Our Founders
On February 17, 1897, the hopes and dreams of Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst became a reality. It was on this date that the National Congress of Mothers had its first convention.
Co-Founders Birney and Hearst expected at the most 200 attendees at this convention. Instead, 2,000 women and men came from across the nation to discuss the nation's future and the need for all caring adults to mobilize and to act on behalf of children, forcing organizers to move the convention to a larger facility --- and even then, dozens of people had to be turned away. Thus, the National PTA was formed, soon followed by the Washington State PTA in 1905.
Better schools, healthier children, stronger families. These are goals that can be heard at a PTA meeting today, just as they were heard at the first PTA meeting in 1897. Though the world has changed, the mission of the PTA has remained the same for over a century; to serve the needs of children.