Martin & Jones Celebrates Holidays with Oxford Orphanage

Martin & Jones has celebrated Christmas with children at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford for 21 years.  Allison Rogers has coordinated the celebration on behalf of Martin & Jones for all those years. 

“It does my heart good to support a place like this,” Allison said, when telling of the one young man who said he’d been at the home for five years and loves it and doesn’t “know where he would be now if it hadn’t been for the Masonic Home.”  Allison said she “was told we were the longest supporting donor at the home.  That’s something to be proud of.”

This year, Martin & Jones provided gifts to four young men at the Kimmel Cottage.  The boys ranged in age from 14 to 16.  Allison shared their wish lists with everyone at Martin & Jones, and the shopping and wrapping began.  This year, the favorite gifts received were puffy coats, a Darth Vader clapper and a dart board.

In years past, Martin & Jones has provided gifts for children ranging from infants and toddlers to high school students.  In early years, the firm would take pizzas and open gifts at the cottage.  The home then starting hosting a group Christmas dinner for all sponsors and children before individual cottage celebrations.  One year, when the firm sponsored two high school age cottages, one for girls and one for boys, Martin & Jones got to take them all to the Triangle Town Center and shop for coats, hats, and gloves.  Another year, one of our staff members took a girls’ cottage horseback riding at the farm where she boarded her horse.  Another year, two staff members arranged for “Cinderella” to visit a little girls’ cottage.

On its website, the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford (MHCO) states it “exists for one purpose – to help children who need a stable, caring and loving home.”  The residential care program “uses a family-living model that provides children with individual living spaces, essentials needed for daily living, support if they have special needs, and a promise for full development and learning, from infant to young adulthood.

This is one of the attorneys’ and staff’s favorite community projects throughout the year.  The firm also supports the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina at the holidays.