When parents go astray, their children should not have to suffer and thanks to the 18th annual Jammin’ For The Kids, a fundraiser to aid children of inmates, Christmas will still come.

The event will be held at the Roca Restaurant Bar & Grill on Thursday and will feature entertainment, a raffle and auction, organizer Stacey Hartley said.

Admission is $5 or a new toy.

Hartley along with her daughters have been active in the fundraiser since its inception.

“I have been helping since I could walk,” Hartley’s 14-year-old daughter, Jordan, said.

Hartley and her girls will do the shopping for those children whose parents are in the Warren County jail, the state penitentiary or other facilities. Toys will also be bought and given out to other needy children in the city too, Hartley said.

“We go to all the stores and buy the toys. We will then go to the jail and sort them out by boy, girl, baby and teenagers,” Jordan said.

Depending on the amount of money and the number of toys given during the fundraiser determines how many gifts each child will receive.

In past years, Jordan said the children have received five gifts each.

Once the gifts are divided and tagged, the Hartley’s will wrap the presents that are to be distributed to the children.

“When the parents come to pick up the gifts at the jail sometimes they bring the children, and I get to meet them,” Jordan said, adding that for the young ones that do come Santa is there to visit with them.

Hartley has been helping with the fundraiser, since it began 17 years ago and Jordan said she plans to follow her mother’s example of helping those less fortunate when she gets older.

“I told mama she couldn’t stop doing this until I was old enough (to take it over),” she said.

Jammin’ For The Kids is set to begin at 6 p.m., and this year the fundraiser is dedicated to the memory of Steve Strong, Doug Frank and Wayne Mayes.

Entertainment will include musicians, John Howard Dennis & Friends, Mike & Marty & Co., Johnny Crocker, Lee H. Abraham & the Boone Brothers Double Ramm Outlaws, Dagnabbit, Backwater and Steve, and “Possum” Strong. Carlton Rush, Andy Tadlock and Kemper Ehrhardt will provide sound.

Beyond Walls Ministries and the Warren County Chaplain’s office will also help with distributing the gifts to the children.

For more information, call 601-638-0800.