JA Purse-ology was a huge success!

Author: Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana
Community Involvement
Published: Thursday, 17 Nov 2022

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Image caption: The JA Purse-ology event took place on October 6th.

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who made our JA Purse-ology event such a smashing success!

The Purse-ology event was created in 2021 after our president, Lena Yarian, had a vision to engage new groups of people and get them exposed, and hopefully involved, with Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana (JANI). The purpose of this event was to target a new demographic of potential JA supporters, show off the beautiful JANI facility and have a fun night engaging with women and men in our community. Amy Lehrman, the event co-chair along side Julianne Lassus, says that JA Purse-ology has been successful because there is a group of hardworking JA staff who put in a lot of hours to make it happen. The event is also supported by a really great committee who, for the last 2 years, have rolled up their sleeves and jumped right in to make the vision come to life.

The Event:

Thanks to our dedicated and very talented event committee and JA staff, this year’s sold-out JA Purse-ology was nothing short of phenomenal. The evening included delicious cocktails and tapas, exciting giveaways, 10 rounds of purse bingo and lots of boutique and designer purse raffles, including the night’s premier Louis Vuitton handbag, sponsored by Hamed Homes. While not all of our 260 guests were able to take home a new purse, it is clear that, thanks to the fun and laughter, everyone left the event feeling like a winner.

“As this was our first-time attending Purse-ology, we didn’t know what to expect and were blown away by the fun we had! There were so many opportunities to win quality purses, which made the energy and excitement in the room electric.” - Holly Ryan, Hamed Homes

Indeed, JA Purse-ology was not only a great time, but it also netted more than $60,000 for our organization—all of which will be used to support student programming.

Our Purpose:

This year, we expect to reach a record-breaking 168,000 young people across northern Indiana. We are delivering programming to more youth than ever before, but we are also transforming our services. While we certainly continue to provide the “bread and butter” JA programming for which we have been known for generations, we quite simply are not the same agency that we were 25, 15, or even 5 years ago. With the launch of bold, forward-thinking resources, like JA Here to Career™, we are transforming the educational experience for students across the region.

We are already looking forward to next year’s Purse-ology event, and we hope you will join us once again. Together, we can continue to inspire and prepare young people of all backgrounds for future success … and, of course, have a lot of fun in the process!