A civic organization, dedicated to our local community.
We stand for…
Established in 1911, the Alexander Valley Ladies Aid is a civic organization, dedicated to our local community. Our organization aids in the maintenance of Sonoma County Historic Monument Alexander Valley Community Church, gives college scholarships to local high school graduates, and extends donations to worthy local charities including the Alexander Valley School Library.
We have an executive committee, and meet once per month September through June. In existence over 100 years, the Alexander Valley Ladies Aid has helped residents of the Valley in times of fire, flood, and hardship. Read below for interesting snippets of our meeting notes over the past many decades.
Our main fundraiser for the year is our annual Christmas Bazaar, which takes place the first Saturday of each December. See our Bazaar Tab for more info!
Meet our past scholarship recipients:
Malia Llerena: Letter to AVLA from Winter 2026
Hi,
It was good to hear from you. I’m doing very well at UCSB.
I am a senior this year working towards a BA in Marine Biology at the college of creative studies at UCSB. I am currently working in a research lab where I observe and quantify parasite loads of the local two spot octopus species. I am also a Culturist for the UCSB Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology department. This means I care for the animals we keep on site for classes. This is very close to the I hope to start after college, an Aquarist working in a zoo or aquarium. I recently was awarded a summer fellowship where I do research on the purple urchin boom and methods of marine aquaculture that can be used to reduce its population. I also reverently became a member of the Diversity in Diving Program where I will get my scientific diving certification and hopefully join a lab where diving is common.
I hope you are all doing well. Thank you.
Best,
Malia Llerena
Minutes of Interest posting from 1939-1942
March 8, 1939: “Twenty-three members responded to roll call, and named their favorite flower.” Later in the meeting the minutes read: “Mrs. Frida Patrick, in charge of the program, gave us many helpful hints on flower culture. The room had been most tastefully decorated with many varieties of flowers…..”
March 22, 1939: “In co-operation with Healdsburg, to help promote prune advertising at the Fair, the society voted to give $5.00 to help pay expenses.” At the next meeting (April 12th) “She (Mrs. Goodyear) also gave an account of the filling of the prune boxes that were sent out from Healdsburg to the Fair at Treasure Island”. And at the next meeting (April 26th) “Mrs. Goodyear read a letter of appreciation from the Redwood Empire Assoc. for our assistance in advertising Healdsburg at the Fair.”
December 16, 1942: “Our luncheon varied from that held in former years, as this year, due to wartime emergencies, it was voted to be a pot luck affair, rather than having a committee furnish the food.” The minutes concluded with “members were asked to bring a shovel or a thimble to Jan. meeting as there is much work to be done.” (In reading the next set of minutes the shovels were needed to move gravel and the thimbles for tying quilts)
This is a brief recap of some of the events and projects of the Alexander Valley Ladies Aid, 1939-1942.
