KINGSVILLE TOWNSHIP - U.S. Congressman Dave Joyce and Ashtabula County Commissioner Kathryn Whittington visited a family in Kingsville Township last Friday, April 10, to drop off a ham dinner,  chocolate and other treats to help make the family’s Easter a special one.

U.S. Army veteran Garrett Stump, his wife Cynthia and their six children were the beneficiaries of Joyce’s and Whittington’s generosity.
“I do appreciate it,” Stump said.

Whittington donated dinners to several families this Easter, and, after Joyce asked for her help in selecting a family to partner on, she heard about Stump and his family from Ashtabula County Children Services after asking for kinship families who have been affected by COVID-19 or the drug epidemic.

“Within about an hour, they came back and said, ‘We have a family of eight. Is that okay?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, that’s perfect,’” Whittington said. “It happened to work out that we were blessed to be introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Stump and be able to help provide Easter for them.”
The Stump family is a mix of biological, adopted and kinship children.

“God bless you for what you’re doing,” Whittington told Garrett Stump. “We appreciate you stepping up to the plate.”
Stump, a carpenter, has been laid off since the end of February.
“That was unplanned,” Stump said. “I didn’t get laid off due to the current events - I got laid off because we were almost done with the job.”
But then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, which made the lay-off “official” in Stump’s mind, as finding another job became increasingly difficult. He applied for unemployment about a week ago, and it is still being processed.

Besides visiting the Stump family, Joyce had dropped off donations for Lake County families earlier in the day.
“We’re all in this together,” Joyce said. “We need to help each other during these times, and we’ll get out of this and we’ll be stronger on the other side. But it’s going to take a little time.”
Thanks to Gov. Mike DeWine and the leadership that he’s provided, Ohio is in a better position than some other states, Joyce said.
“We’ve just got to continue to stay the course,” Joyce said.

Joyce has been holding Telephone Town Halls to provide northeast Ohio’s workers and small businesses with resources available to help get them through the COVID-19 pandemic.
These town halls have included information on such programs as the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program  and the Paycheck Protection Program.
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