By REID TUCKER
For James and Marie Hurley, the spirit of the Christmas season is one that lasts year-round.
The DeFuniak couple, along with sons Jack, 5, and Max, 1, love Christmas as much as anyone else, but for them the spirit of giving back to their community is something that never takes a holiday. Each member of the young family is involved in community service to some degree, and the love they all share for their hometown is evident in all they do, from their occupations to volunteer activities to their spiritual lives.
“We just love DeFuniak Springs,” Marie said. “We love going to look at the fireworks, we love the parades, we love to participate in singing on the Fourth of July and at Christmas time. We’re always helping out with church activities and volunteering around town. We love anything involving community events in DeFuniak. This is our home.”
James serves as a special agent with the Florida Department of Business Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco since 2005, and before that he worked as a deputy with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office. He even plans to run for the office of city marshal during the next election cycle. Marie is going on year nine as a kindergarten teacher at West DeFuniak Elementary School, and recently began serving as a first-year board member with the local First Christian Schools.
Additionally, James is a member of the Walton County Prevention Coalition, and the whole family regularly volunteers at events like Farm Day and the annual Thanksgiving meal for low-income families served at the Community Center. Furthermore, the Hurleys regularly check in on elderly neighbors and church members and help them with errands and chores around the house.
Finally, the Hurleys are active members of the First Baptist Church of DeFuniak Springs for eight years, where they participate in all manner of church activities, including the praise and worship band where James plays saxophone and drums and Marie sings. The youngest Hurleys have gotten in on the giving side of Christmas too, contributing shoeboxes stuffed with toys and school supplies for Iraqi refugee children as part of the international Samaritan’s Purse organization’s Operation Christmas Child. Indeed, James said his family’s holiday traditions are centered around its Christian faith, and a big part of that is serving God by serving others in need.
“There have been a lot of things happening this year that have fallen into place for us as a family,” James said. “God has been good to us and has opened a lot of doors for us. Our ultimate goal is to give back to our community and to people in the world at large. Everyone needs to feel God’s love.”
The Hurleys’ appreciation for the Christmas season goes even further, as James and Marie, both graduates of Walton High School, Okaloosa Walton College and, finally, of Florida State University, have an additional connection to DeFuniak’s holiday hoopla. The couple recently celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary, and James proposed to Marie during a wintry carriage ride around Lake DeFuniak while they looked at the Christmas Reflections lights display.
“It was very romantic,” Marie said. “Him being a law enforcement officer, he’s very strong and serious about his job, so for him to do something so romantic was especially touching. How could a girl say no?”
This Christmas season is a time for changes for the Hurleys, as they recently moved into the Pine Shores neighborhood in order to live closer to James’ parents, both of which are, understandably, tickled to have their grandchildren next door. Despite the big changes that go along with moving to a new place, remodeling a house, and his future political aspirations, James said the changes he’s most excited about are not just for his own family but rather in the community at large. It’s easy to get swept up in hectic holiday comings-and-goings, but the Hurleys’ wish (and their example) is to slow down and lend a helping hand to others this Christmas.
“For us, Christmas is definitely a lot more about giving than getting,” James said. “It’s my wish for our community is to get things back to how they were, back when everybody looked out for everybody. I want us to always be a community of people that genuinely care about each other.”
