West Windsor resident Anne Reilly’s first brush with the types of community service programs performed by members of the Junior League organization came about eight years ago while she was living in Atlanta. Since then, the self-proclaimed “news junkie” who is aspiring to have a career in law to help combat issues affecting children, women, and migrant workers, has compiled an extensive resume of projects working here with the Junior League of Greater Princeton.##M:[more]##
Reilly, pictured at right, the mother of two boys — a 13-year-old at Community Middle School and a 9-year-old at Dutch Neck — is in her second year of co-chairing the organization’s designer showhouse, a fundraiser in which members look for a house in the greater Princeton area to transform and open to the public to explore. Proceeds from the open house help fund ROCKETS (Raising Our Children’s Knowledge by Education through Science), the league’s major impact project. The early literacy program focuses on improving the math and science skills of preschool children.
“I love the idea of looking for unmet needs in the community and trying to help,” she says. “I’m a news junkie, so I know there is a lot of need.”
Originally from Rochester, NY, she grew up in Brockport, NY, on the Erie Canal. Her father is of a biology professor at the State University of New York in Brockport, and her mother was a teacher. Reilly, who attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio, moved around with her ex-husband, who worked for regional brokerage firms up and down the east coast, from Atlanta, to Richmond, VA, and finally to West Windsor in November of 1999, where he commuted to New York to work on Wall Street.
Shortly after moving to West Windsor, she joined the Junior League of Greater Princeton as a member. “When we moved here, I finally felt like we had some time, and I joined the league here,” she says. “It’s really fun. I’ve made wonderful friends that I know I will have for a lifetime. You meet women who share the same types of background, and it’s also nice that you can help other people.”
Her first project involved creating a career day for children at the Cherry Tree Club, a joint program of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Princeton Junction and HomeFront, which provides a free and accessible preschool program for homeless and at-risk children in Mercer County. It’s really important for children to visualize their future careers, Reilly says. “If you don’t visualize yourself as a firefighter, it’s hard to become one,” she said. So, during the career day, the children dressed up to impersonate various professions. The members of the organization made tiny scrapbooks with pictures of the students in the event with their friends and teachers so that they could always carry it with them, she said.
Reilly then chaired the state public affairs committee, in which eight Junior Leagues joined together to advocate issues on behalf of children and women in Trenton. The group worked on bills regarding these issues.
Currently, Reilly is working with other members on expanding preschool education. “We find children who don’t go to preschool aren’t ready to learn when they hit kindergarten,” she says. That’s where the ROCKETS project comes in. The showhouse event funds all of the organization’s projects. “Literacy doesn’t just mean reading,” she says. “It also means literacy in math and sciences.” In ROCKETS, children are exposed to age-appropriate exploration type of activities. One of the projects with Trenton Head Start exposes children to a theme-based curriculum. Every month, four classes are taught focusing on themes like geology and colors. Tied to each theme is a little project that children take home to do with their families. “We’re trying to make it easy for families to be involved in this together,” Reilly says.
The third aspect of it involves field trips to places like the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and the Franklin Institute. “We can’t believe how many people want to go on these trips, and they are families of the Trenton Head Start students,” Reilly says. “People say, `I would never have gotten to do this.’ It’s just really, really heartwarming to see.”
When the group looks for a house in the area every year for the Designer Showhouse, the owners move out on their own expense. This year, Reilly says, the group lucked out because the owners are selling their house and have already moved out on their own. A different designer designs every room in the house. About 13 different landscape designers have worked on this year’s house, which is located on Drakes Corner Road in Princeton. About 20 interior designers worked on the inside rooms of the house, Reilly says.
A Georgian brick colonial located on the Princeton Ridge, the Ridge House lies on a 7.5-acre estate. It was designed by architect Francis Comstock in 1933 and features gardens originally designed by landscape designer Robert Zion.
It takes a total of about six to eight weeks for the house to be transformed before it is open to the public for a month. During that month, the group also hosts various special events at the house. Usually, the showhouse attracts about 5,”000 visitors, and draws attention and coverage by various magazines and media outlets, she says.
Previously, Reilly chaired the cafe and designer sales portion of the event, before chairing the whole event, which entails work by about 90 volunteers to make it successful.
Reilly says in addition to working on projects she feels so enthusiastic about, she is able to learn valuable experience, like managing all of the volunteers, working with about 25 different committees, and working with contracts for the designers.
A political science major in college, Reilly is looking to head back to school. She has already applied to law schools and is waiting to hear back. She says she’s always wanted to go to law school, but got sidetracked and then had children. Now that she is divorced, she says she will have to work again. Because of her experience with the Junior League, and the state public affairs committee, where she worked on a human trafficking bill, she wants to continue advocating for children and women as a lawyer.
Reilly says there isn’t much public awareness about human trafficking, and she points to one raid in North Jersey in which documents were taken away, families were threatened, and they were forced to work as prostitutes. “Through research, I found out there are about 4,”000 women and children trafficked into New Jersey every year for domestic, sex, and agricultural trade,” she says. “This was the kind of thing that peaked my interest.”
While she awaits her future, Reilly is busy caring for her two sons, who both play sports and participate in various activities. And she is busy with her duties with the Junior League.
Visitors to the house can expect to see some woodwork added, and two elements of the house that are reflective of Comstock’s work — the wrought iron banister and the trim on the fireplace, which have an art deco look, Reilly says. “We did not touch those,” Reilly says. “They were features of the house from that era.”
“It’s really fun to see the transformation, and they do it so quickly,” Reilly said. — Cara Latham
Designer Show House: Open to the public from Sunday, April 27 through Sunday, May 25 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Fridays, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sundays, the hours will be from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $20 in advance and $25 at the door. For more information, and to request tickets, visit www.JLPG.org, or call 609-771-0525, or e-mail showhousee@jlgp.org.
