We have heard the term "take a walk in their shoes" all too often, so much that it has lost the meaning that it once carried. So many say it, yet so few are able to truly demonstrate the phrase's meaning.
Jayme Jones is putting her good will and efforts to make that phrase hold meaning. As the creator of the non-profit group Steps for Pep and raising money through Relay for Life to help a member of the Portage community in need, Jones has dedicated herself to doing good towards others and is succeeding at her goals in the most spectacular way.
"I created Steps for Pep to help a member of the Portage community, Dale Pugh," says Jones. "He has been a familiar face and someone who was always willing to help out those in need within the community. Everyone knew him and everyone loved him."
Pugh was diagnosed with cancer and given only a short period of time to live. Due to this, Jones wanted to do more to help this individual in need and set up her organization to raise funds from the Portage community to help him as much as possible.
"I wanted to honor him in a way no on else could," says Jones. "People were sad, people wanted to help out in any way they could and I just knew that there had to be a bigger way to honor him as the great individual he is known as throughout the community."
Jones set up her organization and began her journey to contact people throughout the community who would be willing to raise funds for Pugh's treatments and basic living needs due to his diagnosis not allowing him to work any longer. What started out as slow apprehension soon turned into a full-time commitment when others began to join in on her cause.
"I was really nervous at first to ask people to donate or even help out," says Jones. "However after I really started talking to people I saw how understanding and kind people were within the community and how much they wanted to help."
What started as a small project transformed into a community funded effort with several businesses wanting to help out Jones' efforts. Aztec Tanning, Subway, Marsha's Sweet Stuff, and Duneside Liquors were just some of the businesses who assisted Jones in her efforts to raise funds for Pugh.
While working as a full-time manager at two Subway locations and also devoting her time to Steps for Pep and Relay for Life, Jones has never lost sight of her original goal. Her mission to help a man in need and her neverending, never tiring drive to ensure that he is helped as much as possible.
"He's the biggest inspiration to me and the biggest fighter I've ever met," says Jones. "I do this because I want to help him and I don't want to see anyone close to someone go through what he is going through alone and without help. "I just want to help him out and I hope that one day, cancer will be a thing of the past and people will no longer have to suffer."