Barron holds tree-lighting ceremony to honor Jayme Closs

BARRON - The choir softly sang its refrain, "I Believe," as a Christmas tree glowed in the darkness.

Such was the mood of a tree-lighting ceremony at Riverview Middle School in Barron Wednesday to honor 13-year-old Jayme Closs. The missing teen’s family and residents gathered together in the cold, bringing light to their community and showing hope is still alive.

Jayme disappeared on Oct. 15, the night her parents, James and Denise, were found shot to death in their home outside Barron. Authorities have ruled the deaths homicides, and Jayme is considered endangered.

Wednesday’s Tree of Hope ceremony was organized by the Barron School District and Jennie-O Turkey Store and Hormel Foods, where James, 56, and Denise, 46, worked for 27 years. Jayme is a student at the middle school.

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Parish and family of missing Barron girl ask for prayers

The family of 13-year-old Jayme Closs, abducted from her Barron home last month, is asking for prayers, said Patty Gerber, parish director for the Closs family’s parish cluster of St. Peter, Cameron; St. Boniface, Chetek; Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Strickland; and St. Joseph, Barron.

“They believe in the power of prayer, and that’s all that they request,” Gerber added.

The eighth-grader, who is in the religious education program, was kidnapped after her parents were shot to death by unknown people at their home.

Gerber said the students in Closs’ class talk about her every week and pray together for her return.

The Diocese of Superior held an hour for prayer on Jayme’s behalf Sunday, Oct. 28.

Superior Catholic Herald

St Patrick, pray for us!