More people than you would realize came to the holiday shop  for the first time this year, and gratefully accepted our help.  With the growing population of Johnson County, and the down-turn in the economy, we are needed more than ever. Many community agencies no longer offer holiday help, so we have become the only county-wide organization to distribute to all ages and family sizes who need help. Thanks to everyone who donated or volunteered at this year’s shop.   We couldn’t do it without your help. A special thanks to all our department chairman who work so hard  to serve our families and make sure they have what they need  for their families holidays.

Now that our shop is over, we continue to work year-round to prepare for this year’s Holiday Shop.  Special fundraisers, including the Royals Chairity Night and our Holiday of Hope dinner and dance help us to raise the needed funds to serve the growing numbers of families we serve.  Please read about our efforts on our web-site, and be generous in your donations.

Our new President, Jim Owens has become a wonderful addition to our JCCB Board.  As a former Shawnee Mission School Principal and an active member of many organizations, Jim brings his expertise and experience, including years volunteering and chairing our grocery department to the Christmas Bureau. Jim has been invaluable in his hardworking desire to serve our mission. Barb McNeile continues as our Executive Director and works tirelessly to improve  areas of communication and awareness in the community.  Thanks to both these wonderful people and to all our board members who give so much time and effort into our organization.

Stay tuned for further developments, and I hope you can join us at one of our fundraisers, or at our Holiday Shop, to hear more about our mission, and the families we serve.  Please share with those less fortunate this year.

Now we unpack the boxes, set up the tables, and sort all the groceries, toys and gifts to be ready for the 3,300 families we will serve at this year’s shop – 500 more families than last year!  It has taken lots of time and effort to make this happen, and we thank all our donors, big and small who generously support our efforts to give groceries, personal care items, clothes, gifts and toys to our families.  You make the holidays brighter for those in need.

The Holiday Shop is open Friday, December 3 – Saturday December 11th, from 8:30 am until 8:30 pm most days. Over 3,000 volunteers  will staff our shop this year;  groups from schools, churches, service groups, businesses and individuals who sign up to come out and help.   Our shop is amazing, and hard to imagine unless you come out and see us in action. 

Volunteers are still needed for some shifts.  Please visit our web-site at www.jccb.org to sign up.  Our wish list has items we still need to serve everyone this year.  I hope you will come and volunteer, or bring a donation of toys or gifts to the shop.  There is nothing more rewarding  than helping someone in need, especially during the holidays.  It will make your holiday brighter, too!  Hope to see you there!

Barb O’Donnell

President JCCB

Thank you to our event Chair, Cathleen Hartman who worked so many hours to plan our wonderful evening, and her great steering committee, Rhonda Kelly, Patty Markey, and Bill Mechler who took care to make all the details right. Numerous other committee members worked to make the evening great, and we couldn’t have done it  without all your help! 

The evening began at 5:30, and featured a beautiful silent auction display with live strings in the background.The atrium of the Johnson County Community College was filled with lots of people bidding, and enjoying the wine, beer, and appetizers. A wonderful display of the history of the JCCB with pictures and scrapbooks gathered over the years was organized by Gail Harris. Then into dinner and program with an amazing power point presentation by Cathleen Hartman with the history of the JCCB.

Our emcee, Jeff Launius, did a fantastic job keeping the crowd going during the live auction, and especially during fund-a-family, our effort to serve more this holiday was received with great excitement and we appreciate all the people who helped fund this year’s Holiday Shop.  With your help,  our goal of Saying Yes to More becomes a reality.

After dinner and speeches, the music of “Four Fried Chickens and a Coke” was enjoyed and last minute bidding on the silent auction items was finished.

We enjoyed many enthusiastic comments as everyone checked out and made their way home.  Thanks to everyone who volunteered, donated and participated in this fun evening to raise over $ 50,000 for the JCCB!

With our new website, we are hoping to reach out to more people this year, and make everyone aware of the growing need for our services. Our goal is to serve more families and the website is one way we are reaching out for your help.  Last year we served 2,855 families ( over 10,000 people), but we had to turn away more than 500 families who needed our help. Most agencies are discontinuing their holiday distributions due to time and money restraints, and the JCCB has been asked to assist them.

