Joliet resident was a young mom when she joined a club. She’s now its international president.

Debra Strahanoski’s first duty as the newly installed 54th international president for the General Federation of Women’s Clubs was attending a reception on July 11 at the White House commemorating the passage of the Safer Communities Act.

The GFWC focuses on “community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service,” according to its website. One That focus includes the prevention of abuse, including domestic abuse, child abuse, teen dating abuse and human trafficking, the website said. The organization began in 1868.

Strahanoski of Joliet said she was awed and humbled to be present and hear so many “touching stories, the culmination of her decades-long commitment to GFWC.

She was a stay-at-home mom of mom two children under age 3 in 1988 when a friend invited her to a meeting of the Joliet Junior Woman’s Club. Strahanoski’s husband Bill had opened his accounting business in 1985, so Strahanoski was “holding down the fort at home,” she said.

So Strahanoski thought the meeting was “a way for me to get out and enjoy their company” and didn’t envision anything more than that.

Instead, Strahanoski really connected with the members and then “jumped in with both feet.” Strahanoski said she’d “caught the volunteer spirit” during her teen years at Joliet West High School, participating in after-school activities at the high school, service programs at her church and even as a candy striper at the hospital now known as Ascension Saint Joseph - Joliet.

The Joliet Junior Woman’s Club began in 1958, for daughters of GFWC members, with the idea that these daughters would become future leaders of GFWC when they turned 35, Strahanoski said. But over time, the junior woman’s club became a its own GFWC club, open to women of any age, she said, and in that organization, Strahanoski found her niche, she said.

“I think it’s because the motto of the national organization is unity and diversity,” Strahanoski said. “It was giving me the opportunity to get involved in the arts, health and wellness and civic engagement…it gave me an a la carte of things I could get involved with.”

Strahanoski became president of the Joliet Junior Woman’s Club in 1991. As part of her duties, Strahanoski also served on the board of directors for Easter Seals Joliet Region from 1991 to 2000 (and as board president from 1995 to 1997), she said.

She especially loved her role with Easter Seals (which led to a job in development at Easter Seals, from which Strahanoski retired in January after 17 years) since Strahanoski saw firsthand how Easter Seals impacts children and their families.

Strahanoski said Easter Seals is a “very good solid organization.”

“To see a child come in with the parents and the worried faces on them and that, within 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 6 months, to see the improvement of that child and their abilities was amazing to me,” Strahanoski said.

She especially loved watching children on therapeutic bikes and their “big smiles “when they finally mastered them.

“The therapists couldn’t keep up with them,” Strahanoski said.

From 2000 to 2002, Strahanoski served as GFWC Illinois Director of Junior Clubs and from 2008 to 2010, Strahanoski served as president of GFWC Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs.

“And I thought, ‘Well, I’m done with the state, so I’m done,” Strahanoski said. “But then I couldn’t just pack it away in the back of the closet. It just kept at me to stay involved. And here I am.”

Strahanoski was installed as the 54th international president of GFWC on June 28 in New Orleans, Louisiana, according to a news release from the GFWC.

During her this time, Strahanoski will live and work at the GFWC Headquarters in Washington, DC., a beautiful old building where Strahanoski will have an apartment, she said.

Strahanoski will “act as the chief executive officer and official representative of GFWC, preside over all federation meetings, and approve all plans of work as outlined by GFWC’s community service programs, among other responsibilities,” the release said, which will include a great deal of travel, Strahanoski said.

Her term will end June 30, 2024, at which point Strahanoski will “hang up her volunteer hat for good,” she said.

But not really.

“Bill’s involved in the Exchange Club of Joliet. We’ve got volunteerism in our blood,” Strahanoski said. “I’m sure we’ll get involved in something. But it will be on a much smaller scale.”

For more information about GFWC clubs, visit gfwc.org, gfwcillinois.org and jolietjuniors.org.