JA New York has long been a proud supporter of Jewelers For Children (JFC). In addition to hosting the organization’s “Celebrate New York” event each Spring, many of us are also avid attendees of their annual Facets of Hope dinner in Las Vegas during Market Week and, of course, JFC always has a presence at all of our JA New York Shows. JFC’s extremely worthwhile mission is to help children who are the victims of catastrophic illness or life-threatening abuse and neglect. While 2019 was a banner year in terms of reaching a milestone of donating $57 Million to the various charities JFC supports, in 2020, we’re going to have even more ways to showcase our support.

JFC’s Executive Director, David Rocha, is tireless in his efforts to raise money for the worthwhile charities, raise awareness of those charities, and get an increased number of people involved. He is always developing new ways of accomplishing those goals, “Part of our focus for the year ahead is looking at involving more folks who are employees of companies and small jewelers,” said Rocha. “We want to demonstrate that you don’t have to be a ‘big guy’ to be involved and make a difference.” In order to provide more ways for more people to be involved, the organization is expanding their popular “Rings of Strength” event to four locations, “Beginning in 2020, in addition to our anchor run in Las Vegas, we’re going to hold our ‘Rings of Strength’ event during Centurion, AGS Conclave and the Atlanta Jewelry Show.”

Also new in 2020 is the addition of a new charitable partner, Organization for Autism Research. Rocha explains the choice of this particular organization by noting, “Autism touches so many people.”