For hundreds of Johnson County residents, an early Christmas gift came in the form of a surprise knock on a frosty December morning.
When Franklin resident Tammy Nash opened the door of her Knollwood Farms home Saturday, she found Sally Wells, a volunteer with a large basket of groceries. The groceries included eggs, milk, ham, bacon, pasta, cheese, rolls and other items. They were a much-needed gift, and one that hasn’t been easy to come by this year, Nash said.
“It’ll make a big difference because groceries have gone up so high. With my two kids and me being single, it’s kind of hard,” she said. “Being old, I can’t work as much because of my back. This is really a blessing.”
Nash is one resident from about 900 county households selected to receive Good Cheer Fund baskets, an annual tradition that dates back more than a century. Since the Franklin Evening Star and Austin Flinn, a local funeral home owner, founded the Good Cheer Fund in 1921, thousands of volunteers have helped feed tens of thousands of Johnson County residents who have fallen upon hard times.
People can apply for help and Good Cheer organizers also collect names from retirement communities and schools.
Much of the money is collected during the annual fund drive each holiday season and during the Jim Rhoades Hog Roast. Local schools also hold canned food drives leading up to the distribution. At Needham Elementary School, for example, classes competed against each other to see who could collect the most food.
Overall, about $50,000 in food was distributed Saturday, said Jake Sappenfield, chairman of the Good Cheer Fund.
Sally Wells, her husband Mike Wells, and their grandson Noah Wells were three of the about 250 volunteers who woke up before dawn to help distribute food to residents from as far south as Trafalgar and Edinburgh to as far north as County Line Road in Greenwood, Sappenfield said.
Sally Wells has volunteered with Good Cheer Fund for the last two decades and started taking her grandson with her to deliver food when he was five years old, she said.
“I started because I just really like helping the community,” Sally Wells said. “It has grown a lot because the need is much greater now for folks to get a basket and have that Christmas dinner.”
The donations helped people like Franklin resident Ashley Joyce have enough food for her three kids.
“I have two boys and a girl. It definitely helps because they eat quite a bit,” Joyce said. “When I see people giving, it means you should give to others, too. Someone is always going to return the favor. It won’t always seem like it, but they will.”
With the Good Cheer Fund dating back so long, several volunteers are part of families who have taken part in Good Cheer Fund packing and delivery for generations. That’s the case with 65-year-old Jack McMahon, who has been a Good Cheer volunteer since he was five years old.
His father started volunteering in the 1940s and it has become a family tradition, with his daughter and a grandson also joining in, he said.
“It’s overwhelming. Last year we took (food) to a family and the lady said she prayed for a month she’d get a food basket,” McMahon said. “It’s a big help for people to provide for their families and provide for Christmas.”
The Johnson County REMC is the largest distribution center for Good Cheer baskets. About 550 of the 900 baskets were loaded onto volunteer vehicles from the warehouse floor. Centers in Greenwood and Edinburgh had about 200 and 150 baskets, respectively, said Alyssa Klinge, a 22-year volunteer from Franklin.
All the hard work to get the food out to people in need pays off, Klinge said.
“I’ve seen houses with three canned goods in their cabinet. I’ve seen kids get overly excited because of one box of mac and cheese in a basket. There are a lot of hugs, a lot of tears and ‘God bless you’s,” Klinge said. “My Christmas doesn’t fully start until this happens.”
