From philanthropy to volunteering, several Wesleyan students have spent the past few years giving back to their community through the National Charity League (NCL).
The National Charity League is an organization that encourages mothers and daughters all around the country to participate in volunteer work to improve their local communities. According to the National Charity League website, the mission of NCL is “to foster mother-daughter relationships in a philanthropic organization committed to community service, leadership development and cultural experiences.”
There are 229 total NCL chapter across 26 states. Every winter, each chapter has a celebration, Senior Presents, to honor the seniors in their chapter who have successfully completed their amount of required service hours.Senior Presents are a very big deal for the senior girls in NCL as they are spoken about and honored in front of their closest friends and family. Senior Presents consists of a dinner as well as a dance. It is a very prestigious event in which the seniors wear long white ball gowns.
Seniors Megan Macia and Ashley Godwin, members of the Northeast Atlanta NCL Chapter had their senior presents on Jan. 14. Senior Gabby Hernandez is a member of the Roswell- Alpharetta chapter and they had their senior presents on Jan 28.
On Feb 25, at Dunwoody Country Club, the NCL Dunwoody chapter had their Senior Presents which honored Wesleyan seniors Sam Laurite, Kelsey Strott, Natalie Armstrong, Morgan Keller, Olivia Frank and Emma Preston. Senior Olivia Frank said she loved serving in NCL because it allowed her to “see the less fortunate in a different way and made me realize how truly blessed we are in life.” Senior Kelsey Strott said it felt good knowing how many service hours she completed because she can “look back and be proud of serving.”
The Dunwoody chapter Senior Presents on Feb 25 consisted of a dinner, speeches given by the fathers of the seniors in NCL written to their daughters, a father daughter waltz, and a dance for family and friends of the girls. Senior Emma Preston, a member of the Dunwoody chapter said she loved senior presents because “it brought everyone together one last time to celebrate the past 6 years of NCL and it gave us a special connection with our dads.” Each girl in NCL got to invite their family and friends to come celebrate their accomplishments with them.
As a guest at Senior Presents, Senior Olivia Jordan said “it was amazing to see the Wesleyan community gather around a few girls and recognize their contribution to society.”
