LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Children facing tough personal circumstances are the focus of an annual gift-gathering effort.
The Joshua Project collects bags of items for teens in Lake County Juvenile Hall and probation placement, as well as foster care and programs for at-risk youth.
This year they collected 42 bags of goods, according to businesswoman and newly sworn Clearlake City Council member Jeri Spittler.
“It's just amazing, really,” she said.
The bags collected for boys have socks, slippers, a sweat suit, T-shirts, blankets and toiletries, and the girls get pajamas, slippers, toiletries, blankets and even stuffed animals. Spittler said the teens also received MP3 players and snacks, with the bags costing about $100 to fill on average.
“Those bags are huge, they're heavy to pick up,” she said.
Spittler started the effort to collect Christmas gifts for teens seven years ago, after having started a Christmas stocking program for children. That effort started with 200 stockings a year and ended up giving out 900 stockings filled with gifts.
When her son, Joshua, died six years ago, Spittler said she wanted to remember him as part of the holiday project.
She was having lunch at the Soroptimists meeting one day and mentioned her ideas to Joy Swetnam of Lake Family Resource Center, who suggested she call it “The Joshua Project” in his honor. It was a name that just fit, said Spittler.
Since then, the project has focused increasingly on what Spittler called “a circle of kids that gets passed around” – those in foster care or who find themselves in juvenile hall.
She said the annual project has helped her not just address children in need but heal herself in the wake of her son's death.
After his death she found in a backpack a letter he had written explaining some of the things he'd dealt with in the years before he died, including drug abuse and other personal challenges with the family he lived with out of the area.
“As I read on I realized that my son's story was not so uncommon,” she said.
She added, “I recognized that children in our community were living the same sad story my own son described in his letter.”
Spittler said she has received support and assistance from Marlene Wentz, who purchased the first 300 bags, and Rebecca Whitmire, who she said “is the power that gets me going with her generosity every year.”
Cheri Johnson of Hidden Valley Lake took 120 bags to fill and renamed that effort Totes for Teens. Spittler said it's been gratifying to see that effort take place.
Spittler said she starts passing out the bags before the holidays. People come into her salon, Girlfriends, on Lakeshore Drive and pick up the bags, returning them when they're filled with goodies.
“It really is a nice presentation of the people that live here,” said Spittler, adding that it illustrates the positive things going on in the community.
“I love this time of year,” shes aid. “I love seeing this side of people.”
Spittler thanked everyone who has made the project a success every year. “We can help these teens have a Happy Holiday and feel like we really do care.”
It's important to reach out to children at any age. ““Kids are kids for a long time,” Spittler said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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