Twenty-six years ago, Julie Sagan was newly married. She and her husband, Scott, were living in Marblehead, but didn’t have many ties to the community.

Everything changed once they discovered the North Shore Federation’s Young Leadership Group.

“We met a huge sphere of people who instantly became our friends,” Julie says. “We would regularly spend Shabbat together, volunteer together at the food pantry, and have group sukkah parties during Sukkot. We even went to Washington D.C. for the Young Leadership Conference and traveled on a mission to Israel. All of what we did was a great way to socialize and to give back to the community in a meaningful way.”

As Julie aged out of Young Leadership, she found her way to the North Shore’s Women’s Division. After the merger of the North Shore Federation and CJP, she joined CJP’s Women’s Philanthropy. Julie now serves as Women’s Philanthropy Vice President of the North Shore alongside Wendy Polins.

“I love being surrounded by smart, caring, and giving women who all want to make a difference in our community and around the world,” she says. “When women come together, great things happen. It feels good to be involved. Everyone wants to help someone else’s life be a bit brighter and easier, and that is what we strive for with Women’s Philanthropy.”

Julie encourages others to get involved with WP and do their part to help repair the world.

“Whatever your passion is, we want to know about it,” she says. “Your ideas about how we can make a difference can be turned into reality. There are many different avenues to have an impact within Women’s Philanthropy. You will be excited that you took the first step to get involved!”