CHRISTMAS GIVING … Ready to deliver a “Christmas of Hope” are from left to right: Victor and Mary Juarez, founders, Crystal Conforti of Bryan, and Annette Williams of Montpelier.
Never Let Go Ministries is ready to deliver their annual “Christmas of Hope”, thanks to the help of so many friends and volunteers who have worked hard for weeks to prepare to take the gift of hope to nearly 200 individuals in our surrounding community.
Those individuals include youth at the Paulding Opportunity Center and the Juvenile Detention Center, along with adults in the Williams Co. Drug Court program, Serenity Haven (women’s residential home) in Fayette, The Renewal Center (Ohio Guidestone men’s residential home) in Napoleon, the Sober living home in Napoleon, along with a mother’s group who have lost a daughter or son in an alcohol or drug related death. Mary will host a small get together for those mothers on Sat. Dec. 16th , at their office in Edgerton.
Victor and Mary Juarez, founders of Never Let Go Ministries, will be giving their presentation to the JDC, Renewal Center, and Serenity Haven during the week before Christmas, and will celebrate Christmas with them after the talk. The rest of the deliveries will be dropped off during that week also.
Friends of NLG held a blanket drive and received donations towards the blankets that are given in the Christmas bags of Hope to the residential homes.
A Linus tag is attached to each blanket that says: “We all need a security blanket,” along with a tag including the name of the person whom the blanket is in memory of.
A few of the other gifts in the bags are a Serenity or a Jesus Calling devotional, coloring books with colored pencils, inspirational booklets, keychains, candy canes with the candy cane story, puzzles, journals, prayer cards, and many other small inspirational items.
Family Farm and Home in Defiance donated socks and stocking caps for the bags, and Karrie Kimpel from Edgerton, along with St. Mary’s Confirmation class donated shower gel, deodorant, chapstick, gum, and candy.
Bryan Dental Group donated toothbrushes and toothpaste for the bags. Chad & Erin Kwiatkowski of Delta, along with the Women’s Giving Circle of Defiance, made monetary donations for the Never Let Go blankets to be given to the JDC, in memory of Chad’s son Jacob, who lost his life in 2016.
The youth at JDC will also receive a “Jesus Calling devotional for Kids,” along with other items, and gifts to unwrap during a Christmas trivia game.
The students at the Paulding Opportunity Center will also receive one of the NLG blankets and a prayer booklet, along with having presents to unwrap.
Many women baked cookies for the NLG Christmas of Hope, and little Christmas bags were made up with a packet of hot chocolate, homemade scripture card, candy cane, and chocolate by Ava and Morgan from Edgerton schools, and Ally from St. Mary’s.
Candy canes were donated by Tonya Suffel. Homemade cards were also donated from St. Mary’s School students, along with Heidi and Andy Meyer, juniors from Edgerton High School.
John Fink, from Waterville, made, and donated, over 80 handcrafted, hand-held comfort crosses for the bags, and Tamara Rhoden of Edgerton, donated mini purse size prayer quilts, along with a prayer card, to the women’s bags.
The NLG Christmas of Hope would not be possible if it were not for the generous donations that come in at Christmas time and also during the year, along with their annual fundraisers.
Their annual Cruise-In is held in October, and the Luncheon of Hope is usually held in April. This past month, many friends and supporters of NLG have volunteered to wrap presents, shop, collect items, bake cookies, help put bags together, tie tags on blankets, and many other jobs which have helped NLG be able to present a Christmas of Hope to many people.
After Mary lost her son, Marjoe Gineman in 2010, her and Victor started reaching out to the youth, sharing her son’s story and how those first few beers as a teen progressed into addiction in later teens. Marjoe eventually lost his life to a prescription pill overdose.
Mary gave her first talk about her son’s life just six months after he passed, and since then, they have presented their testimony to over 400 groups. In 2014, Never Let Go Ministries became a 501©3 nonprofit, and now they reach out to anyone who has been affected by addiction. They sometimes take people in recovery to speak at their talks also.
NLG, along with the help of their board of directors, friends, and supporters, continue to fight the epidemic that is stealing so many lives in our nation.
When Marjoe lost his life in 2010, there were an estimated 38,000 who died in our nation due to an overdose. Now that Fentanyl is stealing so many lives, it is estimated that last year, we lost over 110,000 people in our nation.
NLG continues their mission of reaching out to the youth to bring awareness, and to anyone who has been affected by addiction. They want people to know that they are not alone.
Mary says that “Christmas is a beautiful time to remind people that there is always hope. That is what Christmas is all about, to keep hope in our hearts, and to share it with others.”