Holly French had hearty praise for the nearly 200 people who heard her speak one Thursday evening. After all, the whole bunch could have been home watching the “Seinfeld” finale instead.
“I’m very impressed by this group,” she told members of the Junior League of Chicago. “You obviously know how to program your VCRs.”
But the audience that night was even more impressed with French, this year’s top Junior League volunteer. French was selected from the League’s 2,300 Chicago-area members as winner of the 1998 Founder’s Award. French’s “Seinfeld” remark came during her acceptance speech before her husband, Bon, children Katheryn, 13, and Taylor, 9, and fellow league members at the University Club of Chicago.
“It’s the premier award we give,” explained Mary Ann Lillie of Chicago, chairwoman of the league’s award committee. “In Holly’s case, the committee’s choice was unanimous. She’s a real motivator and a mentor to women coming up through the ranks. She has an enthusiastic, can-do spirit.”
Twenty-plus committees in 20-plus years for the Junior League alone offers a hint of this Glen Ellyn woman’s commitment. And in terms any busy mom can understand, the more French became involved, the more her children were served SpaghettiOs or macaroni and cheese. (In her acceptance speech, French thanked her children for putting up with all those quick and less-than-exciting dinners.)
Why does she volunteer?
“I only do it because it’s fun,” French said. “The day it’s not fun is the day I’m going to stop.”
French admits her childhood volunteerism nearly stopped before it started. Growing up in West Hartford, Conn., she gave up her membership in Brownies, where outings to nursing homes and caroling parties give many girls a taste of social responsibility. “It was the same day as gym,” French said, “and I didn’t want to be doing cartwheels with my underpants showing (Brownies required her to wear a dress uniform).”
Years later, however, as a student at Ohio’s Denison University, French signed on as a Big Sister to a needy child. Said French: “That’s probably the first (volunteer commitment) I remember.”
After earning a math degree, French went to work for a Hartford bank, where she settled estates. But by then, she was hooked on volunteerism, and in 1977, French, single and working full time, joined the Junior League of Hartford.
“Hartford was a very married, small-children kind of a town,” French recalled. “I didn’t have a lot in common with the other people in my provisional class (of new members), but I enjoyed working with them.” Through the league, French became a regular volunteer at two Hartford-area libraries.
Then marriage and a move brought French to Glen Ellyn in 1980. “I came to Chicago kicking and screaming; I was leaving everything I knew,” French explained. “It took me about a week before I fell in love with Chicago, and part of that was the Junior League. It gave me an instant way to meet people in the western suburbs.”
Because the Chicago chapter was large, members were single, married, working moms, at-home moms, women with older children. It was a mix French appreciated. “I think that’s a strength of the organization — that we all aren’t out of the same cookie cutter,” she said. “We are all so different, but we have something in common to work for.”
The goal Junior League members share is one of volunteer service. About 25 Chicago-area social agencies are targeted annually for year-long assistance. Other community projects may be one-day efforts, like sending a crew of volunteer members to paint CHA housing or assigning another group to sort baby items for the YWCA. Members are required to volunteer, annually contributing in excess of 200,000 hours for the area’s total membership.
Among French’s many projects was to sift through a musty, cluttered boiler room at the league’s Chicago headquarters. “People always think that in Junior League you wear white gloves,” French said, “but we had our work gloves on, hauling a ton of stuff out to the Dumpster.”
That white-glove, high-society, tea-party-giving stereotype is fading quickly, according to French. Her tenure with the league has coincided with changes not just within the organization but with women in general. “Even when I moved here, there were a lot more at-home moms than there are now,” said French, who considers herself a full-time volunteer.
Today 70 percent of the league’s membership is employed full time. Yet even with time constraints, the number of incoming members has remained steady for five years, about 275 a year.
For several years, French has held leadership positions with the league. Last year she served as executive vice president, running day-to-day operations and overseeing 18 vice presidents. And this year French heads the fall fundraising gala, which she hopes will take in $60,000. But that’s not all. Over at Wheaton’s Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, French has been the auxiliary’s president for three terms. And in the PTA at her children’s schools, French has participated in dozens of projects as a volunteer classroom helper.
“You name it, she was there,” said 2nd grade teacher Carol Waltz. Waltz, who teaches at Glen Ellyn’s Forest Glen School, benefited last year from French’s weekly visits. “I normally have five or six parent helpers, but last year I just had Holly,” Waltz said. “I seriously thought about moving to 3rd grade so I could keep her as a room mother. She was my absolute lifeline.”
Suellen Johnson, executive director of the Junior League of Chicago, couldn’t agree more: “Holly is really just an extraordinary volunteer, creative, organized, motivating, committed. To know her is to love her.”
