Jefferson County Christmas Neighbors celebrated its 69th year with 393 families receiving toys, food, mittens, scarves, hats and blankets as part of our toy program. An additional 182 families were adopted. Nearly 1,600 children were helped in the two programs.
The generosity of area communities was overwhelming, including time, money, toy and other donations. A big thank you goes to Lake Mill’s Market for picking Christmas Neighbors as the recipient of its December “round up” where customers donate their change to our program. Another huge thanks to Theisen’s and Walmart for awarding us grants. We want to thank our other corporate sponsors St. Vincent de Paul, Lake Mills Area Community Foundation, Jones Dairy Farms, Paddy Coughlins, Schopen Foundation, Knights of Columbus, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Clark Equipment Co. (Dousman Bobcat), Jefferson Utilities, Clasen Quality Chocolate, Fort Health Care, Fort Atkinson Chamber and Jefferson High School Student Council.
Other donations were provided by Foust Foundations, Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Krueger Jewelry, Oconomowoc Realty, Rosy Lane Holsteins, Restoring Balance Counseling and Sullivan United Methodist Church. Thanks to Jefferson Walmart for the use of their grocery carts and Thrivent, Domino’s, Pick’n Save Jefferson Piggly Wiggly, Kwik Trip and Dunkin Donuts for their donations towards food for the volunteers. Thank you to Toys for Tots for their many toy donations.
A thank you to Pepsi Co. who provided the funds for the rental for the Activity Center on the day of distribution, Wedl’s for their toy drive and County Credit Union for their food drive. Thanks to Badgerland Marketing for their help with the website and Thysee for their printing support.
Each year we provide dropoff points for toys and food and want to express our thanks to PremierBank, Badger Bank, Fort Community Credit Union, City County Credit Union, and Tan-a-Latte
Many others provide a valuable service by volunteering. Among these are the volunteers who work each week in the office for the five weeks preceding the give-a-way, the toy shoppers, along with the many others who assist during the setup and distribution at the fairgrounds. A special thank you to Jefferson Patchworkers, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Watertown Senior Center and all our other wonderful crafters who provide beautiful mittens, hats, scarves, quilts and blankets.
We couldn’t put this huge program together without the help of transportation from Rob’s Performance of Johnson Creek and Randy Dunn. Thanks to those who provided security the day of distribution. Thanks to Ron Pribnow and Jefferson Food Pantry for their help.
We also appreciate the press we get from our county print and online newspapers.
Another big thank you goes to Jefferson, Lake Mills, and Johnson Creek high school students who collected so much food/toys. Also thanks to the students from those high schools whose help was invaluable on our set up and distribution days. Thanks to Lake Ripley 4H for their great clean up help.
What can we say about the Latino Club from Jefferson High School and the Spanish Club from Johnson Creek who provided translators and helped the families with their shopping? Your help was invaluable. Thank you.
We thank the many families, businesses, clubs, churches and organizations who adopt families, some returning year after year and many others who give monetary donations. We are grateful to each and every one who has contributed in any way.
We sincerely hope we have not forgotten to mention any large business donors, but we want all of you, whether your contribution was large or small, to know you are appreciated.
Thank you so much.
Jefferson County Christmas Neighbors Board
Donated toys await the arrival of families participating in a former year’s Jefferson County Christmas Neighbors holiday distribution program. File photo.
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