This association was begun at the request of Patrick Allen while he was a high school senior looking for a way to help others and make a positive difference in our community. Members of our association include High School students, business owners, parents, and other caring community members.
This is the year of our inception. The whole begining of the fundraising projects that led to the creation of "The Illinois Valley Youth Enrichment Association" or "IV YEA!" A local student was invited to join the Oregon Ambassadors of Music performance tour through Europe, traveling, learning and performing abroad. CLick Here for more...
We were asked to help with a stocking drive for the families of needy children. We wanted to help, but realised that did not suit our organizations goal of empowering the youth of our area. We decided to tackle the project with the caviot that ALL the Children in the Illinois Valley that we were able to reach would become a part of the program. We contacted the schools and created a fundraising letter. 2024 will be our 9th year providing Christmas Stockings to our local elementary school children. CLick Here for more...
We set up our first booth this Year at the Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce sponsored "Sasquatch, Wine and Arts Festival". Following the SWAG Festival we were inspired and set up a booth again at the Illinois Valley Lions Club Annual Labor Day Festival where we also partnered up with the Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce and helped to sell merchandise for their fundraising efforts.
October 2, 2019 also marked a big day for IVYEA. On this day we opened IV Reclaimed,a thrift shop and donation center... and of course we carried out our Fourth Annual Holiday stocking drive. CLick Here for more...
2020 has been a challenging year for IVYEA and for the community. COVID-19, Unemployment, Wildfires have all made an impact in our community as well as the nation and world. In order to bring a bit of happiness and normalcy to the community, We took over for the Illinois Valley Lions Club this year and hosted the Labor Day Festival. CLick Here for more...
We live in a very culturally diverse area with one public and three private schools available for elementary school aged children. The following table list the local elementary schools in our area. You may click on the school names to follow a link to thier own websites where available.
IVYEA is locally operated.
Alisandra co-founded the oganization and after it's conception began her academic journey to learn to run and grow IVYEA. With a decade of community and volunteer service Ms. Belle has always put the needs of other people before herself.
The face of IVYEA. Monique, a co-founder runs in the public spotlight. Monique also is the one who started out stocking program. Her work in our community has rallied the community bringing us closer together.
Karry has been given the lead on the sorting, picking and arranging the presents for the children and families during our annual "Gifts from Santa" program. Her time and energy help make this program a success. Karry is a huge help with our Thrift Store, IV Reclaimed. She can usually be found there on Mondays. She picks up donations, sorts, and sells.
David worked for years at Dutchbros after growing up in the community getting to know the faces of everyone day to day. He knows who we are as a community and what we need to grow.
IVYEA first started by fundraising for the Oregon Ambassadors of Music.
Our first fundraisers were a bake sell and selling Krispy Kreme.
The birth of our annual holiday stocking program where we work with our partner schools to give stockings to over 500 local children.
We expanded our fundraising to improve our annual stocking program making bigger and better gifts for the youth in our community.
The birth of our website and expansion of community support. We again worked on improving our stocking program for the third year in a row.
We applied for and received status as a 501c3. This allows our donors to write off donations on thier taxes.
We ran our first festival booths with the first Sasquatch festival and at Lion's annual Labor Day festival. We improved the stocking program making our biggest and best stockings yet while also starting our new toy drive program to reach more families.
We opened IV Reclaimed, expanding our work helping the community in new ways with volunteer opportunities, extremely low price goods, and donating clothes to those in need.
This year is our 5th anniversery and our biggest year yet. We hosted the annual Labor Day festival making it safe during these troubling times. We are hoping to continue our stocking program safely to ensure this holiday season is a good one for all our youth despite the current issues we all face.
Long Term Goals:
We hope to grow and expand to help more areas across Southern Oregon. For the local community we hope to open an arcade in the future, to provide a space for our youth to be after school that is safe, supervised, and offer an alternative to the unhealthy party culture our youth endulge in.
Thank you for your interest and support.
We accept donations of items for our annual holiday stockings, or cash which we will use to purchase the items needed for our projects.
Donations can be made in person at The Redwood Service Center located at 223N Redwood Hwy in Cave Junction, OR or mailed to IV YEA PO Box 1459 #21, Cave Junction, OR 97523.
Monetary donations can also be made online through paypal, simply use the link below:
The Illinois Valley consists of the towns of Cave Junction, O'Brien, Kerby, Selma, and Takilma. It is a beautiful area that is full of nature and beautiful people.
Shop Locally! The more we support our local economy, the more products and services can afford to stay here in the valley for benefit of us all.
Local Business
Monique can be found in the Redwood Service center,
next door to IV Guns & Ammo and across from the River Valley Restaurant on Monday through Friday.
You can also reach out to us at IV Reclaimed (next to Dairy Queen) on Friday through Sunday.