BRANCH STATEMENT OF PURPOSE & HISTORY

 

We support scholarships, grants, and programs for women and girls in Indian River County.

  

The purpose of the Vero Beach Branch is to support scholarships, grants, and programs for women and girls nationally, in Florida, and in Indian River County.  The AAUW Vero Beach Branch is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and operates exclusively for any or all charitable, educational, scientific, or literary purposes.  In keeping with this purpose, AAUW Vero Beach Branch promotes equity, education, and the development of opportunities for women and girls that enable them to realize their full potential.

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OUR HISTORY

 

The Beginning:  The Vero Beach Branch of AAUW was established in 1964, a result of the initiative of Lenore Feibel and Dorothy Forbes, who served respectively as the first President and the first Vice President for Membership. Lenore and Dorothy had moved to Vero Beach and missed their former AAUW involvement. They placed ads that resulted in 65 women attending an organizing tea. At the first meeting held at the Women’s Club, 54 charter members joined the new branch. In 2014, AAUW Vero Beach celebrated its 50th anniversary!

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In past years, the branch has involved children in theater and the arts, created holiday parties for clients of the Sheltered Workshops for the handicapped, held GED graduations at the Indian River Correctional Facility and Vero Beach High School and supported the Safe Space Shelter.

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More recent and ongoing branch outreach and cooperative activities include:

• Cooperatively sponsored an all-day STEM Summit at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute to encourage local middle school girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math

• Served as counselors and donors to a week-long STEM Camp for middle schoolers

• Founded an affiliated student organization of AAUW on the Indian River State College Mueller Campus in Vero Beach after sending students to the National Conference of College Women Student Leaders in Washington, D.C.

• Held non-partisan political forums for candidates running for office

• Conducted a voter education program encouraging women 18 – 30 to vote

• Funded two national endowments:  The Lenore Feibel Fund has generated $90,000 for research.  The Jannetta MacPhail/Harriet Strong National Endowment provides $75,000 for graduate scholarships

• Received a grant to develop an anti-bulling, self-esteem building video, Let Go, used in classrooms across the state.

• Hosted 37 Annual Book Author Luncheons.

• Host five book review breakfasts annually, free and open to the public

• Participate in tutoring programs for adults for ESL literacy and citizenship through Literacy Services

• Participate in mentoring in and out of elementary schools through Big Brothers, Big Sisters

• Volunteer and judge at the annual Science Fair; presented two AAUW awards

• Support annual $1200 scholarships and stipends for four women attending IRSC annually since 1971.  An endowed scholarship at IRSC currently awards approximately $500 annually

• Founded Senior Expo to bring community services resources and information for seniors conveniently together in one venue.  Held Senior Expo in 2019 and will hold the second in 2022.

• Host Play the New Card Mah Jong Fundraiser each April when the new card comes out

• Host plays about American First Ladies – Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford (2105); Eleanor Roosevelt (2020); and Abigail and John Adams and Lou and Herbert Hoover (2021).

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