Jump for JOY

Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Jefferson Outreach for Youth (JOY) reports that their 13th year of “Spreading Christmas Cheer” was a big success in serving families in Jefferson County. The organization's treasurer, Angela Gray, says that for its 2022 holiday effort, JOY collected $1,190 in cash donations as well as more than 700 toys and blankets.
Donors have good reason to “jump for JOY,” knowing that their generosity resulted in 120 local children receiving a holiday surprise of thoughtful gifts.
The JOY toy drive relies on various community locations to be collection sites. For the most recent drive, new sites were Mafia Pizza and CowHaus Coffee Company, who joined Jefferson County K-12, The Monticello News, Tupelos, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, The First Bank, The Homeschool Resource Center, Capital City Bank, Aucilla Christian Academy, Oh Happy Days and Jefferson County School District Office in having boxes available for toy donations.
In addition, says Gray, “Representative Allison Tant teamed with several elected officials and organizations to plan a 'Toy Drive' collection for two weeks ending with the Monticello Downtown Christmas parade. We also had organizations like Altrusa and Monticello-Jefferson Chamber of Commerce collect toys at their annual Christmas gatherings.”
Children who received items from JOY this year were between the ages of 2 and 15 years and were identified with the assistance of Capital Area Community Action Agency, the Jefferson County School District and 4-H clubs of Jefferson County. Each family's gift bag also included a supply of peanut butter from the jars collected through the Peanut Butter Challenge sponsored by IFAS and the Jefferson County Extension Office.
The JOY organization relies on its committee members and volunteers to sort through the toys donated at JOY boxes and group the gifts into large bags, one for each family. For the recent drive, volunteers came from the Jefferson County Extension Office, Supervisor of Elections Office, Monticello Rotary Club, Jefferson County Manger's Office, The First Bank and Aucilla Christian Academy. Currently, the JOY Committee consists of 10 members: Ron Cichon, Melissa Watson, Nicky Seaton, Angela Gray, Kent Watson, Anna Likos, Edward Carraway, Reneé Long, Amy McDaniel and President John Lilly.
The JOY Committee wishes to thank its members, donation sites, donors and volunteers for helping “support our local families and create cheerful memories that will be cherished forever.”