Assistance League of Kansas City History

  • April, 1983 Organized as a guild
  • November, 1983  I’m in Charge, a program to teach children how to be safe, was adopted as the guild’s first philanthropic program
  • June, 1986 Assistance League® Of Kansas City Northland was chartered in ceremonies at William Jewell College in Liberty by National Assistance League President, Janet Boyer
  • November, 1988 Operation Hug, a program to provide teddy bears to comfort children and elderly people in crisis, was adopted
  • November, 1991 Heartland Auxiliary was formed as an auxiliary group of Assistance League of Kansas City and established Operation Foster Child, a program to help children in foster care whose families were unable to provide the educational, physical, emotional or social development needs
  • September, 1992 Operation School Bell®, a program to provide children with new clothing, was adopted
  • April, 1993 Human Outreach Program, later renamed Outreach, was adopted to be an “umbrella” program for short-term community service projects
  • December, 1994 Chapter changed its name to Assistance League of Kansas City
  • March, 1997 Assault Survivor Kits®, a program to provide clothing and other materials to victims of sexual assault, was adopted
  • August, 1997 THE ReSALE SHOP was opened as a way to fund programs
  • August, 1999 Assisteens® Auxiliary, our teenage service learning group, was certified by Assistance League
  • May, 2000 Groundbreaking for Administrative Center located at 6101 N Chestnut
  • March, 2001 Dedicated new Administrative Center building
  • August, 2002 Moved THE ReSALE SHOP  to a larger space
  • May, 2004 Purchased property adjacent to Administrative Center for further expansion of our facility and programs
  • May, 2004 Operation School Bell® Christmas ornament specially designed for us by Christopher Radko, was offered as a fundraiser
  • 2009 Senior Outreach Service program was adopted to help improve the quality of life for nursing home residents in our community
  • 2009 Assisteens® adopted Birthday/Celebration Bags, a program to provide a party in a bag to children living in a shelter, was adopted
  • January, 2010 Heartland Auxiliary’s Operation Foster Child was renamed Operation Child in Need, to more accurately reflect the scope of the program
  • April, 2012 Waste Not, a program to recognize contributions of donated, unsellable items to THE  ReSALE SHOP to other non-profits, was adopted
  • November 2012 Best Foot Forward, a program to help those entering or re-entering the job market, was adopted
  • April, 2013 THE ReSALE SHOP moved to its fourth location at 6601 North Oak Trafficway, Gladstone, MO
  • January, 2015 Successful completion of two-year $1Million Capital Campaign, raising over $1 million.
  • May, 2015 Birthday/Celebration Bags program is renamed Operation Celebration to increase the scope and service of the program and better serve the needs of the Assisteens® Auxiliary in managing the program
  • June, 2016 Initiated the celebration of the 30th  ANNIVERSARY YEAR by hosting all Past Presidents at the Chapter meeting with a video shown covering the past 30 years
  • August, 2016 Best Foot Forward was reinstated as a program
  • October, 2016 A grand celebration dinner party was held in recognition of the 30th Anniversary of the chartering of Assistance League of Kansas City. All major donors were invited.
  • January, 2017 As part of the year-long celebration of our 30th Anniversary, a public reception was held in THE ReSALE SHOP and Operation School Bell® areas. Active founding members were recognized. The national organization’s Operation School Bell award was presented to the Linscomb Foundation
  • March, 2017 A regional networking conference (hosted by the Wichita Chapter) was held at our Administrative Center. This was the 3rd of 4 special 30th-anniversary events this year.
  • March, 2018 ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF KANSAS CITY awarded North Kansas City School District’s Culture of Excellence 2018 Business of the Year
  • September, 2018 Hosted successful Regional Networking Event with eight chapters attending from five states in lieu of National Conference
  • March, 2019 Held an informative and celebratory Community Showcase of Programs 
  • April, 2019 Nominated by the Platte County R-III School District to receive the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce Business in Support of Education Award
  • July, 2019 THE ReSALE SHOP was nominated One of the Top Three Best of the Northland Thrift Shops by the Courier-Tribune-Gladstone Dispatch
  • September, 2019 THE ReSALE SHOP produced commercials on KMBC-TV
  • October, 2019 To be in compliance with modern-day security frameworks, a Data Migration improvement process was established to move all data to the Microsoft cloud, with redundant storage on all critical files to SharePoint. Updated the Treasurer to Quick Books On-Line
  • November, 2019 Resource Development instituted the Corporate Sponsorship Committee
  • November, 2019 Implemented Diversity Inclusion Awareness to membership
  • December, 2019 Featured by Great Nonprofits as one of the Top Six Nonprofits to Volunteer for in Kansas City
  • December, 2019 Integrated Social Media for THE ReSALE SHOP and Assistance League of Kansas City Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
  • January, 2020 First two male volunteer members
  • February, 2020 Moved from a stand-alone website to the National Multi-Site Website
  • March, 2020 In order to protect the health and well-being of our members and to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the community, THE ReSALE SHOP, Chapter meetings, committee activities and programs were temporarily canceled, then Chapter and Board meeting conference calls were instituted
  • June, 2020 THE ReSALE SHOP was voted # 1 Thrift Store, and Assistance League of Kansas City was voted # 1 place to volunteer by the Courier-Tribune-Gladstone Dispatch readers’ poll
  • July 2020 In response to the Covid 19 pandemic, held a food drive and amended Operation School Bell, Child in Need, and Senior Outreach Services programs to include delivery of food to food-insecure children, families, and senior adults.
  • December 2020 Held first virtual auction, “Make a Difference” to supplement lost revenue from closure and reduced hours at THE ReSALE SHOP, netting over $16,000 for programs
  • February 2021 Assistance League of Kansas City was featured five times during the year on three local TV stations
  • April 2021 Secured first three Corporate Sponsors
  • May 2021 conducted meetings by Zoom for the entire year with membership remaining stable, revenue among the highest ever generated, and return-to-community at 88%
  • June, 2021  Assistance League of Kansas City celebrated its 35th anniversary with various activities culminating in dinner at Stroud’s Oak Ridge Manor which is where the chapter held its first organizational dinner
  • December, 2021 National Operation School Bell Award was presented to Joni Brown
  • January, 2022  A Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) statement for Assistance League of Kansas City was developed by chapter and auxiliary members, the Board and Advisory Council
  • February, 2022 Assistance League of Kansas City, with support from National, was one of the first chapters to launch an Online Shopping site
  • May, 2022  Completed the year with 48 new members. With five men joining, we now have a total of 12 men in membership
  • May, 2023 Developed and adopted a new set of bylaws due to changes set forth by National Assistance League
  • May, 2023 Combined auxiliary and chapter members into one status: “voting members”
  • May, 2023 With the financial growth of the organization, contracted with a CPA firm to handle day to day finances