ELLSWORTH – A strong advocate for Pierce County youth lost her battle with kidney cancer in July and a benefit will be held in her memory to help her family with medical bills.

The Joy Lynn George Family Benefit will be held Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Ellsworth Country Club (W6920 Golf Course Lane). The youth services supervisor for the Pierce County Department of Human Services died July 17 after fighting cancer for seven years. She leaves behind husband Shayne, who operates Maple Street Repair, and children Jenna and Dalton.

The benefit will include a best ball golf scramble. The afternoon will be a “come and go” as you please with raffle baskets, silent auction items, gun raffle boards, and a golf ball drop sponsored by the Ellsworth Fire Department. People do not need to be present to win. They will also be serving loaded baked potatoes and chili for a free will donation. Money raised will support the family with medical bills. If any remaining funds are left, the family plans offer a social work scholarship in George’s memory.

According to Pierce County Human Services Director Julie Krings, George worked for Pierce County just shy of 23 years. Krings first met George when they both worked in Polk County. She dedicated her life to helping others, especially youth, and began her career in October 2002 as a youth justice worker. In 2019, she became the youth services supervisor overseeing youth justice and children’s long-term support. Most recently, she also took on the supervision of the Drug Court unit as the justice services/children’s long-term support manager.

“As a manager, Joy Lynn supervised our Youth Justice program, Court Services, and Children’s Long-Term Support Programming,” Krings said. “As a youth justice worker, she provided supervision of youth who either were adjudicated delinquent for various crimes or were truant from school. This included meeting with youth and their families, connecting them with various services and resources (counseling, social skills classes, community service, employment skills), and making sure they were abiding by their court order. She worked very closely with the school districts, law enforcement and the court system. 

“As a manager, she supervised staff and worked to develop programming. One of Joy Lynn’s passions was to implement evidence-based practices. She worked very hard to implement risk assessment and case planning tools to Pierce County. Case planning tools included having staff work with youth on specific skill development to help them avoid further system involvement.”

Krings said George was involved in statewide programming related to best practice and evidence-based programming for working with youth.

“She could learn a lot from just getting to know a youth (really showing investment and interest in them) but also relied on the tools available to staff to best serve youth,” Krings said.

George was a resource to workers and managers around the state and made a lot of connections through her work on the Wisconsin Juvenile Court Intake Association Board of Directors for many years. 

“She was also very invested in Youth Justice Workers receiving high quality training so they have the tools needed to effectively do their jobs,” Krings said. “For example, Joy Lynn spent over a decade serving on the WJCIA training conference committee, which organized the annual training for youth justice workers in Wisconsin.”

George also spearheaded the first ever Pierce County Truancy Summit in January 2025.  The Summit gathered the area school districts, court staff, school resource officers, and human services department to learn about best practices and come together to develop a plan to address truancy in the community. Other counties around the state are following her lead and hosting something similar in their communities. 

Pierce County Child Protection Manager Jennelle Wolf worked with George for 23 years. She described George as a hard worker, empathetic, responsible, an incredible communicator, and having the ability to hold people accountable (including herself), with respect and honesty.

“Joy Lynn put relationships above all else,” Wolf said. “She was proud of long-lasting relationships she maintained with co-workers, law enforcement, attorneys, other professionals, treatment/placement providers, and even former youth that she provided supervision for. She loved getting updates from youth that would contact her many years after their supervision closed--calling just to tell her the impact she had and how they were doing.”

Krings also admired George’s way with youth.

“Joy Lynn just had a way with youth,” Krings said. “She was able to easily connect with them and she believed in them. She also got youth to believe in themselves. Joy Lynn was also very loyal. She was very proud to work for Pierce County. And, she wanted to make sure that our Department had a positive reputation with the work that we do.”

Wolf said Geroge believed all youth deserved a voice but always held kids accountable (with grace) for their actions.

“She believed that poor behaviors or choices were often a direct result of something else going on in their life or some other unmet need,” Wolf said. “Joy Lynn would spend the time to really get to know youth; to try to pull back the layers in their life to see how to best deal with that which brought a referral to her office.” 

Krings said everyone knew when George was in the building. She always greeted everyone, sometimes with a Joey Tribbiani impression from the TV show “Friends:” “How you doin?” She described her as having a louder than life personality who was an open book.

“She had a love (and some would call it an obsession) for office supplies,” Krings laughed. “She spent a lot of her hard-earned money on fancy pens, fun post-it notes, and fidget spinners. Everyone enjoyed having Joy Lynn around. She was a hard worker; often working after hours to get work done when the office was quiet and she could have uninterrupted time. Working in Human Services can be very stressful and Joy Lynn always could tell when someone was having a rough day. She would check in on them.”

Wolf hopes people remember George as someone who truly cared for people.

“She was a strong advocate for helping those who needed it but also pushing others to advocate for their own needs and be responsible for their own success in the world,” Wolf said. “She made a positive difference in the lives of countless youth and their families. Joy will be remembered as a fierce advocate, amazing Social Worker, hard-working manager, and cherished friend at Pierce County.”

George was also passionate about her family, Krings said. She and Shayne raised their two children in the Ellsworth Community School District and she was beyond thrilled in 2024 when she became a grandma.

“She would share lots of stories of her and her husband, Shayne and the kids spending time fishing and hunting,” Krings said. The one that she really wanted was a grandbaby. And she would anxiously talk with co-workers about how bad she really wanted to be a grandma. Well, that wish came true in 2024 when her granddaughter, Jolene was born.”

Prior to her death, George was nominated for the Wisconsin Juvenile Court Intake Association (WJCIA) Frank J. Crisafi Recognition Award. This is considered the most prestigious award among Youth Justice workers in the State of Wisconsin. The Board of Directors unanimously voted to award George the 2025 award. On Sept. 17, her family accepted the award on her behalf at the WJCIA Annual Conference in the Wisconsin Dells.