The Hollywood Women’s Club Community Service Programs and Special Projects are structured to harness the resources of our over 100 members who spent over 5000 hours to address the needs of the Greater Hollywood community. They focus on major issues that affect our communities daily—supporting women’s health, home life, fighting domestic violence, helping the homeless transition to better lives, arts programs, conservation, elementary education promoting literacy and equality, citizen advocacy, international outreach and encouraging volunteer service of all members.

Broward Outreach Center (BOC)

Movie and Pizza Night – We provide a movie and pizza night for the resident mothers and children of Broward Outreach Center (BOC) the last Thursday of every month. Six to twelve volunteers are involved donating food, drinks, popcorn and small toys, while the Club covers the purchase of pizza. A movie is also provided by club members.

Cover Girls Mentor Program – Broward Outreach helps women and children who are coming out of domestic violence and homelessness. A mentor is a woman who visits with a client while she is in the program, once a week or twice a month. Each session is just a visit and an opportunity to provide encouragement to stay in the program and help educate them towards independence. At the present time, 5 Club members are Cover Girls and share heart wrenching details of their interactions with their mentees.

Giving Thanks – Annually the BOC feeds close to a thousand homeless during their “Thanksgivings;” the traditional Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas in July and Thanksgiving at Easter. Club volunteers staff the children’s area, serving meals, and doing whatever is needed.

Holiday Tree Trimming – Annually the Club decorates the Women’s and Children’s Center of BOC for the Holidays with the residents and serves hot chocolate and cookies. We bring small gifts, and experience the true gift of sharing.

Community Enhancement Collaboration (CEC)

Back to School – Members this year donated back to school supplies, backpacks and children’s underwear to the CEC’s Annual Back to School Festival.

Holiday Turkeys and Gifts – At Thanksgiving, members donated over $361 to the Turkey Drive. We provided toys for their annual toy drive and children’s underwear.

Nadine’s 60th Birthday Event – This event was planned with the help of Club members to honor Nadine on her birthday. Members bought tickets to the event which was a fundraiser to raise $6000. The Club made a $300 donation to the event and Nadine surpassed her goal!

Breast Cancer Awareness – Members were reminded that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and sold pink ribbon logo baseball caps with $80 donated to Susan G. Komen Cancer Research.

Boys and Girls Club – In 2015, we provided holiday gifts to several large families. We also had a team of 6 volunteers help at their Back to School Clean Up and Paint Party. In addition, 5 volunteers helped pack food at Feeding South Florida on their behalf.

ChildNet – For the third year, members donated Holiday gifts for children and youth of the state foster care agency. We also assembled and delivered (71) Easter Baskets in the spring.

Walk to End Alzheimer’s – 17 members formed a team and participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s for the first time in October, raising over $4,300.00, and being recognized as one of their Top Ten Broward Fundraising Teams of 2015.

Exceptional Theater Company (ETC) ETC Hollywood Stars, a benefit performance for the Exceptional Theatre Company (ETC), a non-profit theater troupe featuring the talents of individuals with special needs. One of our members was involved in planning this event as part of the Chamber’s Leadership Hollywood Program and the Club donated $200 for a sponsorship.

Florida State Hospital Fashion Show found volunteers doing make-up and hair styles, and serving a multi colored array of cupcakes. A ‘fashionable clothing drive’ was held.

Henderson Behavioral Healthcare – This was a new project for the Club this year providing patients with Arts and Crafts the 4th Thursday of the month. The group numbers from 10 to 20 patients and a small group of Club volunteers lead the activities.

South Broward High School – 14 students volunteered to help enlarge our butterfly gardens in July earning community service hours. Also in 2015 we helped with Thanksgiving food donations for needy families in the Hollywood Schools. We participated in the I-Harvest Food Drive for Thanksgiving, collecting canned and packaged food.

High School Community Service Hours – We have been lucky to have a high school student help out our president elect in her many tasks. We have just launched a search for identifying foundations that will help fund the continuing restoration of our Clubhouse.

Gift Cards to Teachers – Distributed $50 gift cards to 6 teachers at the Oakridge Elementary School. We received fabulous thank you notes from teachers and students.

Hollywood Hills Elementary School – Donated back to school supplies as well as assisted with school events and the school store.

Holiday Bikes To Schools – Our amazing Day Group raised funds with Bunco events, Macy’s Shop for a Cause, & donations to purchase ten bicycles for distribution to deserving children in area schools for Christmas. Annually recipients are selected by principals, guidance counselors and teachers, based on merit and economic need. Emphasis is on recognition of progress in dealing with and overcoming difficult academic and personal challenges.

Hollywood Rotary Club – Annually in May members volunteer at their Annual Auction for Youth Scholarships. Members help coordinate the food working over 93 hours this year. This three day event is a ‘big deal’ in Hollywood raising about $100,000.

Holiday Bikes To Schools – Our amazing Day Group raised funds with Bunco events, Macy’s Shop for a Cause, & donations to purchase ten bicycles for distribution to deserving children from families in great need in our community. Annually recipients are selected by principals, guidance counselors and teachers, based on merit and economic need. Emphasis is on recognition of progress in dealing with and overcoming difficult academic and personal challenges.

Brighter Future Foundation

We collected over 700 pairs of new and gently used shoes of all sizes, shapes, colors, brands, and gender. They are used to provide micro-loan enterprise startups for people in other countries. This also helps keep shoes out of landfills, provide jobs and shoes for those in need, and helps the Foundation continue its garden installations, tree plantings, and environmental education. We exceeded our collection goals and were awarded the installation of butterfly gardens for the Clubhouse. Thanks to a grant obtained by the Brighter Futures Foundation and partially funded by the Community Foundation of Broward County and the Broward Habitat Centennial Garden, they were expanded in July 2015.

South Florida Wildlife Sanctuary – Several members visited the Sanctuary and invited a speaker to one of our programs. A collection was held for goods needed by the center including towels, sheets, pillow cases, baggies and plastic gloves.

Caps of Love – We collected bags and bags of bottle caps for Caps of Love to be recycled to buy wheelchairs for disabled children and demonstrated our environmental stewardship by diverting caps from landfills. The Hollywood Women’s Club will be added to the list of Cap Collectors. In 2016 we will be volunteering to sort Caps.

National Night Out – The Club annually participates in the “National Night Out” with neighbors, neighborhood watch members, the Hollywood Police Chief and his command staff, City Officials, Neighborhood Police Officers, Crime Prevention Specialist, and the Crime Watch Coordinator. In 2015 we donated financial support and 4 cases of soda.

Adopt-A-Street – On July 21, 2015 signs went up designating 14th Avenue from Johnson Street to Polk Street Hollywood Women’s Club Way. Throughout the year, members from the Club will be working to keep the street clean.

In addition, as a member of the Greater Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) we support:

  • The GFWC Scholarships for Students and Women.
  • Hacienda Girls Ranch – Founded by GFWC in the 1970s, Hacienda Girls Ranch is a safe haven for teen girls in foster care struggling to cope with their problems.
  • Canine Companions for Independence – Provides trained dogs to people with disabilities and to professional caregivers for pet assisted therapy. They have recently begun working with the Wounded Warriors Project. We are serving on the Broward DogFest Committee for an event in February 2016.
  • Special Olympics – Provides sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
  • Boggy Creek – Well-known year round camp serving seriously ill children from the state of Florida.
  • Sew Much Comfort – Provides free custom-made adaptive clothing to all wounded service members.