The Navy League of the United States was founded in 1902 with the encouragement of President Theodore Roosevelt.

"It seems to me that all good Americans interested in the growth of their country and sensitive to its honor, should give hearty support to the policies which the Navy League is founded to further."

Our council, the Broward County Council was chartered on 1 January 1968. Since then we have been actively furthering the Navy League's goal of supporting our sea services and their men and women. To this end we have dinner socials monthly from September to June with prominent military and civilian speakers.

The Council supports the sea services in a multitude of ways. We adopted the USS Leyte Gulf and the USS Bataan with receptions and community activities for the crews when they visit Fort Lauderdale. The Council also recognizes their outstanding sailors with monetary awards and certificates. We are in partnership with the Navy Operational Support Center and have also adopted the US Coast Guard Station in Miami. Again we recognize their outstanding personnel with monetary awards and certificates. In addition, there are recreational events including an Easter Egg Hunt and BBQ and a Christmas holiday party for the personnel and their families.

We also have a strong "Support for Youth" program with five local JROTC units, one Marine JROTC unit, and the Navy League sponsored US Naval Sea Cadet Corps. The Council is a Partner in Education with the Silver Ridge Elementary School where the crews of visiting ships often visit.

Throughout the year the Council hosts parties for visiting ships and participates in numerous activities of the local Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard units. During "Fleet Week" a special event is held for the junior officers from all visiting ships. Recent fund raising events are used to send care packages to Marine deployed units in Iraq and Afghanistan with collections of over $49,000 and 360 packages sent. Popular hard covered and paperback books have been collected from various sources. As of September 2010 over 620 cartons have been donated to US and NATO ships visiting Fort Lauderdale. Books were also given to Marine Expeditionary Units at Camp Lejeune, N.C., personnel at Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale, and to the library at Bethesda Medical Center outside Washington, D.C.

For those wishing to learn (or share) more about the Navy League of the United States there is a very informative Community Service Organization Presentation in Power Point format available here.