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Junior Civic League sponsors annual Mardi Gras benefit
Girard
The Junior Civic League threw its annual Mardi Gras party Saturday night, and not even the snow could stop the revelers from attending.
Members and invited guests began arriving at 7 p.m. at Mahoning Country Club on East Liberty Street.
They put on masks and beads and got ready to enjoy dinner followed by entertainment from Howard and the Point 5 Band.
There also would be a raffle with prizes: a flat-screen television and $500. Festivities were to continue until midnight.
“We support it,” said Ted Wynn, who was attending the event with his wife, Donna. The couple is from Coitsville.
“The only thing this year was the weather,” he said, adding that friends who were supposed to attend with them backed out because of it.
Nonetheless, he said, it is a very nice event.
“Not quite like being in New Orleans, but it’s close,” he joked.
The money raised, with tickets at $40 per person, will go to benefit the league’s scholarship and education programs.
The Junior Civic League is a nonprofit organization dedicated to volunteering and community service in health, education and civic affairs.
One of the criteria to become a member is the ability to give volunteer service, according to its website. Over the years, JCL members have given thousands of volunteer hours to many community agencies, the site says.
Susan Moorer, league president, said the benefit funds an adopt-a-school program and scholarships.
“We get numerous requests [from schools] throughout the year, and we take a look at those,” she said.
Last year, the benefit helped fund the Freedom School program, which is a summer literacy program for Youngstown schools students that is run through Tabernacle Baptist Church.
It also supported 300 Sisters in Red, a project for preventing heart disease and diabetes in black women; the African American Male Wellness Walk, which takes place every August; and donated $500 to Second Harvest Food Bank.
The Mardi Gras event raised more than $4,000 last year.
It takes a year to plan the event, which may not be Mardi Gras-themed again next year, said event chairwoman Marcella Hodge.