought their daughters with them.  By 1938, so many daughters had become involved that they decided to form their own group. They called themselves the Ticktockers.

In 1947, these groups united to become the first mother-daughter charity and took their present name, National Charity League.  At that time, the mothers also took their name, Patronesses. The newly formed group decided to expand its program beyond philanthropic work to include educational and cultural activities.

NCL was reorganized and incorporated as National Charity League, Inc. in 1958. The first "Chapter Day" was held in 1959; the first NCL Convention was held the following year. These meetings brought the growing membership together for an exchange of ideas and support.

Program

National Charity League, Inc. is a mother-daughter organization dedicated to serving the communities in which chapters are formed and to fostering the mother-daughter relationship. Our goal is to promote a sense of community responsibility in our daughters and strengthen the mother-daughter relationship. The daughters along with their mothers participate in a 6-year educational program of philanthropic work, leadership training, educational activities and cultural events.

Philanthropic Work

For more information on the National Charity League, Inc. please visit www.nationalcharityleague.org or contact us.