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Las Amigas Inc. continues their mission of giving back to those in need.

During their 2024 Las Amigas National Conclave celebration, held from June 26 through June 30 at the Hilton Main Hotel in Norfolk, the 501c3 of professional African-American women gave a $5,000 check donation to the Suffolk Sickle Cell Foundation, LLC. Suffolk Sickle Cell Foundation President Elder Felton Whitfield was also honored with a plague for his work with the Foundation.

The event also saw the organization give bookbags with school supplies to Booker T. Washington Elementary School for students in need. According to Las Amigas Suffolk Chapter Parliamentarian Ethel Hart, more than “900 book

bags and supplies” were collected for the school and the organization worked with Omega Psi Phi’s RBR Foundation to donate additional book bags to Mack Benn Elementary School.

Originating in Spanish as “the friends,” the organization’s inception began in 1957 in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Dora R. Mason and Mary Q. Moore. The Las Amigas Inc. Suffolk Chapter was created in 1966 beginning with 16 members and further expanded while receiving various awards for their community service efforts along the way, including the “Volunteering Excellence Award” bestowed by Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder from the State of Virginia in 1991.