The Stocking Project is a way to keep Zane’s love of Christmas Stocking alive.

When our family met the Missen-Jones family, it was love at first sight. Our friendship was instantaneous and has endured all of these 28 years. As a Jewish family that would not celebrate Christmas but wanted to preserve the holiday's magic for little Zachary, we had to think out of the box. So Santa filled our holiday stockings too, but not having too much experience with Christmas stockings, our Santa brought health and beauty products! And as a little one, Zane exclaimed, "That Santa is such a nice guy, he even brings the Jewish kids shampoo and stuff!"

Over the years, the Christmas stockings remained a favorite part of the holiday season. Without Zane's joy, we were not sure how to manage the holiday stocking. Did we keep it in the attic? Fill it as usual? End the tradition? Baraba Jones spearheaded the Stocking Project the first year we lost Zane and has been doing so ever since.

Keep It Moving has provided personalized, unique stockings for children in need at the Poughkeepsie Children's home, children in the Newburgh and Kingston School Districts. Each child has a stocking made by a volunteer, who creates a stocking filled with some items requested by the school district, and then the folks add what they think a child might like. The stockings reflect the diversity of the families who volunteer for Keep It Moving, and they are all so amazingly special. The children have been very surprised and get the sense they are being cared for from afar. Keep It Moving also assures that a necessity bag is included with health and hygiene products and hats, gloves, and scarves.

Please visit our volunteer opportunities page here if you're interested in supporting this year's upcoming stocking project, or reach out to us at keepitmovingzane@gmail.com for more information!