It started in the parlor.  Small groups of New York Junior League members who’d left the city for the suburbs of Westchester County gathered together for tea and cake.  It was 1933.  A nationwide bank panic gripped the country.  President Roosevelt told Americans that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself “ and the ladies in the parlor decided to get organized. 

The gatherings took on social purposes as they sewed layettes and rolled bandages for New York hospitals and later the Child Welfare Clinic in New Rochelle.  In 1941, now designated as the Eastern Westchester Unit of the Junior League of New York, they established the Welfare Fund and a library for pediatric heart patients.  Soon their volunteer efforts centered around wartime activities.

In 1949, one hundred members of the Junior Service Group of New Rochelle joined their ranks, helping to staff the Unit’s recently opened “outgrown” shop, forerunner to our Golden Shoestring.   The following year, the Soundettes began rehearsing, and by October, when a Junior League charter was granted to the Unit, they really had something to sing about.  This marked the beginning of the League which has through the years evolved to become our League, the Junior League of Westchester on the Sound, representing the seven Sound Shore communities of Harrison, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Port Chester, Rye and Rye Brook.

The JLWOS is a proud member of the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI). If you have any questions about the League, please e-mail us at info@jlwos.org.