The efforts made by a local organization to change the world”one child at a time” brought national recognition to Brookhavenrecently.

Junior Auxiliary of Brookhaven was honored last week at theNational Association of Junior Auxiliaries with the coveted awardof excellence for the 2001-2002 year.

The award of excellence, which is the highest award available tothe 105 JA clubs spreading through seven states, recognizes clubsdeemed excellent in all areas of JA work. This is the second timeBrookhaven has been given the prestigious award.

“It is an honor for our chapter to be recognized by our nationalassociation for the dedication we have in caring for the childrenof Lincoln County,” said Toinette Grady, a member of the localchapter.

National committee members that selected JA of Brookhaven forthe award told the crowd gathered for the annual meeting in Memphisthat the Brookhaven chapter met and exceeded the requirements ofthe award of excellence.

Grady said the group seemed most impressed by the story of howJA of Brookhaven helped a special family in need by raising theirstandard of living significantly.

A JA life member heard about the needy family and suggested JAassist the single mother raising a three-year-old in a rundownhouse.

“When we found her, she had no electricity, no running water andvery little food or clothing. The baby of this special family hadone cardboard box that held her few pieces of clothing and twotoys,” Grady wrote in the award of excellence application.

JA of Brookhaven helped the mother find federally-subsidizedhousing, donated furniture, clothes and food, as well as buy thefamily a washer and dryer.

The organization was not satisfied with helping just one family,though. They also helped several families that lost their homes tofire in during 2001-2002.

JA members also donated their time to providing toys andclothing to families at Christmas through their annual WishTree.

“JA helped play Santa to 300 needy children in our community,unselfishly putting in an eye-popping 490 hours of effort with 100percent of the chapter participating, all in the midst of a busyholiday season,” Grady explained in the application.

Through the Life Choices program, the organization providedsafety and awareness programs covering a wide range of topicsincluding sexual abstinence, hunting, driving, riding all-terrainvehicles (ATVs) and fires.

Also during the 2001-2002 year, JA members on the Reading IsFundamental (RIF) committee offered three books each to 1,500 thirdgraders in the area. Two high school students were assisted withscholarships from JA.

Special projects performed by the club consisted of helping atCamp Rainbow, a camp for children being treated for cancer;donating rocking chairs to the hospital; holding a Teddy Bear drivefor the local police department to give teddy bears to children whoencounter officers in stressful situations, such as accidents; andassisting the public library by recataloging children’s librarybooks for the Accelerated Reading program.

“Our dedicated ladies clocked an average of 46.1 service hoursper member this year,” said Grady.