Ways we can serve more this year:

We are planning to add  more appointments each day , and opening an extra half-day on Friday to serve more families this year.  In order to  do this, we will need  monetary donations, and donations of  needed items so that we can  ” say yes to more”.  If you would like to help, please visit our website where you can see our wish list and ideas on how you can help. Maybe you are a member of a group or work at a business where you could organize a collection, or do a food drive for the Christmas Bureau.  If you have organized or helped us in some way in the past, please consider how you can help us even more this year.

Together we can help to make the holidays brighter for families in these tough economic times.

Thanks for all your help!

Barb O’Donnell

JCCB President

Our big news at the  Christmas Bureau this year is the addition of  our new Executive Director, Barb McNeile.  Barb has been a volunteer at the Christmas Bureau, has experience  in the non-profit field and has also worked in the real estate business. She has great enthusiasm and a heartfelt committment to the JCCB.  She has already started meeting with department chairs, community groups and volunteers and is bringing fresh ideas and projects to our organization.  This year is our 50th anniversary, and we want to celebrate!  We are in the beginning stages of planning and organizing this event, and we are very excited to have been a part of Johnson County since 1960.  We want to get the word out to everyone what a great organization we are, and tell everyone  about what  we do every year helping  families.  We work year-round to prepare, improve and get ready for our December shop.  For more information about us, please visit our web-site ( soon to be updated!) www.jccb.org.  Looking forward to a great 50th year! 

Barb O’Donnell, President JCCB

Our set-up week begins November 30th, and we have volunteers working to unpack and arrange all our items in a shopping area. Starting on Friday, December 4th, our families come in and select their groceries and gifts. One person from each family goes  through with a volunteer and chooses their groceries, clothing, personal care items, hats, gloves, socks, toys, gifts, and used books and coats for their families.  By the time they are finished, they have at least one cart-full of items and sometimes two for a large family. All our items are new except the books and coats.

It takes a lot to get ready for the doors to open, and a short time to do it in.  But with the help of our many volunteers, we are able to serve over 2,500 families this year. Ask  anyone who comes to  helps us, and they will tell you what a rewarding experience it is.

Thanks to all of you, and see you at the shop.

Check out our web-site for needed items:  www.jccb.org

Barb O’Donnell

We are very grateful for our president Alice’s hard work and many phone calls to make this happen.  Each year it is  our biggest challenge to find our shop  space because we have no permanent location . We rely on finding who ever will donate an empty building for us to use  for a 2 week period after Thanksgiving, into the first two weeks of December.  Sometimes we are in a closed down grocery store as we were two years ago in the Cherokee Shopping Center at 95th and Antioch, sometimes a retail store, as this year, and other years when we have been in a former Hobby Lobby, and even a school building that had been closed.  Each year we have to be in a Johnson County location for our clients to be able to get to us to shop, and each year we hope and pray that someone will open their hearts to our mission, and allow us to use their building.

Of course, our dream would be to have a permanent location, but financially it has so far been an impossibility. Maybe there is a kind ( very kind!) soul out there who will someday find it in their heart to donate a building to us.  Stranger things have happened, and we will pursue any possibility – if you don’t ask, you cannot receive, so maybe there will be a time in the future where we don’t have to search every year for our location.

But for now, this year, we have a place, and that is the most important thing.

I hope you’ll come and volunteer there, or bring us some much needed items for our clients.

Call our office – 913-341-4342 to donate, or go to our web-site for our wish list, www.jccb.org

We appreciate whatever you can do, and look forward to seeing all our volunteers and our families at this year’s  holiday shop – December 4th  – December 12th.

Thanks, Barb O’D

Originally started in 1960 as an ” adopt-a-family” clearinghouse,  our volunteers later changed the concept to a holiday shop  where our clients can shop for and choose the gifts for their families.

Last year we served over 2500  families at our annual shop.

This requires a committment by many volunteers who shop

year-round for items for our families to choose.

Each family receives groceries collected from school drives,  personal care items, children’s clothing,  hats, underwear, gloves and socks for all family members,  toys, gifts and books.  All items at our holiday shop are new, with the exception of used coats and books.  The shop is held in a donated space each year, and lasts 2 weeks, with 5 days  to set-up, and 9 days of shopping.

 This is all accomplished with the help of hundreds of volunteers.

This year’s shop will be December 4th – 12th.  We still need

volunteers, and donations for various departments.

Would you like to be a part of our holiday giving?

Check out our wish list  at www.jccb.org.

I’ll keep everyone updated on what’s going on this year.

Thanks, Barb O’D

Jccb volunteer