Crime Stoppers receive $1,500 donation
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The Jersey/Calhoun Jaycees presented a $1,500 check to the Two Rivers Crime Stoppers at their monthly meeting which was held at the Overtime Bar and Grill in Greenfield on March 13. The check was the proceeds from a hog raffle and BBQ cook-off held by the organization. The Jaycees are looking for new members and looking to expand to Greene County if there are any interested members. Left to right: Ray Sinclair, Terry Woelfel, Jaycees Vice President Emily Stemmler, Nik Ringhausen, Jaycees President Ashley Buchanan, Dave Johnson and Valerie Ringhausen. (Carmen Ensinger/Calhoun News-Herald)
By Carmen Ensinger
Two Rivers Crime Stoppers received a substantial donation at their April meeting at Overtime Bar and Grill in Greenfield on March 13 from the Jersey/Calhoun Jaycees.
The Jaycees raffled off two halves of a hog and the proceeds from these raffles netted $1,500 which they donated to Crime Stoppers.
Two Rivers Crime Stoppers is a community action program that gives citizens the opportunity to become involved in the fight against crime and make their communities a better place to live, work and go to school.
Their theory is that for almost every crime committed, someone saw something or heard something that will help solve that crime. The problem is most people will not divulge this information to the police because they do not want to give their name.
With Crime Stoppers, all tips are completely anonymous – no name, no location. If your tip leads to an arrest, you will receive a reward.
Needless to say, this takes money, so when the Jersey/Calhoun Jaycees offered to hold a hog raffle and give the proceeds to Crime Stoppers, organizers were thrilled.
“We operate off of our fundraisers and donations such as this one so we are definitely thrilled that they chose us to have the proceeds of their raffle go to,” Crime Stoppers President Terry Woelfel said. “We certainly appreciate such a large donation.”
Jaycees President Ashley Buchanan said it was one of their members who suggested Crime Stoppers as the recipient.
“We decided to hold this raffle and during one of our meetings we were trying to come up with a charity to donate the proceeds to,” Buchanan said. “One of our members mentioned Crime Stoppers and we all thought that was a great idea.”
Buchanan said Adam Fritz, with Fritz Pork, raised the hog for them and then the Jaycees bought it from him. In addition to the raffle, they also held a BBQ contest.
If the Jaycees seems like something new to the area, it kind of is – through it really isn’t.
“The Jaycees organization in this area was formed probably more than 50 years ago, but it kind of just died out,” Buchanan said. “We are just trying to restart it again. Back in the 1970s and 80s, when it was thriving, each county had its own Jaycees organization.”
The Jaycees, or rather the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce, was founded by Henry Giessenbier in 1920 in St. Louis with 3,000 members. The organization was specifically for young adults between the ages of 18 to 40. In 1965, the name was officially changed to the U.S. Jaycees. But in 1990, the name was changed back to the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. Locally, however, it is still known as the Jaycees.
As progressive as the organization might have been throughout the years, it wasn’t until 1984 that the bylaws were changed to admit women as full and regular members.
The debate actually began back in 1975 when the Minneapolis Jaycees amended their bylaws to admit women as full voting members. While no action was immediately taken against the chapter, it was later to develop into a case that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court in 1984. In 2000, they elected the first female National President.
The Jaycees hit their peak for membership during the years 1978-79 at 380,000 members in almost 9,200 chapters. Today, membership stands at around 12,000 in roughly 400 chapters around the United States. It is estimated that 300 chapters now have only about 10 to 15 members and only five to 10 chapters have more than 100 members.
This is the problem Buchanan is facing with their newly re-established chapter.
“Right now, our biggest thing is trying to build our membership,” Buchanan said. “We currently only have five members who regularly attend our meetings between the two counties.”
Buchanan said they would even be open to adding Greene County to their chapter.
“Right now we have Jersey and Calhoun counties combined in our chapter, but the Calhoun chapter is kind of falling out,” Buchanan said. “So, if we can add more people by including Greene County, that would be great.”
The biggest challenge of all is getting their name out there and letting everyone know that they even exist.
“One of the things we are working on right now is doing drive-up BBQs,” Buchanan said. “These serve two purposes – they raise some money for a charity and they raise awareness about our chapter.”
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■ Today, the Jaycees—headquartered in Tulsa, Okla.—has 12,000 members and 400 clubs in the United States, down from the peak of 350,000 in 1976. Moreover, about 300 chapters now have only about 10 to 15 members and only five to 10 chapters have more than 100 members.
