CARE FOR Community

STORY BY LIESEL SCHMIDT

Joblessness, homelessness, food insecurity, and precarious domestic situations are all things that gravely endanger the lives and wellbeing of individuals all over the country—especially in circumstances that incl ude children and youth, who are so often at the mercy of their parents’ situations, facing the direct consequences of everything that the people they love the most are going through.

“For organizations like the Junior Auxiliary of the Eastern Shore, meeting the needs of the families, youth, and children in the community has been the core of their mission since their founding in 1986.

“A group of local women saw a need in our area for a service organization dedicated to the welfare of our community—especially with regard to children,” explains PR Chair Libba Wilkes. “Our mission as an organization is an important one: to identify the needs of children, youth, and their families along the Eastern Shore of Baldwin County and to create projects to meet those needs, all of which are focused on enhancing educational achievement, physical health and emotional well-being.

“Our mission at JAES is crucial to the Eastern Shore community because, especially during these hard financial times, we are able to help children and families with even the most basic needs,” Wilkes continues. “We partner with school counselors to identify children who are food insecure; and each week, we deliver Blessing Bags to over 80 children in our community. These bags contain meals and snacks for children to have food on the days when they are not in school. For many, this is the only food they receive on the weekends. We also provide snacks to schools monthly for those who are unable to buy or pack snacks.”

As important as addressing the issue of food insecurity may be, the JAES does more than simply this. “We have a uniform closet where we store new and donated uniform items,” Wilkes explains. “We receive monthly requests from schools in our area to bring uniform tops, bottoms, shoes and backpacks to kids in need. These are just two of our many projects that serve children in our community.”

JAES is one of nearly 100 Junior Auxiliary Chapters throughout Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee that make up the National Association of Junior Auxiliaries (NAJA), which was founded in 1941 by Louis Crump of Greenville, MS. The Junior Auxiliary was founded upon the tenets of providing for the needs of children and making a difference in their lives as well as working with women to give them the opportunity to serve in and be a vital part of their communities. The Association was created to unite the Junior Auxiliary Chapters as one entity, while its members promote the work and mission of Junior Auxiliary.

Even with the support of the Association, JAES would be unable to help the community without proper funding—or without the volunteer members whose service make the work of the JAES possible. “We are able to accomplish our projects through yearly fundraising and community donations,” says Wilkes. “Each year, we have a fall fundraiser, a Jolly Jog Event at Christmas and a fern sale in the Spring. All of the proceeds are put back into our service projects to help children and families on the Eastern Shore. Some of our greatest challenges are the result of the increasing needs in our community, which requires more money and more hands to address. More and more families are struggling to provide food and clothing. This is a purely volunteer organization, so we all have other responsibilities that limit our availability. We would love to increase our membership to help even more!”

Each year, JAES helps over 400 children in the Eastern Shore area. They currently have 40 Active Members in their Chapter and hope to strengthen that number during their upcoming informational meeting in the fall for any women interested in learning more about what the organization does.

For more information, visit jaeasternshore.org.

WHEN’S THE LAST TIME YOU SAW A DIGITAL MAGAZINE AT THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE?