JA Is In Full Swing After Summer Lull
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A Monthly Report
From The JA Of WV
By Katherine Montague
Back to school is such an exciting time of year. The Junior Auxiliary always has a slower month in July, so picking back up in August and September with some of our projects that coincide with the school year beginning works great. While we are busy behind the scenes coordinating with educators and community members for school supply distribution, meeting the needs of food insecure students, and distributing hygiene products, the kids are able to get back in the swing of things at school.
Of course we all get to kick off their school year with Water Valley’s premier annual event, the Watermelon Carnival. This year’s carnival was so much fun. The Junior Auxiliary participated in the festivities by hosting the Watermelon Games, where a seed spitting contest, a watermelon toss, and a watermelon eating contest drew contestants from toddlers to teenagers with the winners enjoying prizes from Sonic. We thank the Webb Family Medical Clinic for allowing us the use of their space, and Pullen and Rogers Farms for donating the watermelons.
Base Camp Coding Academy students Briana Grigga, Michael Harris, and Joshua Mooneyham are building a website for the Junior Auxiliary.
One very exciting new project that the Junior Auxiliary has going on is a collaboration with the adult Base Camp Coding Academy program. Each year, this program has students work together in small groups to work on a Capstone Project, and the JA recently partnered with one of these groups to code a website for our chapter.
Starting in July, we have been meeting to develop all of the parts of the website to facilitate access to information about JA, host our annual silent auction, and ease the donation process making it available by credit card through the site.
Our amazing Base Camp team is Briana Grigga, Michael Harris, and Joshua Mooneyham. They are so talented and knowledgeable, and we are so thankful to collaborate with them! Please look forward to the site launch in the coming weeks, we will post a link through our facebook page.
This time of year also means that it is time for our Bundles of Love Project to get started back up. We were able to meet in the DES Cafeteria on Wednesday afternoons every two weeks and pack out the first snack bundles of the school year. We collaborate with and distribute these snack bundles through Water Valley High School and Davidson Elementary School so they go home with students who have a need for meals on the weekends.
We have met to pack bundles three times so far and have been fortunate to be joined in service by several members of the Water Valley High School Beta Club. We hope that they are able to join us each time we pack!
The Junior Auxiliary is very excited to begin recruitment for our annual Provisional Class. This year we hosted an informational mixer on September 5. We visited, enjoyed light snacks, and anyone interested in volunteering with us came to hear about what we do and see if JA is something that they might find as rewarding and fun as we do. After an enjoyable evening we were able to extend an invitation to 11 new Provisional Members who will join us for training starting next month.
Coming up this weekend, the Junior Auxiliary Blood drive will take place on Sept 21 to coincide with the I’m So Water Valley event. We will set up outside the Nutrition Spot on Central Street with the bus from noon until 4 p.m. So please, if you are able to donate, come by and give a few minutes of your time and a pint of your blood. In Mississippi, hundreds of pints of blood are needed every day. Not only will you be a part of saving lives, the first ten donors will receive gift cards to the Nutrition Spot.
JA members (from left) Krista Nicholas, Sandra Bennett and Chasity Logsdon accepted the Awesome Attendance Award at the National Association of Junior Auxiliaries meeting.
Several members of the Junior Auxiliary of Water Valley recently attended our National Association of Junior Auxiliaries Area Meeting in Olive Branch on September 7. Our chapter was the recipient of the Awesome Attendance Reward for having such a large group attend our Annual Conference back in April of 2023.
We are also in the beginning stages of getting Project Santa in motion. This project helps to provide Christmas presents for children in our community that would otherwise not receive gifts. Please reach out to any Junior Auxiliary member if you are interested in adopting a local child or sibling group to provide their Christmas presents this year!
As always, we can be reached for contributions and questions at juniorauxiliary.watervalley@gmail.com as well as through our facebook page if you search and follow Junior Auxiliary of Water Valley. Also, look for us soon at our new website! We will report back with the URL in the next few weeks, and we look forward to hearing from you.
The Junior Auxiliary has started recruitment for the annual Provisional Class, hosting an informational mixer on Sept. 5. After an enjoyable evening, an invitation was extended to 11 new provisional members who will start training next month.
