It’s that time of year again! Monday marks the start of the Northeast Arkansas District Fair and we’ll once again be hard at work (or hardly working?) at the concession stand.

The Snack Shack is my favorite Jaycee project. It was my first project to attend as a member and I made so many wonderful friends there while I was working. I hope that you can come and have the same experience that I did. Sure your feet will hurt from standing a lot and people will step on your toes left and right but that’s part of the fun! (No, seriously, working in the Snack Shack is a ton of fun.) Whether I’m working in the kitchen or serving customers, I’ve never had a bad time (except for last year when the fire suppression system misfired but that was a one-off thing).

Our members are our lifeblood and without you we cannot have a successful project. If you can find 2 hours in your day during the next week to come to the fairgrounds and help us out, we’d love to have you. The success of this project hinges upon you and without a successful Snack Shack, Christmas for Kids and Goodfellows won’t be as good as they can possibly be. Some people can only come during the day and some only have an hour to spare at night and some still can only come after we’ve stopped cooking and serving, but they’ll show up to help clean.

While the fair starts on Monday, we’ll be at the Fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon cooking Boston butts for the BBQ sandwiches and nachos that we’ll be serving and putting finishing touches on the Snack Shack. We’ll get started on Sunday at 1:00 pm.

I love the Jaycees and what we do and that love came from putting time in at the Snack Shack. I don’t have a doubt that without that project, I wouldn’t be a member much less President today. The Fair motto is that it’s “the place where old friends meet.” In my case, it was the place where you make new ones.

In Jaycee Spirit,

Jeff Taylor
62nd President
Jonesboro Jaycees

Fifty-eight years ago today, a few young men came together to form the Jonesboro Jaycees, now the longest continually chartered Jaycee chapter in Arkansas. In our 58 years, we’ve managed to accomplish some great things for Jonesboro and Northeast Arkansas. The Jaycees started or helped to start…

• The Miss Jonesboro Pageant
• The Northeast Arkansas District Fair
• Mighty League Baseball
• Craighead Forest Park and the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Jonesboro
• Abilities Unlimited

The Jaycees sponsor the Jonesboro Christmas Parade, manage the Goodfellows Project, and run Christmas for Kids. Goodfellows provides up to a week’s worth of food for local underprivileged families and Christmas for Kids gives toys to local children who might not get any other Christmas. The Jaycees gave Jonesboro its first street signs and provided the seed money for a new, advanced tornado warning system when the city was in dire need of one. The Jaycees also provided natural gas detectors for local schools after a series of explosions across the country set parents and faculty on edge.

The Jonesboro Jaycees have been doing great things for nearly sixty years and hope to continue for another sixty years. Take a look at the Past Presidents page and the Hall of Honor page for a list of the people who helped to make the Jaycees what it is today.