Junkies CARE: Supporting United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties, Wooster OH

Want a feel‑good story with real stakes and zero fluff? We’re shining a light on United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties of Wooster OH and the everyday magic that happens when a community decides to invest in its own—books for kids, safe places for families, and a downtown 5K that turns generosity into a party. Tune in to hear about our October Junkies CARE spotlight organization and sponsored event.

Chapters

• 0:06 Kicking Off Junkies Care
• 1:06 Spotlight: United Way of Wayne & Holmes
• 1:45 Dolly Parton Imagination Library Joy
• 3:19 What United Way Funds Locally
• 5:10 Heart & Ghoul 5K Announcement
• 6:31 Costumes, Tutus, and Race Culture
• 10:59 Planning, Costumes, and Sign-Off

Transcript

DJ Nick: 0:06

Welcome to Junkies Care, a special edition of the Dysfunction Junkies, where your hosts showcase and highlight people and nonprofits doing great things. And now here are your hosts, Chrissy and Carrie.

Kerry: 0:21

Hello, Junkies. I'm Kerry.

Chrisy: 0:23

And I'm Chrisy.

Kerry: 0:24

It is October 1st, so you know what that means. It does. I know what it means.

Chrisy: 0:30

It means junkies care.

Kerry: 0:31

You got it.

Chrisy: 0:32

Although we care all the time. I know.

Kerry: 0:36

So this month we are going to focus on a really great organization. It is the United Way of Wayne and Holmes County in Wooster? Wooster. Ohio. I'm tomato tomato. Come on.

Chrisy: 0:53

No, no, not no. That means a lot to uh us uh residents of Wooster. Wooster.

Kerry: 1:01

Okay. So, anyways, yeah, this is a fabulous organization, as most United Way organizations are across the United States. But this one um in particular, we're really excited about.

Chrisy: 1:13

Chrisy, go well, I am really excited about it because I have been here in the community for 10 years now and have met a fantastic group of people. Yeah. And it's a wonderful place to live. Awesome. And it's it's just a lovely community. And so I'm really excited about this because Worcester has been our top download. It is our top city, absolutely. And the United Way for me, just real quick, uh, although this event is very exciting, and I'm gonna we're gonna talk about that. Yes. But just to touch on, and this is with many of the United Ways uh everywhere, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Yeah. Is such a wonderful, she's just wonderful. Yes. And we were able to participate in this with our kids when they were little. Oh, good. And we got fantastic books. And I love to read to my kids. And it's a wonderful program. So if you haven't taken advantage of this, yes, and you're here in this community, you need to look into it for your for your kids. I mean, it was exciting to get the books and to look at them and and to keep. I mean, it was just it's a wonderful program. And and I thought I thought you didn't like to read. No reading. Children's books are fantastic. Good call, DJ Nick. I'm not gonna sit down and read uh Snybeck or anything. No, no. But give me a good Judy Bloom and I'm set. Yes. But then they don't get I mean Judy Bloom's a little bit older, but yeah, no, I I love I love books. Children's literature is I that I have a warm spot for that. When we used to go into like Barnes Noble, yeah, I would generally gravitate and go and look at the it just it made me think of when I was young. Yeah, it's just great.

Kerry: 3:04

I like I love books and I am old school. I like the book, I want to touch it, feel it, turn the pages when I read. There's a lot I do digitally, but I really do like a good book that I can hold in my hand and flip those pages. Yeah. So absolutely. So for those of you that may not be aware, there is a program. I I'm I will do my best to summarize it because I don't have all the details, but I know about it. The Dolly Parton Imagination Library, where depending on where you live, you could be eligible to sign your child up to get books, and it's it's through Dolly Parton, and they they send children's books in so you can receive that. So it is a great program. You know, you might want to Google it to see if it's available where you live to sign your children up. I I want to say DJ Nick. No, it's all over the country, it is all over the country, but not every community because my grandson was eligible for it when he lived in Ohio, but now that they're in Las Vegas, he was not. And it was it was a read, it depended on what regions supported or you know, like United Ways supporting this here.

DJ Nick: 4:07

United Way is the the primary partnering for that program with all the partners. But I don't know to you know what extent what the reach is, but I think it's I'm sure it's beyond Ohio.

Kerry: 4:18

Yeah, like I said, I just knew that um Jaxon was able to do it here in Ohio, but when they moved back to Las Vegas, they they didn't have the program there.

DJ Nick: 4:26

I do think it stops at a certain age. It does stop at a certain age, yes.

Kerry: 4:30

Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, I think so.

Chrisy: 4:32

There there is an age cutoff, but I guess Oh, I knew there was an age cutoff, but I didn't know it was that early. But I guess I mean you're in school pretty much by then, so okay.

Kerry: 4:41

But there's so many other things that United Way of Wayne's in Holmes County supports. So I was looking at their list, and oh, where is my list? I don't have in front of me right now, but I will do it from memory. I know like they help with Salvation Army, they help with Goodwill, they have the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, they help with the Boys and Girls Club, there's an adaptive sports program, there's also a severe weather shelter and YMCA, just to name a few. So amazing things. So one of the things that they are having coming up this month in October is their heart and ghoul 5k and one mile, spooky sprint. And that's gonna be in historic downtown Worcester, and that's gonna be on October 25th from 9 to 11. And we are going to be sponsors for this event. So we're gonna be there that Saturday. And um, I think if my shoulder permits, I'm gonna try to run in this little 5K to make up for my lack of running in the marathon.

Chrisy: 5:42

Oh man, I love you, uh, United Way of Wayne and uh Holmes County, but I'm going to be cheering for Kerry if she decides to run. I'm not gonna give you any false hope that I'm gonna run because it just ain't gonna happen.

