Junior League Bus Tour

I was very excited to learn earlier this summer that I received the provisional advisor placement this year!!!

When I was a provisional, we did a team building course that included a ropes course and a rock wall. It was fun; however, I really liked this retreat better. You get to see what JLM actually does! We toured two facilities that JL had a hand in.

We toured Hope House:

Mission

Our mission is to improve the quality of life of HIV-impacted children and their families by addressing their educational, social, psychological and health needs.

Objectives

Our objectives are to:

Provide therapeutic day care, respite care and 24-hour emergency care in a safe, loving environment to children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

Provide supportive social services to children and their families in order to enhance the quality of their lives.

Collaborate with other community resources to insure the children's and their families' needs are met. Prepare pre-school children for entry into kindergarten.

Educate the Memphis community about HIV/AIDS to prevent the disease from spreading and to eliminate the stigmatization facing Hope House children and their families.

Assist the parents in obtaining education and employment in order to remove them from dependency and to offer them a vision of economic choices for a fulfilling life.

I think what they do there is such an amazing thing. Not only do they provide care daily for the children, they also help the moms as well.

After touring the Hope House, we toured the new children's hospital, Le Bonheur.

I can't say enough wonderful things about this hospital. The carefully chosen artwork to help distract sick littles, the wishing wall where parents/loved ones can write down their "wishes" and the chaplains come by three times a day to pick them up and pray about them to making sure there is equal room on both sides of the hospital bed so that parents may not be cramped when trying to speak to the doctor on the other side of the bed. There are so many details that I learned by touring this facility. The tour was so informative and great that it's one of those kind of places that you don't just need to tour with your company or volunteer organization. Locals, go tour it yourself. You won't be disappointed:)


I met most of my ladies that will be in my small group, and I think they are all very nice! I think our group is going to be great, and I look forward to getting to know them over this year. I hope they enjoy JL as much as I do:)))