Lordy, lordy, Jaycees turn 40

Our Opinion

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Greater Waldorf Jaycees organization celebrated its 40th anniversary recently with a huge gathering of its members — past and present — and the many friends the group has made over the four decades during which it has been operating in the county.

The list of projects that this group has worked on is a long one, and the roster of charities the group has helped is even longer. If not for the Jaycees, there might very well be no Spring Dell Center, Melwood Retreat Center or Kamp-A-Kom-Plish. The group helped bring a local Special Olympics program to the county after the event was successful in many other places nationwide. The group opened the first subsidized senior housing project in the county, and since then it has helped build other housing projects for elderly citizens in the Waldorf area. In total, the group has 202 subsidized apartments for the elderly in the county. The group also made a pitch last year to bring the same kind of program to the Nanjemoy area.

The group was instrumental in building the ballpark, named for the late Navy SEAL Robert Dean Stethem, in Waldorf, and its members built the special playground for handicapped children at a park in La Plata. Over the years, it's safe to say that hundreds of students have been the recipients of Jaycees' scholarships which allowed them to further their education. After the devastating tornado in La Plata in 2002, several groups got back on their feet with the help of the Jaycees.

And when the Jaycees aren't holding their own fundraisers, they are making it possible for other nonprofits to raise money. A look through our calendar of events very often will show that a good many of the local charities hold their events at the Waldorf Jaycees Community Center. There are some reasons why, the first being that it is one of only a few places in the county that can hold large crowds and the other is because the Jaycees regularly provides the hall at no cost to the groups or sometimes donates catering services.

Anyone who has ever tried to plan an event and adjust tickets prices so that a profit can be made after all costs are paid understands how free food and no hall rental fee can add to the success of the event's bottom line.

The members have raised millions of dollars over the years, and that money has all been put back into projects here in Charles County — for children, young adults, senior citizens, you name it.

It is such an incredible track record for any one group. Its members, both past and present, should be proud of their contributions to Charles County. Forty years is a long time and that means a lot of people have been helped.

"As long as we have people who are willing to contribute and put forth an effort unselfishly and unpaid we're bound to continue," one of the group's founders, Frank Hollewa, said recently of the group's work.

That's very good news for Charles County.