Just For Girls

Manatee Country Girls Club, Inc. d/b/a Just for Girls provides educational, developmental, and prevention-based programming to disadvantaged and impoverished girls during the dangerous and often unsupervised pre- and post-school hours. Just for Girls keeps our children safe, promotes living drug-free, and motivates girls to succeed. This program is key in nurturing a new generation of youth that will become tomorrow’s valued employees, responsible parents and conscientious citizens of our community.

Just for Girls encompasses a rich history of leaders, community partners, and visionaries who ad the foresight to realize the benefits that Manatee County would reap by providing gender-specific program that was both educationally and developmentally based.

Spearheaded in 1968 by Ida Stewart, a well-known educator, Sarah H. Tomberlin, a civic leader, the Manatee County Girls Club was created. In December of 1968, the Manatee County Girls Club, Inc. received its charter and began operating on January 6, 1969. The first fundraiser was hosted in May 1969 and was planned by a committee of members including Sara H. Tomberlin, Jane B. Pratt, Sara Nell Baden and Lois M. Taylor. Business contributors included DeSears, Manatee National Bank and the Bradenton Herald.

The organization flourished, and with the assistance of Sara Alice Harllee, opened a Palmetto Center just two years later. The east Bradenton center, located at the Sugg Auditorium, then opened its doors on January 6, 1976. Shortly after, the Bradenton Kiwanis Club generously deeded land to Just for Girls on 59th Street in Bradenton. This is where the west Bradenton center was build and currently resides. A dedication ceremony was held in June 1980 at the west Bradenton center and in 1981, the Selby Foundation furnished the funds to retire the mortgage on the facility. A few years later, after a successful capital fund drive was planned and executed under the leadership of Dan S. Blalock, Jr., both the east Bradenton and Palmetto centers relocated to new facilities.

In 1989, the Manatee County Girls Club Foundation, Inc. was chartered as a way to ensure these services for local girls continue in perpetuity.

Finally, after changes in the national organizations serving boys and girls, a new name, Just for Girls, was adopted in 1992 to define the emphasis on serving girls during their important formative years.

Throughout these 39 years, Just for Girls has kept up with the ever-changing needs of our society and will continue meeting and exceeding high standards for excellence in programming, stewardship, accountability, and positive results for years to come.

1968	Kathyrn Hall	1982	Maureen Magnon	1996	William M. Blalock
1969	Kathryn Hall	1983	Maureen Magnon	1997	John D. Hawkins
1970	Jane B. Pratt	1984	Shirley J. Foor	1998	Judy LaMee
1971	Jane B. Pratt	1985	Shirley J. Foor	1999	Judy LaMee
1972	Rev. Wheatley	1986	Patricia Benson	2000	Douglas Peebles
1973	Sarah H. Tomberlin	1987	Jane Kitching	2001	Douglas Peebles
1974	William B. Lee	1988	Mary Beth Bustle	2002	Charles F. Elzer III
1975	Lois M. Taylor	1989	Mary Beth Bustle	2003	Charles F. Elzer III
1976	Robert J. Boylston	1990	John Quinlan	2004	Wayne Scoggins
1977	Sara Nell Baden	1991	George LaChapelle	2005	Cindy Denison
1978	Julie McClure	1992	Patricia Petruff	2006	Paulette Gaar
1979	Phyllis Weitzenfeld	1993	Barbara Ann Held	2007	Betty Trigueiro
1980	Phyllis Weitzenfeld	1994	Angela A. Claxon	2008	Betty Trigueiro
1981	Margaret Barnes	1995	William M. Blalock