Sustainers Corner
Throughout our League's history, our trained members have gone on to become leaders in our community and have helped to bring about positive change long after their "active" days in the League.  Our "Sustaining" members continue to support our League and remain a vibrant network of women who volunteer in the New Haven area and who meet on a regular basis.  If you are a Sustaining member and are interested in becoming more involved in the Junior League of Greater New Haven, please contact our Sustainer Liaisons, Maureen Smith, Carolyn Westerfield, or Carrie Witt by calling 203-562-5076 or by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Each month we feature the work of one of our Sustaining members.  Please see below for  our recent Sustainer highlight:

 

Anna "Chubby" Huntington Deming

Anna "Chubby" Huntington Deming joined the New Haven Junior League soon after college (Swathmore, ’43) as did her husband John’s sisters. In 1945 Anna went to Paris on assignment with the Red Cross. During the 1950s she was secretary to the Director of Yale University Art Gallery and the New Haven Associates Committee, continued volunteering with the Red Cross as a caseworker to families of vets, and served as president of Traveller's Aid which was located in the New Haven Union Station and later merged with Family Services.

Anna used her position in the Junior League to advocate for women and children. While on the league’s legislation committee in the ’50s and ’60s, she testified before the state legislature about the needs of the state’s children and foster parents. At the same time she was on the local committee of the Connecticut Child Welfare Association, which organized meetings for foster parents to air their ideas and concerns. Anna was also involved in closing the County Home for Children—now the site of the University of New Haven—and the establishment of High Meadows, a residential treatment center for boys in Hamden (which the state is now trying to close). Anna was also an early board member of the Fellowship House, a New Haven-based facility for the mentally handicapped, which was founded by another Junior League member, Phyllis McDowell.

Anna is still active with the Round the World Women group of the International Center, helping the women to find housing and other services. She also coordinated international exchanges through The  Experiment in International Living, which was most active in the 1950s and ’60s.

While her four boys were still young, she delivered  packages for the Junior League Shop—a gift shop run entirely by volunteers and helped with Junior League fundraisers such as the Childrens’ Fair to benefit the Childrens’ Center on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, and the league’s Holiday Sale.

Anna is still a regular at the monthly luncheon for Junior League sustainers. She says she’s enjoyed the many contacts and friendships she made through the Junior League, and she’s enjoyed watching nonprofits and other organizations grow throughout the years.


Mary Arnstein

Have you ever conversed with Mary Arnstein? If so, you would have come away exhilarated, full of ideas of new projects and of different ways to approach community problems. Like her friend and fellow Sustainer Weebie Clark, Mary graduated Vassar (after attending classes year-round for three years). She married soon after graduation, and now lives at Whitney Center. While her husband Bob was in Medical School, Mary lived in Boston working at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. After one year in Syracuse, they came to New Haven in 1952. Living in Hamden while raising four children, she joined the Junior League in 1957 at the urging of Chubby Deming.

Mary became extremely involved with not only the Junior League and Yale, but also with the greater New Haven community. She has been active as a volunteer and fundraiser for the United Way and Campaign for Yale and has served as a member and officer of many boards including the Community Foundation, Cornerstone, New Haven Water Co., Connecticut Savings Bank, New England Organ Bank, Yale-Homemakers Services Bureau, Association of Homemaker-Home Health Aide Services, Friends of Legal Services of South Central Connecticut, Family Counseling of New Haven, APT Foundation, Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, the New Haven Hospital (and Auxiliary), and Long Wharf Theatre.

Interested in Education, Mary has been a Trustee of Hamden Hall Country Day School, Quinnipiac College, and Vassar College. In the 1970s, at Yale she was Special Assistant to President Brewster, chaired the University Committee on the Education of Women, and served as Director of the Co-Education Office.

In 1965-69 she was the Junior League's representative at the Volunteer Service Bureau, and in 1995 she founded the Community Fund for Women and Girls. Since 2000, she has served on the Advisory Council of Women's Health Research at Yale University.

Has all this gone unnoticed? No. Mary has been honored as a "Woman in Leadership" by the Y.W.C.A., for "Community Leadership" by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, "Humanitarian" by Cornerstone, for "Community Service" by Women's Health Services, "Woman of Vision" by the Women's Health Research at Yale, and is a recipient of the AYA Medal for "Outstanding Service to the University". AND the Junior League honored her as the 2002 "Outstanding Sustainer."

When you get an opportunity, take a drive over to Whitney Center—it’s inspiring to visit with Mary and Weebie.