Junior League of Pasadena Marks 100 Years After Helping Found Kidspace, Senior Center

The Junior League of Pasadena, which, among innumerable community projects over the decades co-founded Kidspace Children’s Museum and funded the launch of the Pasadena Senior Center, will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a centennial luncheon on April 11 at the University Club of Pasadena, 175 N. Oakland Ave., according to the organization.

Founded in 1926 as the Junior Aid Society, the nonprofit women’s volunteer organization has spent a century building civic infrastructure in Pasadena. Two of the institutions it helped create remain cornerstones of city life: Kidspace, which has served more than 5 million visitors since JLP and Caltech community members founded it in 1979, according to the museum’s official history, and the Pasadena Senior Center, where JLP provided the money to hire the center’s first director and staffed operations for the first 10 years after it opened in May 1960, according to the center’s published history.

The Pasadena Senior Center, now at 85 E. Holly St., described JLP’s early support as foundational to its operations, noting on its website that league members “contributed thousands of hours” in the center’s first decade.

The organization has approximately 300 active members and is headquartered at 149 S. Madison Ave., according to the press release. Lisa Glionna serves as president for the centennial year, according to a previous organizational announcement.

“From the moment I became involved, I quickly realized that the League is more than an organization; it is a community of passionate, dedicated women who believe in lifting others up and creating opportunities where they are needed most,” Glionna said in the press release.

The April 11 luncheon will feature a silent auction and the premiere of an oral history short film documenting the organization’s century of service, according to the press release. Event details including time, ticket cost, and registration were not publicly available as of publication.

JLP opened its Madison Avenue headquarters for Eaton Fire relief efforts in early 2025, according to the organization. Member Kathryn Crowe, described in the press release as a NASA system manager, said the response echoed the group’s founding model of mobilizing trained volunteers during crises.

“We were able to use our organization to immediately stand up an entire relief effort and give back to those in need directly,” Crowe said in the press release.

JLP’s history in Pasadena also includes providing volunteer support for the docent program at the Huntington Library from 1958 to 1994, serving more than 4,000 students yearly, according to the organization’s website. The group invested more than $1.5 million and 50,000 volunteer hours in the Madison Elementary School community over nine years, according to the same source.

Chef Julia Child, born in Pasadena, joined the Junior League of Pasadena in 1935 and worked on a children’s theater project as a member, according to the Association of Junior Leagues International.

Rebecca Bird, who joined in 2021 and is leading the centennial commemoration, said in the press release: “I joined because I wanted to make friends, and what I found was neighbors.”

Information about centennial events is available at www.jlpasadena.org or by calling (626) 796-0244.