Kerry: 5:58

No, but we are gonna have a little booth or something there. So um you'll be able to come check us out. If you're new to listening, you know, we're gonna tell people how they can sign up for that. We might even have some giveaways too. Absolutely. Yes. We are very excited to be part of this uh during the month of October and to support United Way of Wayne and Holmes County and to be there for this fun run.

Chrisy: 6:20

And we encourage you to also support the your United Way uh locally wherever you are. Yes. But here in Worcester, yes, thank you.

Kerry: 6:29

This one, we thank you very much. Right. So to recap, we had started our junkies care back in August. We supported our high school, Ursuline High School, with their golf outing. And then last month we supported Canine Companions. We were at the Dog Fest event. So thank you all for coming out to meet us there. So we are really looking forward to doing this every month, finding a great organization to support, to reach out to the community, get engaged with everybody, and share information about organizations that are doing some great work.

Chrisy: 7:02

Yeah, and if you have an organization that you would like us to consider for sponsoring, we are very interested and excited for being able to bring awareness and bring light to something that's doing good work out there.

Kerry: 7:16

Absolutely. So, Chrisy, at this fun run, they talk about you know encouraging people to dress up in costumes. Do you think you'll dress up in a costume?

Chrisy: 7:25

Well, I guess if you're gonna run in it, that's the least I could do.

Kerry: 7:29

Oh, there we go. So what are your thoughts off the top of your head? What type of costume?

Chrisy: 7:36

I have no idea. I can be like uh what the the peanuts uh cartoon where uh Lucy puts on her hat or whatever and says that she's supposed to wear a costume that best represents her personality or whatever. She was a witch. So we'll have to see how I'm feeling that day. Somebody to choose from. I don't know.

Kerry: 7:59

I know it. I know. Have you seen some of these goofy? Well, we can talk about this in another episode. We'll be talking, I'm sure, about Halloween this this month or about the October. We're in the big month. I've never been one to run away race in a tutu. Like that's like something that you see a lot. Like these girls will run these, you know, races or marathons and they have this little like tutu on over their shorts, you know. And I've never been one to do that or wear a costume when I'm running, but I might give it some consideration this year. Maybe I'll just have my headset on and I'll just run as a podcast host. There you go.

Chrisy: 8:33

Uh yeah, you're sitting here saying, like, telling me about women or uh maybe men too, wearing tutus while running. Yeah. I I'm you probably should have been videoing this because I'm sure the look on my face was horrified and astonished all at the same time. I had no idea this was a thing.

Kerry: 8:51

Oh, it's a thing.

Chrisy: 8:52

What is the reasoning behind?

Kerry: 8:53

I have no idea where this started off, but you you go to any race, I'm telling you, there'll be somebody that'll have a little like netted tutu on. I mean, they're they're wearing their running shorts and their running tank top and their bib and their race and everything, but then they just have this little tutu on. I have no idea where this started from, but I've I've seen it all. I'm fascinated. Yes, yes. Now we have to look into this. When I ran in the Las Vegas Marathon, there was a lot of people dressed up as Elvis, running as Elvis. Oh, well, that okay, that makes sense for a minute.

Chrisy: 9:23

I had to think about oh, Las Vegas. Okay, I gotcha. I gotcha.

Kerry: 9:26

You know, and the one Elvis actually was pushing a little like a baby carriage, but it had a radio and speaker system, and it was playing Elvis music, you know, the whole time as he was running down. He carried the music with him. Oh my goodness.

Chrisy: 9:40

Oh my goodness. Well, that would have been interesting. I guess maybe they're really about being uh a little showy to really uh sort of help the people who are watching this event.

Kerry: 9:50

Yeah, there you go. So I this will will this be your first 5K to go to?

Chrisy: 9:54

Yeah, I've never been to any race. I've like I said, I've seen I've seen it on TV, yeah, of course, because my face is plastered in front of the TV a lot of times. And with social media, yeah. I've seen a lot of people post that they are participating in this, which total props to you ain't gonna be anything I'm gonna do. But yeah, I love the fact that you're willing to do it, and so go for it.

Kerry: 10:15

Yeah, as long as I'm you know, I'm having my shoulder surgery, so as long as I get clearance to run after that, I think I I will just, you know, I may not be fast, I'll be checking on the back of the group, you know, as they're coming up. But uh just participating should be a win-win. I'm sorry. So we'll have to give it some thought on what kind of costumes we're gonna wear that day.

Chrisy: 10:35

We might need to coordinate something. Oh, that would be good.

Kerry: 10:37

Yeah, yeah. Oh, we could be Scooby-Doo, like the Scooby-Doo characters, you know, like Velma and what's the other one? Daphne. Daphne and Velma or something. You know, we can go back to one of our other episodes or we're gonna bring this up later. What? But I have a really good idea. Yeah.

Chrisy: 10:53

We should go as the Chrisy and Kerry dolls. Oh, that's a good one. I think we should do it. Oh, I like it. We will talk about that later. So you'll have to listen. Yes.

Kerry: 11:08

Yeah, listen this month to hear about the Chrisy and Kerry doll. Yes, absolutely. So, alrighty. Well, again, thank you for listening to Junkies Care. Our October feature is going to be the United Way of Wayne in Holmes County in Wooster, Ohio.

Chrisy: 11:23

In Wooster, beautiful Wooster, Ohio.

Kerry: 11:25

Wooster, Ohio. And this we are going to be at the Heart and Goal 2025, 5K and one mile spooky sprint. And that'll be on Saturday, October 25th from 9 to 11 in downtown historic Wooster. Yes. Alrighty. We'll see you then, junkies. We'll see ya. Bye bye.