Junior League of Pasadena Marks Centennial by Awarding $50,000 in Grants to Local Nonprofits

The Junior League of Pasadena marked its 100th year on May 28 by awarding $10,000 grants to five Pasadena-area nonprofits — Altadena Girls, Kidspace Children’s Museum, Pasadena Educational Foundation, Pasadena Humane, and the Pasadena Senior Center — presenting the awards to organization representatives at the League’s Annual Meeting at the Tournament of Roses Wrigley Mansion.

The grants will help the recipients advance their nonprofit missions, the Junior League said.

The JLP board chose the five organizations for their intertwined history with the League, and their work in the greater Pasadena community. Kidspace Children’s Museum and the Pasadena Senior Center began as JLP projects.

JLP President Lisa Glionna framed the grants as a return to a long-standing League practice.

“In years past, the Junior League of Pasadena has been able to support our community partners not only through hands-on volunteer service, but by reinvesting funds raised right back into the community,” Glionna said. “In recent years, we haven’t been in a position to do that, but this year, as a Board, we had thoughtful and intentional conversations about how we could begin again.”

Two recipients carry historical ties to the League. Kidspace Children’s Museum launched in 1979 as a community project of the Junior League of Pasadena, originally at the California Institute of Technology, before opening its current 3.5-acre facility in Brookside Park, near the Rose Bowl, in December 2004.

The Pasadena Senior Center traces its origin to an October 25, 1957 committee formed by Pasadena city directors to investigate ways to serve seniors. When funds to staff the planned center were not covered, the Junior League of Pasadena stepped in to pay the salary of the first director, according to the Senior Center’s published history.

The press release lists JLP’s past projects as having included La Casita, Kidspace Children’s Museum, and the Pasadena Senior Center.

The three other recipients have separate Pasadena-area histories. Altadena Girls is a nonprofit charity founded by then-14-year-old Avery Colvert in the immediate aftermath of the January 2025 Eaton Fire. It opened a permanent community center at 225 E. Colorado Blvd. in Old Pasadena in October 2025. The organization has distributed more than one million items to approximately 5,000 girls and their families, according to the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. Pasadena Humane has provided programs and services for animals in the Greater Los Angeles area since 1903, more than 117 years, and describes itself as a community-supported animal resource center. The Pasadena Educational Foundation supports Pasadena Unified School District and is headquartered at 351 S. Hudson Ave. in Pasadena.

The Annual Meeting was held at the Tournament of Roses Wrigley Mansion, 391 S. Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena.

Founded in 1926, the Junior League of Pasadena describes itself in the press release as “a local nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women through the development of civic leadership skills.” Its standing organizational description identifies the League as “a nonprofit organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective leadership of trained volunteers.”

The Junior League of Pasadena can be reached at 626-796-0244 or at jlpasadena.org.