Hollywood has the Oscars, Park City has Sundance. St. Louis has the VP Ball. An annual tradition since 1878 of the Veiled Prophet Organization, the social soiree is a way to recognize a group of young women and their contributions to the community.
The Veiled Prophet Foundation is the organization’s philanthropic arm and provides funding for the projects undertaken by the Community Service Initiative. Great emphasis is placed on the foundation’s mission of making St. Louis a better place to live for all. “The reasoning behind starting this initiative (in 2003) was to combine members’ already substantial philanthropic spirit with volunteer efforts,” says David Plufka, one of about 20 men on the CSI committee. “It started out as a Saturday thing in the summers, but now we work on projects throughout the year. We completed 27 in 2016, involving 600 volunteers.”
The young maids of ho
nor are encouraged to participate in at least six service projects by the time they walk in the VP Ball their sophomore year of college. “The average is closer to eight or nine,” Plufka says. “I continue to be proud of the enthusiasm of every class of girls, even down to the junior maids, who are fifth-graders.” In recent years, the foundation has expanded volunteer opportunities to include entire families.
Nonprofits that receive support from the Veiled Prophet include Brightside St. Louis, Beyond Housing, Food Outreach, Marian Middle School and North Side Community School, among many others. VP members are encouraged to bring their own ideas for service projects to the committee as well. Last year, the VP filled 1,800 backpacks with school supplies on behalf of Beyond Housing for the children of Normandy School District; painted and donated a 15-passenger van from Weber Chevrolet to Girls Inc. for transporting girls in its mentoring program; and packed 2,300 Christmas packages with handwritten notes, candy and personal care items for soldiers in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. VP volunteers also pack roughly 15,000 meals for Food Outreach every year.
The VP has extended its reach to another local fraternal organization, the Royal Vagabonds, which began in St. Louis in the 1930s as a social club for black professionals and businessmen. “A couple of our members who also are involved with the VP approached me and said we should really work together,” says Claude Brown of the Royal Vagabonds.
The first project the two groups worked on together was building a playground for Zion Child Development Center in Ferguson. “A member of my church told me the center’s playground didn’t pass code and was falling apart,” Plufka explains. “It serves about 80 children ages 2 to 5 every day, and another 40 or so older kids after school. We thought this project fit the bill perfectly to work with the Royal Vagabonds.” With help from about 70 volunteers, a new, $70,000, 1,100-square-foot playground set from Hutchinson Recreation & Design in Troy, Missouri, was up in six hours. Local company Emerson and the child center made contributions, as well as both foundations. The two fraternal groups are committed to working on more projects together, says Plufka.
“There is something to be said about not just getting together and talking, but breaking a sweat and doing a project together,” Plufka says of the collaboration. “It’s an opportunity to get to know people on a very basic level.” Brown also applauds the effort and recognizes the important message it sends. “We really want to show the community that we shouldn’t let history serve as a boundary for creating progress. We want to dismiss the idea of being ‘separate.’ We are one community, and we all have to work together. All of us feel like we have a responsibility to improve relations and help the community as best we can.”
2016 Veiled Prophet Queen of Love and Beauty Eliza Dooley Johnson, pictured with her father, James L. Johnson III, was crowned Dec. 22 at the 132nd Veiled Prophet Ball. Sixty-three young women were honored for their commitment to the community.
Cover design by Julie Streiler | Cover photo by Thomas Warwick
