The Greater Watertown Jaycees will empower young people by providing the opportunity to develop personal and leadership skills through local community service and organizational involvement while expanding the Jaycee movement. The vision of the Greater Watertown Jaycees is to be the organization for young adults in the Greater Watertown area, providing service and leadership to our communities, the state and the nation in order to affect positive change.

We are a local chapter of a national leadership development organization, which builds tomorrow's leaders with the focus on self-growth for our members. This is accomplished through a hands-on approach to running projects that enhance the local members' communities.

National members of Jaycees (past and present) include: President Bill Clinton, Domino's Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan, and former Miss America Kaye Lani Rae-Rafko-Wilson. Name the field and Jaycees can be found at the forefront.

The Greater Watertown Jaycees chartered in July of 2003. Our members are young professionals in the community - including media professionals, teachers, outreach professionals, military population, consultants, and retail managers.

The Greater Watertown Jaycees builds tomorrow's leaders with the focus on self-growth for our members. The way this is accomplished is through a hands-on approach to running projects that enhance the local members' communities. The Greater Watertown Jaycees offers many programs and ideas that benefit the community. The local community dictates where the area of emphasis needs to be focused (i.e. running events for kids, job advancement, helping disadvantaged youth, senior visitations). The Greater Watertown Jaycees provides support and training materials so that the local chapter programs can be run effectively. We are the cure for the common social life, plus you'll grow your career potential through meeting fellow members. The Jaycees is all about having fun while making promising business connections. Whether we meet for drinks and dinner, go white water rafting or hiking, or catch a movie or a ball game, we are a group of young, fun, professional people who know how to have a great time together.

We take pride in involving ourselves in our local community. Here are just a few of the events we've participated in over the course of the past couple of years.

Emerge NNY is a young professionals summit now its in fourth year bringing participants together for professional development purposes and community engagement. This event raises funds for the Victim's Assistance Center in Watertown. The Jaycees volunteer to hand out beverages at this event. This fundraiser helped generate funds for the Syracuse chapter of March of Dimes. This event helped kick off Watertown's 2005 Black Water Challenge and Riverfest. We invited over 150 local community leaders and members of the area media to shoot the Black River's rapids, courtesy of Hudson River Rafting, Adirondack River Outfitters, and B.O.B. Rafting. Special thanks goes out to Subway, Pewter Mug, and Cam's Pizzeria, who provided services for the after-party, held at Toddy's Ice Cream Cafe. Click here to see some of the pictures from this fun event. The Watertown Jaycees had the honor of judging jack-o-lanterns at this event. By far, this event got the Greater Watertown Jaycees the most attention. It's obvious that citizens of Watertown and the surrounding area care about downtown. Destination Downtown is an ongoing Jaycees project. Click here to e-mail Bryan White, who masterminded the event. This is another of the Watertown Jaycees' ongoing projects. Click here to find out more.

Leading the youth of the North Country toward a brighter future by helping to provide access to higher education is a job for the entire community to embrace. As always, the Greater Watertown Jaycees are up to the challenge. We are participating in the 2009 New York State Jaycees' "Outstanding Young New Yorker" scholarship program.

Our 2009 winner is Ashley Oxenford from Lyme Central School. Ashley was awarded her $500 Scholarship at the annual YP Day in May of 2009. The Watertown Jaycees are able to participate in this program due to the support of Watertown Savings Bank, Pine Cleaners, and Wal-Mart of LeRay. Congratulations to Ashley for all her hard work and great application.

The 2008 Outstanding Young New Yorker (OYNY) Winner was Benjamin Peak from Belleville Henderson Central School. Ben was the recipient of our local $500 Scholarship that we awarded

The 2007 Outstanding Young New Yorker (OYNY) Winner was Caitlin Simard from Brantingham, NY, within the South Lewis School District. Caitlin was the recipient of our local $500 Scholarship.

Thank you to several local business for helping the Watertown Jaycees support this scholarship program, in 2008 our supporters were- Pine Cleaners and Bolton's Pharmacy. We appreciate your help.

You can download the 2009 OYNY Scholarship Application, Information Letter, and Fact Sheet. Applications are due Friday, April 10th, 2009.

No one walked away empty-handed at our first big fundraiser, held in August 2005. Thanks to the vendors who provided prizes and support: DOHL Development. The Greater Watertown Jaycees team had a wonderful time this year at the Relay for Life fundraiser. Click here to see photos from the event. Our Meet and Greets give members of the community who are interested in finding out a little more about the Jaycees the opportunity to mingle with members. We always have interesting speakers and great food at this event!