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Canton, Cherokee County, Ga. November 10, 2004 This Holiday season marks the Cherokee Sheriff's Office Reserve Unit's 15th Annual Christmas Joy program. The service program started in 1989 as an additional way for the all-volunteer Unit to give to the community. Working with Feed the Hungry, Christmas Joy provides supplemental food, basic essentials and toys to less fortunate residents of Cherokee County.
Last year the program delivered food, toiletries, pajamas, house robes, and other basic necessities to 90 senior citizens. It also provided food and toys to over 250 families and more than 500 children. In previous years, off-duty uniformed Deputies delivered these holiday packages in patrol cars to each family. Last year, the program opened a “Christmas Joy Store” in the old, then-empty jail to allow children to select their desired toys to make their holiday special. A limited number of Christmas trees were donated and distributed at random and every family received a large box of food items. Deputies will continue to deliver holiday packages to the elderly. The Christmas Joy program is one of the largest, Cherokee-based and Cherokee-served, holiday service programs in the county.
Christmas Joy builds a database of eligible families with other service organizations,
such as churches to ensure that efforts are not duplicated and as many Cherokee residents
are served as possible. The Reserve Unit breaks down children by age and gender
to plan toy buying to match the children on their list. Many toys are donated through
toy drives held at local schools. Most of the toys, food and essentials distributed
are bought by contributions to the program from local businesses, service organizations
and individual donations.
Christmas Joy differs from many other charitable organizations in that there
are no expenses for salary - the Reserve Unit is all volunteer. Also, all toys and sundries are bought from Cherokee County businesses, which allows for contributions to be kept in the county to help preserve jobs.
The Christmas Joy program has grown every year, and is limited only by the
donations that allow the Reserve Unit to purchase food, sundry items and toys.
The annual fund raising is underway, and anyone can help make the program successful
by donating a Tax Deductible contribution to 'Christmas Joy', Cherokee County Sheriff's
Office, c/o Ginny Soper, 498 Chattin Drive, Canton, GA 30115. If you have any questions regarding the Christmas Joy Program, please contact Sergeant John Forkin at 678-493-5952.
