By: Allison Gallaspy

Since its founding in 1923, the Junior League of Greater New Haven has sought to effect positive change in the Greater New Haven community by promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and supporting the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. As the League prepares for its Centennial Anniversary, we celebrate our members and share their incredible stories, recognizing how each individual story makes up that of the League as a whole.

Damaris Clark-Spear

Damaris Clark-Spear works in PR when she’s not pursuing her passions of yoga, Pilates, hiking, and being outdoors– preferably at the beach. She joined the Junior League of Greater New Haven in 2018 to meet like-minded women and give back to her community in a more consistent way. She credits her involvement with JLGNH for giving her more opportunities to navigate challenging situations and disagreements to grow personally.

Damaris has previously served in JLGNH leadership positions as the Career Development co-chair and Communications Council Director. She says that these roles have given her more perspective on how to be more creative and flexible, while she hopes her continued involvement will allow her to learn more roles outside her comfort zone.

One of her favorite projects to work on was the Prom Dress Shop because it made her feel happy to be a member of the League. “It was amazing to see what a difference it made to the kids to have that experience and the pressure that it took off the parents to not have to spend that huge amount of money on prom.”

She appreciates the challenges the JLGNH Board has faced since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and say they have been very creative when rising to meet them. But Damaris is probably not surprised by that creative problem solving. To her, being a member of the Junior League means, “open-mindedness and being willing to help others.”