The Greater Tampa Chapter began with a conversation between old friends. In April 1983, while visiting Tallahassee, Rudean Crawley reconnected with childhood friend Jeraldine Smith. Comparing the Tampa they grew up in with the city of that day, they agreed that the youth of Tampa deserved more, and that a local chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. could provide it.
Mrs. Crawley returned home ready to act. She reached out to Margaret Spears and others who shared her concern for Tampa’s Black youth. Twenty people attended that first meeting, and four months later they formally organized as the Tampa Bay Interest Group of Jack and Jill of America.
Momentum built quickly. Membership grew to seventy-six mothers. The group organized children into age groups, elected officers, and adopted goals and bylaws. They welcomed representatives from their sponsoring chapter in Tallahassee and from the Regional and National offices, and they hosted a kick-off tea to invite more mothers to join.
In February 1984, the group earned provisional chapter status. After two years of programming aligned with National standards, the national body voted to grant the group its charter at the Jack and Jill of America biennial convention in Norfolk, Virginia, in July 1986. On August 9, 1986, Dr. Lynda Jollivette led a workshop for the new chapter, and the following evening National President Dr. Eva Wanton inducted its charter members.
The chapter’s family continued to grow. The Greater Tampa Fathers’ Auxiliary was organized on September 8, 2002, at Allen Temple A.M.E. Church, and the Greater Tampa Associates Group followed in January 2006.
Forty years later, Greater Tampa is a four-time Five Star chapter, and it remains rooted in the same commitment that brought those first mothers together.
