With a history stretching back to 1921, the Good Cheer Fund is one of the county’s oldest and more enduring traditions.
Generations of families have helped in every aspect of the food giveaway, from contributing canned goods for the baskets as children to donating money to the cause as adults to helping deliver baskets.
Certain volunteers and organizers have been involved with the fund for more than 50 years. But to ensure that the Good Cheer Fund remains a vital safety net for the county’s most vulnerable families, a new wave of young residents have to be involved, said Jacob Sappenfield, chairman of the fund.
“Most important thing is to keep this tradition going. It’s been here for 95 years, we want it here for 95 more,” he said. “It’s all driven by donations and volunteering, and caring for your community.”
Mike Harmon married into the Good Cheer Fund tradition.
His wife, Sarah, and her family had been active in the fund for decades. Sarah’s father, Jack McMahon, had enlisted the family to help deliver baskets every Dec. 24, and her grandfather, Marvin McMahon, had assisted longtime fund chairman Eddy Teets in reviving the fund in the 1950s.
When Harmon, 39, moved to Franklin nine years ago, he was invited by Jack McMahon to support the food basket program.
“Any time you get the opportunity to give back, that’s a draw,” Harmon said. “I’ve always been very blessed that I’ve never had to worry about finding food or a meal on the holidays, so it’s a way to give back.”
His involvement is carrying down to a new generation, as well. Mike and Sarah Harmon have made volunteering with the fund a priority for their own children, 7-year-old Jackson and Caroline. They have taken part the past five years, and will continue to do so every year.
“It’s a good family bonding experience, and a good chance to give back to the community,” he said.
Often times, it’s the family connection that first inspires people to take part in the Good Cheer Fund, Sappenfield said. The hope is that once parents introduce their children to the importance of the fund, they’ll feel ownership and keep at it even as they become adults.
“We need a mix of new and generational folks to make this work,” Sappenfield said.
Grace Kinsey started helping with the Good Cheer Fund deliveries when she was in middle school. Her father, Pastor Andy Kinsey of Grace United Methodist Church, is on the board of the fund, and encouraged her to get involved in her own way.
“My dad always taught us to give back, and the holiday season is the best time to do that,” she said.
As a middle school student, Kinsey’s youth group would come to the Johnson County REMC the week before delivery to sort food and place it in baskets. She continued to help with the sorting once she reached Franklin Community High School.
But it wasn’t until she had a chance to deliver the baskets of food to the people most in need that the spirit of the Good Cheer Fun grabbed her.
“Going to those houses that morning, some people know that they’re getting the baskets, and some people don’t,” she said. “The reactions of people when we said we had a meal for them, their faces when we said that and the thanks they give, that’s what pulls me back to do it every year.”
Now a sophomore at the University of Indianapolis, Kinsey has remained active in the fund. She has already told Sappenfield that she will be available to deliver baskets again this year.
“Hopefully whenever I have a family, we can keep doing that. It’ll be a little tradition, for myself at least,” she said.
