GREEN COVE SPRINGS – There was a lot of steppin’ and fetchin’ to make Saturday’s Jumpin’ and Jivin’ Juneboree possible.

The loss of a major sponsor and a few of the activities forced organizers Paul and Lisa Wane to work harder than ever, but the couple defied the challenges and the economy to keep the fifth annual celebration at the Boogerville Hideout, 6043 U.S. Highway 17, on track.

The event supports the Wane’s Rising Stars: Guitars for Kids program, which gifts musical instruments to children throughout the Southeast, particularly in Northeast Florida. The couple started the nonprofit in 2020 to provide new and repurposed instruments to children of all ages as an option other than getting into trouble, doing drugs, playing video games or being on a cellphone.

The Wanes have since donated more than 550 instruments.

A month ago, Paul said they were ready to postpone Jumpin’ and Jivin’ a month from its traditional Father’s Day weekend spot after a Top Tier sponsor was forced to withdraw to deal with a medical issue. The couple, however, have worked relentlessly to find other sponsors to make up for the difference.

“The economy has suffered, and we all know that,” Paul said. “We're all paying the gas prices and things like that. Everyone's dealing with that, and it's just been tough to get here, but thank God for our sponsors, our full-stack premium sponsors. They came through. It took a little bit. It took some struggling, but we got them.

“We got American Gypsy Tattoo, Big Frog Custom T-shirts, Boogerville Hideout, Orange Park Fraternal Order of Eagles, Five Below, Galway Music, and DCL [Duval County Line] went Top Tier. We gave everything we had. And TiPJAR is also Top Tier.”

Jumpin’ and Jivin’ on Saturday runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., and will feature jump houses, water balloon battles, live music, gift bags with instruments and free food for children, games, gifts, face painting, a tie-dye station, line dancing and a dunk station. And most important, several more children will receive inductions – and instruments – into the Guitars for Kids family.

“We need to give them something else to do, something positive,” Paul said.

Paul said it costs between $8,000 and $10,000 to host Jumpin’ and Jivin’ and make it free for everyone to attend. If they collect more, the money rolls over to the next free event – the Rockin’ for Stockins’ – at Boogerville in December.

Because of the dry conditions, the Wanes were forced to cancel the fireworks show weeks ago.

For more information or to donate to Guitars for Kids, visit the organization’s Facebook page.