Past Projects

Each year the newest members of the Junior League of Kingston take the lead on a new project that kicks off their leadership training and volunteer experiences with the League. In 2010, the Junior League of Kingston’s new member class completed a project at the Queen’s Galley Soup Kitchen. Funded by donation and support of [...]

The Junior League of Kingston has actively participated in the AJLI’s program, “Kids in the Kitchen”. This program focused on the importance of good nutrition and living a healthy lifestyle. The League  established an excellent “Kids in the Kitchen” Program in the Kingston School District. The program  involved over fifty students in grades two through [...]

In an effort to appreciate how physical activity provides personal enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and social interaction, the Junior League of Kingston challenged children to get outside and get physical. The challenge was open to all children in Ulster County, ages 5-12, who were willing to exercise a minimum of 30 minutes per day five days a [...]

Each year the newest members (Provisionals) of the Junior League of Kingston take the lead on a new project that kicks off their leadership training and volunteer experiences with the League. In 2011, the Provisional class worked on a community garden for the children at the Boys and Girls Club. League members worked with members of [...]

One of the League’s first projects included sewing, kindergarten, library study hour, group singing and work with problem children for the Children’s Home of Kingston. In the Spring of 2008, the JLK returned to the Children’s Home of Kingston for another project. Members of the JLK helped to create a multi-media library. This project consisted [...]

The Kingston Lighthouse project was done in 2004 at the request of Mayor Sottile. The top floor needed to be renovated to make it usable as an education space for displaying information and holding meetings. The League needed to be conscious of the historic significance which dictated some of our selections, as well as approval [...]

Under the theme “Building a Home for the Millennium,” the Junior League of Kingston partnered with the Ulster County Habitat for Humanity in 2000. The home’s landlord donated the house to Habitat after he became hard-pressed to maintain it. Close to $45,000 in money and services were raised for the project. Junior League volunteers turned [...]

In the 1950s the Junior League of Kingston opened a Children’s Room in the Kingston Library and for many years offered support to the library through story-telling programs, puppet shows, summer reading clubs and donated books. Then in 1995, the League repeated the project in the library’s new location with the goal of encouraging reading [...]

The Junior League of Kingston sponsored a program with the YWCA of Ulster County beginning in the late 1990s that created the Parent Education Center at the Y. The Center provides weekly support and educational sessions where the parents learn ways to better interact with their children. The parents who participated were there to prepare [...]

In 1995 the League participated in the USA Today Weekend “Make a Difference Day” with a pie baking project. The League received an honorable mention in this nationally published newspaper for their efforts in this project. The project continued the following year by baking bread for the Holy Cross Weekend Soup Kitchen. The Junior League [...]

During the Junior League year 1989-1990, members began working on an enormous undertaking, a Robert Leathers playground, which we called Kingston Kinderland. In 1990, work for this project really began to get underway. Forsyth Park was chosen as the playground site and major fundraisers were taking off. As a League, we quickly learned that we [...]

In an effort to address the needs of the adolescent population in our community, the Junior League of Kingston co-sponsored an “After Prom Party” for the Kingston High School Senior Class for the first time in 1989 – 1990. Members of the Junior League coordinated the event in addition to being a major sponsor. The [...]

The Junior League of Kingston was approached in the 1987 by two juvenile judges in Ulster County to request that the League find details of how to bring Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) to Ulster County. The members researched what it would mean to create a CASA office in the county by reaching out to [...]

In the 1970s, the Junior League of Kingston worked on a large and progressive project creating a library at the Ulster County Jail. Members created, organized and ran a library for inmates to use. The Jail Library project was developed by Nancy O’Hara, who remained a Sustaining Member of the Junior League of Kingston until [...]

Members initiated the survey phase of its Historic Preservation Program in the sixties by canvassing and recording all buildings, residential and commercial, constructed prior to 1850 in Ulster County. After four years of research on over 1700 homes, the results of this project were cataloged and forwarded to the Library of Congress in seven volumes. [...]

Children’s Theatre began in 1945 with the aim to provide the children of the community with plays. In the beginning Junior League members would rehearse a play for six weeks and would travel to schools throughout Ulster County to perform these plays for the students. Their performances were free of charge to the thousands of [...]

Built in 1676, the Senate House housed the first senate of the state of New York during September and October 1777. The state government had fled New York City to escape British attacks, but shortly thereafter fled Kingston as well when British troops burned every building in town in what later became known as the [...]

This project was started in the middle of the last century by League Members as an adjunct to the Kingston Hospital. Anyone needing to borrow crutches, wheelchairs, or other medical amenities not easily affordable could do so and return them when they were well. Happy Apple is now a thrift shop, located at 24 East [...]