Our Mission

Who are the CV Jaycees and why do we do what we do?

The Chagrin Valley Jaycees are well-known for the fun that we have. We sincerely love to decorate the Village of Chagrin Falls during the holidays and to host events like the annual Blossom Time Festival, the Chili Brew-Off and the Don Lawrence Memorial Golf Outing every year. These events are highlights in our calendars every year and we have a great time setting it all up. It is however often forgotten that the fun we have is just a happy consequence of our greater charitable mission.

While we enjoy hosting events, our mission is to generate proceeds for the benefit of a great many charities and causes like the Chagrin Falls Park Community Center, Santa’s Hideaway Hollow, Meals-on-Wheels, Shop-with-a-Cop, and WomenSafe to name just a few.

Our community involvement does not end at merely donating financially to these causes, but extends even further to the donation of our time and skills. Our members add further value to our community by being a source of manpower and assisting with projects like building the pavilion at South Russell Village Park, or offsetting construction costs on the new wheelchair-accessible entrance to Riverside Park by removing the stairs from the library down to the path. We also host a number of family focused, community-enhancing events for free to the public like the Easter Egg Hunt and Oktubafest.

While we have been around for many decades, the Chagrin Valley Jaycees are a little different today than what we were before. We still decorate the Village for the holidays, we still organize and run Blossom Time but behind the scenes, the Jaycees have evolved. Did you know that before 2021 the Chagrin Valley Jaycees consisted of two distinct organizations? The Chagrin Valley Jaycees and the Chagrin Valley Jaycees Charitable Foundation worked separately and in concert with each other to enact our charitable mission. After many years of operating as two groups, we decided the time was right to merge in order to become more efficient and focused.

The Jaycees will continue to donate tens of thousands of dollars and labor to charitable causes and community events each and every year. However, we’ve also established an investment committee that will enable us to have more of a long-term vision. Our goal is to engage in new types of giving and to make an even more significant impact in our communities in the coming decades.

Yes, the Jaycees have fun, but that is not our “Why?”. The positive impact we have on our community is why the Chagrin Valley Jaycees exist. We’re proud of all the ways we’re able to help and we aspire to do even more. With our community’s continued support and our thriving membership, we believe we can achieve even grander goals in the future.