Chapter History
The Greater Hartford Chapter of Jack & Jill of America, Inc. was founded in 1958 by a small
group of mothers who wanted to expand the social, cultural, and extracurricular
opportunities for their children in the Greater Hartford community. At the time, there were
chapters in many of the large cities in the Northeast, and Hartford, the state capital, was
thought to be an obvious place to establish a chapter of this quickly expanding national
organization. The first chapter president for Greater Hartford was Jean Bell.
The Chapter thrived for decades, but then lost many members as they moved to the distant suburbs
of Hartford. The chapter was rebuilt in the 1990’s by the dedication of several mothers who felt it
was more important than ever to have a haven for African American children in these disparate
suburbs. Lauren Jones, our 17th chapter president, was was instrumental in the rebuilding of the
chapter.
Over the years, the Hartford Chapter has sponsored many ongoing community service activities.
These community service programs have included relationships with My Sister’s Place, a shelter for
battered women, The Village for Children and Families, Mercy Mission Shelter, Hands on
Hartford, The Boys and Girls Club, and The Amistad Center, and the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Within our various community initiatives, we focus on support for food banks, children literacy
initiatives, support for victims of domestic violence, and providing key clothing necessities to the
community. We have focused on increasing the literacy skills of our own children through a
chapter wide Jack & Jill Book Club, and have also encouraged our mothers to continue to read to
their children. In 2016, we installed a Little Free Library in the North End of the city of
Hartford so that all children and their parents could have easy access to a variety of books for
free. We will continue to work on improving early childhood literacy with urban children.
The mothers of our chapter strive to provide creative and productive cultural programming for the
active minds of our youth. We are fortunate to be in the Hartford area, which is rich in culture,
history and the arts. We also have access to Boston and New York City for special programs and
activities. We donated $1,000 to The Amistad Center for Art and Culture to help fund the building
of their new gallery space and have been recognized ed by the Amistad Center for our strategic
partnership and financial support of the Center. We believe creating alliances with local
institutions allows us to contribute to the cultural landscape of The Greater Hartford community,
while exposing our local community to Jack and Jill of America Inc. as a national organization.
Our past chapter presidents are as follows:
Catherine Barlowe
Marjorie Borders
Loretta Wells
Araminta Booker
Ann Jennings
Audrey Nathan
Gwendolyn Hurley
Leslyn Clark
Erleen Patrick
Pamela Burke
Olivia White
Agnes Black
Clara Lee
Felita Fontennot
Theresa Hopkins Allsop
Camille Burke Geathers
Lauren Jones
Madelina Williams
Violette Haldane
Patrice Dudley Aviles
Kimberley Scott
Kris Floyd
Tiffany Donelson (current)