Jeffrey’s employees, from left: Angelo Glaviano, Chrissy Maki, Carissa Taylor and Danielle Rajala stand near The Giving Tree. The restaurant organizes The Giving Tree program to ensure that no child from Marquette County has to go without gifts during the holiday season. (Journal photo by Randy Crouch)

MARQUETTE — Thanksgiving isn’t quite here yet but Jeffrey’s Restaurant in Marquette is already getting into the Christmas spirit by making sure that families throughout the area have gifts with their Christmas giving program.

The Giving Tree allows for families in need to sign up for gifts by going to Jeffrey’s, filling out a tag with their child’s age, gender, shoe size, shirt size, pant size and what they would like to receive for Christmas. Once the tags are hung on the tree, people from the community can come and pick a tag off of the tree and buy a gift to help make sure that every kid in the area has a great Christmas. Families have until the end of November to fill out a tag.

Carissa Taylor, manager of Jeffrey’s, says that The Giving Tree came about as a way to support the community during the pandemic.

“During COVID, the other manager and myself wanted to see what we could do to give back,” Taylor said. “We were closed and we were thinking about what we could do for the community. That turned into people needing gifts for kids because they were having a hard time financially during the pandemic. It was about helping Marquette County.”

Jeffrey’s asks that anyone who is planning on buying gifts to bring their purchases to the restaurant by Dec. 19 so they have time to get the gifts to the families. The tags should be up on The Giving Tree by the end of November.

If you can’t make it into Jeffrey’s and would like to be involved, you can contact the restaurant at 906-236-5368 or by emailing christmasatjeffreys@gmail.com.