VALDOSTA – Jeanna Ganas is completing her final year with the Valdosta Junior Service League. 

The eight-year veteran has been a member since 2013 and became league president for one year in 2019. 

“This organization holds numerous events benefiting so many throughout our community, and I was honored to be asked to come alongside such an amazing group of women to continue the league’s legacy of service,” Ganas said. 

Presently the keepers of the Converse Dalton Ferrell home, the service league was founded by 45 Valdosta women at the Daniel Ashley Hotel on March 3, 1936, said Erica Stone, who took over as group president in June.

The Valdosta Junior Service League was incorporated in 1966, she said.

Stone said founders strived to help better the community. 

“The VJSL is an organization of more than 100 women who are dedicated to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women and improving our community through the interaction of our group with those people and organizations in our community that are in need of service,” she said. 

The service league wants to better cultural welfare along with recreational, civic and educational conditions, she said. 

The organization has supported Lowndes Associated Ministries to People, Called to Care, the Children’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Alzheimer’s Caregiver Time-Out, the Boys and Girls Club, Second Harvest of South Georgia, House of Hope, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity and others.

The league combines its annual Community Day with the Greater Valdosta United Way’s Day of Caring.

Ganas has participated in Community Day.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about the role, it’s about the goal,” she said. “In the Valdosta Junior Service League, all of our members equally strive to serve our community each year to the best of our abilities.”

When Christmas arrives, so does the league’s Merry Marketplace.

The marketplace showcases products and services from nearly 100 small and local businesses. The event also includes a character breakfast. 

Past vendors have sold clothing, jams and jellies, holiday ornaments, purses and homemade food items. Funding has benefitted community organizations, members said in the past.

Other fundraisers are Tossed and Found, a yearly thrift sale, and a spring house social. 

The Valdosta Junior Service League hosts etiquette and enrichment courses for kids, as well as a Character Achievement party for school-aged girls. The league hosts vision and hearing screenings for third-graders and sixth-graders in private and public schools, Stone said. 

“The Valdosta Junior Service League would not be able to do what we do without the constant support of our community,” she said. “We value and appreciate all of the small businesses, individuals, alumni of our league and the many others that continue to support us.”

Noticeably, a significant goal of the service league is to maintain the Converse Dalton Ferrell house resting near North Patterson Street. The home is named for the historic families it once housed. 

“On March 3, 1982, exactly 46 years after the first meeting of the Valdosta Junior Service League, the league voted to purchase the Converse Dalton Ferrell House with the dual purpose of preserving this treasured landmark through historic preservation and creating a permanent home for the league itself,” Stone said.

In July 1983, members learned the house would be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, she said. The initial restoration was finished in fall 1983.

Stone believes the service league helped the Converse Dalton Ferrell house to be “an icon in the downtown district,” she said.

The organization has monthly meetings there and rents it out for events.

“Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic has shut down many of our major events this year,” Stone said. “Future plans include making our 2021 events bigger and better than ever so we can continue to support our community through service and donations. We continue to maintain the Converse Dalton Ferrell House as an important historical landmark in our community.”

Ganas said she hopes to continue the league legacy built by the women who came before.

Anyone wanting to rent the Converse Dalton Ferrell house can do so by emailing info@vjsl.org.