Christmas Bazaar and First Scholarship

The AAFSW began its collaboration with AFSA and their existing scholarship program. AFSA supported AAFSW’s desire to fund a scholarship for Foreign Service children and indicated that AFSA would name a scholarship for AAFSW. The AAFSW Christmas Bazaar was the organization’s main fundraising event for the scholarship fund in 1960. AAFSW still continues today to fund scholarships for Foreign Service children.

The first thing that we did as a very junior organization was the Christmas of, I guess it was 1960, wasn’t it? Or 1959. In any event, there was a really marvelous, marvelous Christmas bazaar that was put on at the Shoreham…
…All hand-made. And the bazaar was built around the departure of the present wife of the Secretary of State, Mrs. Christian Herter. And she was the guest of honor, and she cut the ribbon for the opening of the bazaar. We made $1,452.

June Byrne Spencer

That was the first fund-raising. Then after that, Pat Armitage said, “You know, that was a lot of trouble. Why don’t we do something that isn’t so much work. Let’s have a book fair.” I can remember those words so clearly, something that is not so much work, let’s have a book fair. And the first one, as you know, was held in the courtyard of the State Department for just a few hours, one Friday. It was in the courtyard that’s just right outside the cafeteria.

June Byrne Spencer

It was for Foreign Service scholarships. And we felt that Foreign Service scholarships were something that everybody could rally around. Those scholarships had been in existence for years and years and were administered by the Men’s Foreign Service Association. Not only did we believe in them, but we just felt that, as a matter of acceptance, that everybody would go along with that. And we knew that they were needed. It was all of these reasons put together were what made us go for that as a raison d’etre. One of our raisons d’etre.

June Byrne Spencer

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