My Joyful Heart celebrates 20 years
Lockport-based nonprofit started with a couple of anonymous gifts; now it’s helped over 1,000 kids
Imagine being a fifth grade student and living in a car with your mom and siblings on a cold night in Chicago, or walking to school having no socks and holes in your shoes.
After hearing stories like those, Lockport resident Diane Carroll decided to help, starting a nonprofit called My Joyful Heart.
She started in 2002 by purchasing Christmas gifts for two Chicago area students. After 20 years, she’s had a hand in helping over 1,000 kids.
“I was a single mom for most of my life, I know the struggles,” Carroll said. “I was able to find a good job, so I wanted to help others. I began to answer Santa letters and was sending a few gifts to the schools.”
Before long, a group of friends and family members joined her effort, and My Joyful Heart became established as a program.
“I used to go out to various schools and personally enroll kids,” Carroll said. “I was meeting
all these kids and seeing what their needs were. So many I would cry over because of what they were asking for.
“We had an 8-year-old ask for toilet paper. On wish lists, they don’t write toys, they want shoes. Another story is a 10-year old boy who had salad dressing packets in
his pockets that he took from the lunchroom. He told his teacher, ‘Today is Friday and there’s no food at my house.’ ”
My Joyful Heart now helps children in preschool up to age 22, who are referred to My Joyful Heart by social workers or teachers at 43 Chicago area schools.
“This is not a one size fits all,” Carroll said. “Each need doesn’t automatically change. If they’re in need, they can stay (in the program). Some of these kids are in such sad situations they don’t sleep at night because of what’s going on in the household.”
On the organization’s website at www.myjoyfulheart.org, there is a needs list that includes new bedding, clothing, shoes, toys, shampoo, soap, toothbrushes and much more.
“Each child gets a special note that we give them for each gift event,” Carroll said. “The volunteers write personal cards to them, it’s the encouragement. For them to know that someone is out there and accepts them for who they are and wants to help makes all the difference in their lives.”
Among those children were Richard Carrington, now 31, who has kept in touch with Carroll since he became part of the program when he was in 7th grade and living in a shelter with
his mother and siblings.
“When he graduated high school,he told me we kept him out of gangs,” Caroll said. “We changed his life, just because we cared.”
Carrington now works at CityView and credits his success to Carroll and My Joyful Heart.
“I always wondered who was giving me these bags that were full of things that I needed at that moment,” he said. “It truly saved my childhood.
“Diane Carroll became my guardian angel. I needed something to look forward to. When I was growing up, there was a lot of violence in the neighborhood. A bag would show up when I needed it the most.”
And it wasn’t just the food that helped.
“I got bullied a lot because I didn’t have good hygiene and only had one set of clothes,” Carrington said. “When Joyful Heart came through and started bringing me underwear, soap and other items, I knew someone cared. I didn’t know that there were people out there that truly cared for me.”
His favorite item in the care package was always a card inside with a handwritten message.
“I call them appreciation bags” said Carrington. “Finding out someone else cared besides my mom, it turned my life around. Miss Carroll saved my life.”
Carrington was the guest speaker as My Joyful Heart marked its 20th anniversary late last month with a banquet.
“Once you have received the impact Joyful Heart has on your life, it stays with you for a lifetime,” he said at the event.
The April 23 banquet at Silver Lake Country Club in Orland Park also was a chance for a public thankyou to Carroll, who is retiring.
Carroll has stepped back for the last two years as Erin Burns has taken the helm of My Joyful Heart.
“I’ve been taking a back seat but I will never truly
be gone,” Carroll said. “My Joyful Heart is my baby, I would be lost without this.
“We’re getting more sponsors, we’ve come into our own now. It has been a remarkable journey. Besides my children, my greatest accomplishment has been My Joyful Heart.”