Community Development Project Highlights

Each year the Jaycees work hard to create positive change within the Greater Hartford Community. Below are highlights of our Community Development program.

HOBY - Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Seminar
What do the Hugh O'Brian and the Greater Hartford Jaycees have in common? They are both interested in helping young people, they both encourage leadership development and they both worked together to bring the HOBY seminar to Connecticut high school sophomores. About 200 students, 100 Jaycees and other community volunteers converge at a local hotel for the four-day seminar. The students attend panel discussions relating to America's Incentive System and through their interaction with current leaders they are encouraged to become future leaders, responsible citizens, and community volunteers.

Soup Kitchen
Several times during the year, the Jaycees join together to shop for groceries, and then meet at a local shelter to cook and serve a meal for some of the Hartford area's underprivileged residents. Soup Kitchen is one of the best attended and heartfelt community development projects held each year.

Playscape
Annually, the Jaycees fund and build a Playscape for a school, park or an organization in need in the Greater Hartford area. We do everything from choosing the site to securing the permits, pouring the cement and funding this exciting project.

Project Harvest
The weekend prior to Thanksgiving, we donate 3,000 turkey dinners complete with the fixings to less fortunate Hartford area residents and local food pantries. Jaycee volunteers help their communities by loading trucks early in the morning and delivering dinners to various sites throughout the region.

Riverfront Cleanup
The Greater Hartford Jaycees often participate in the National River Clean Up Day, sponsored by the United Earth Fund, by pulling several hundred pounds of garbage out of Connecticut Rivers and Parks.

Holiday Gifts for Kids
Each year, various organizations provide the Jaycees with their Holiday "wish Lists" for gifts to be given to special citizens and less fortunate children. Jaycee members shop, wrap, and deliver over 300 gifts to several organizations.

Habitat for Humanity
The Jaycees organize and equip themselves with tool belts and hard hats to assist Habitat for Humanity in renovating and/or building affordable housing for a family in need.

Model Legislature
Bills, motions, seconds, ayes, nays, and amendments; they are all part of Model Legislature, a Connecticut Jaycee project run by the Greater Hartford Jaycees. Annually, Jaycees from across the state come to Hartford to propose and debate legislation in a mock legislative session held in the Legislative Office Building and Hall of the House.

Fishing Derby
As the longest running project of the Greater Hartford Jaycees, this project brings together 40 children from the State of Connecticut Receiving Home with an equal number of Jaycees for a fun filled day of fishing. The children who attend this project enjoy their interactions with Jaycees adults. They gain a sense of achievement with every fish they reel in.