Community Update - Jun 2024
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
It’s time, once again, to begin preparations for our annual Back to School Bash. August 10th will be here before we know it! Last year, we were able to give away 79 shoes, 72 hooded sweatshirts, and 30 haircuts at no cost to the recipient. Again, we were able to work with Jasper County businesses to provide the shoes and sweatshirts to keep business in Jasper County.
In addition to providing school readiness for even more Jasper County children, this year, we are expanding what we offer to the community. In addition to our usual hooded sweatshirts, we are also offering unhooded sweatshirts. We continue to have a number of local hairstyles who will provide their services, free to the community. However, this year, we also have a local barber joining us. Both of these services can be completed at the Back to School Bash, or a voucher obtained to get the haircut at a later time. We are also hoping to provide new socks and underwear to students returning to school. This event will cost roughly $11,000 just to provide the shoes and sweatshirts. Each pair of shoes will cost JC First $80 max. The sweatshirts will cost JC First $21 max. For a child to receive both items will cost JC First $101 max. This does not include the additional cost of socks and underwear. You are probably used to us reaching out for donations before this event. Recently, we have asked that you consider making JC First part of your monthly giving, if you are able. We have been grateful for the response in monthly giving. Due to this consistent giving, we have a huge head start in our $11,000 goal, but we are still short. So again, we are asking for help in getting our neighborhood kids ready to go back to school.
We would like to offer some ideas for fundraising in your organization: Have Christmas in July. Employees can sponsor a child, a pair of shoes, or a sweatshirt. Have a sock/underwear drive. Employees can pick up a package or two of socks and/or underwear of various sizes. Dress Down Fridays. Employees can dress down on Fridays IF, they pay a specific dollar amount or bring in a package of socks/underwear. Have multiple supervisors? Make it a competition! Which team can donate the most money, socks, or underwear? These are just a few ideas to help your organization, help JC First get our kids off to a great start this coming school year!
Our financial need is great, but we also need you! That’s right, we need you, the Jasper County community to come and join us! We need your ideas for the next JC First project. We need your expertise in how to make that next community project a success. Please consider joining the JC First team to support and build up our community of Jasper County Illinois! As always, should you have questions, or like a JC First representative to come to your organization and share our needs and how you can help become a part of JC First, please contact us on Messenger @jcfirstnewton, email us at contact@jcfirst.org, or call us at 765-820-5247. We look forward to hearing from the community of Jasper County and how we can work together to build our community up!
Blessings,
JC First Leadership Team
