Point Loma Beacon, March 2003

Point Loma Beacon, March 2003

Club Raises Funds for Charity

Point Loma Beacon (March 27, 2003)
By Brooks Larios

David Rivera (left) of Nativity Prep Academy; Rillie Bass; and Fran and Matt Dalton enjoy the fundraiser held by the Thursday Club Juniors. The academy was the financial recipient of the club’s annual benefit gala held last month.

Point Loma—The Thursday Club Juniors of Point Loma selected three non-profit charities to receive financial support through their many fund-raising efforts this year.

Through a vote, Nativity Prep Academy, Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, and Dress for Success, an organization that provides clothing and career counseling to unemployed individuals, were selected as the main recipients of club funds, however, only one was chosen as the financial recipient of the annual benefit gala event held last month.

Honoring a different, outstanding charity each year, the club decided this year’s honoree to be Nativity Prep Academy for their efforts in helping children from bad areas receive a structured education with the intent of attending college in the future. Through the event, over $30,000 was raised for the academy.

“We support them primarily through finances, but also we try to partner with them. We get very involved with the groups that we fund-raise for,” said Lynn Devine, member of the Thursday Club Juniors. “We go and do visits, we communicate with them.”

Throughout the year, members of the Thursday Club Juniors meet for social and philanthropic purposes. Besides supporting their three main recipients of the year, they contribute to seniors, cultural and educational programs.

In the 1940s, a few decades after purchasing the property where they still meet in Point Loma on Santa Barbara Street, members of the Thursday Club created the Juniors mainly for their married daughters. To this day, the rules remain that in order to be a member of the Juniors, a woman must be married and under the age of 45.

Once over that age, a woman is eligible to transition from the Juniors into the Thursday Club. Besides age, there are other differences between the Thursday Club and the Thursday Club Juniors. “The Thursday Club Juniors has been a very community-minded group and has had as its focus raising money and supporting local charities,” Devine said.