By David Tyler
Spreading happiness. That’s the mission of two local teenagers who are passing along joy one jar at a time.
It started a few months ago when Joey Antonacci, of Manlius, saw some canning jars that his mother had in the house and decided to fill them with candy and inspirational messages and give them to people he knew. From there, it started to catch on, as people wanted jars to give to individuals and organizations that could use a little pick-me-up at a difficult time.
One person purchased 20 jars to be distributed to the nursing staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Another purchased 10 jars to be given to the employees of the Post Office in Manlius.
With a little entrepreneurial spirit, the sophomore-to-be at Fayetteville-Manlius began to see the opportunity to spread happiness beyond family and friends, and Jars of Joy was born.
Through word of mouth, Antonacci estimates he has now distributed about 200 Jars of Joy. To keep up with workload, he asked a friend, Karyna Synakowski, who will be a senior at Jamesville-DeWitt, to help with the project. Too young to drive, he recruited his grandmother, Phyllis Sgroi, to be the delivery driver.
“Our mission is to help people be happier in life and not worry about the little things,” Antonacci said.
Each of the decorated jars costs $5 and is filled with candy and inspirational messages like “Many Reasons To Fall, More Reasons To Climb,” and “The Only Thing Holding You Back Is Fear Itself.”
Putting his tech skills to work, Antonacci created a website, jarsofjoyinc.business.site, where people can purchase jars either to distribute themselves, or to have them distributed to local charities or organizations. Because shipping would make the jars prohibitively expensive, Jars of Joy are only available locally, where Antonacci and his team can make a personal delivery.
For every few jars that are sold, Jars of Joy uses the proceeds to donate additional jars to organizations like On My Team 16, a local charity that provides support and encouragement for childhood cancer patients and their families.
“A lot of people are lonelier,” Antonacci said of the pandemic and the reason he started Jars of Joy in the first place. “There’s so much that’s negative right now. I just thought this would be a good time to do something positive.”
