The Safe Place fundraiser planned for April 22

MORRILTON — An upcoming fundraiser for The Safe Place in Morrilton can make a big difference in helping domestic-violence victims and their children, said the Rev. Jo Warren, the shelter’s executive director.

The seventh annual Administrative Assistants’ Day Fundraiser Luncheon is scheduled for 11:30-1:30 p.m. April 22 in the multipurpose building at the Conway County Fairgrounds in Morrilton.

Warren said the event is The Safe Place’s largest fundraiser of the year.

“It’s a dual purpose,” Warren said. “It’s very important because it provides general funding, which allows us to cover things that grants and even sometimes designated donations don’t allow us to cover.”

For example, if a

woman came in and needed a pair of eyeglasses, or was a diabetic and needed equipment, “that all comes out of the general fund. Some of it’s kind of life-threatening when we’re talking about diabetic equipment and stuff. It’s not a huge amount, but it adds up,” Warren said.

She said last year’s luncheon netted $10,000.

“We’d like to do that again, if not a little more, of course. It depends on how much overhead expenses we get donated. Last year, we got nearly everything donated.”

The Safe Place typically spends about $2,000 putting on the luncheon, she said, and that will be the case this year.

Warren said the keynote speaker will be television personality Craig O’Neill, who will bring a surprise guest.

The luncheon will include door prizes, and area vendors will provide a variety of items for shopping. Sponsorship tables are available beginning at $150. Individual tickets are $25 per person. For more information, call (501) 354-1884 or email thesafeplace@suddenlinkmail.com.

Sharon Kornas, vice chairwoman of The Safe Place Board of Directors, said “there really wasn’t anything like this at the time when we had the first one.” Yet there are many administrative assistants in the city, she said.

“They all get a chance to come have lunch and do a little shopping,” Kornas said. She made one small plea for the administrative assistants’ bosses to give them “a little longer lunch that day. That way, they might not feel so rushed,” she said, laughing.

She echoed Warren’s comments about the event.

“It is pretty important because we do get some funding from grants and so forth; however, those grants are generally directed. They have to go for certain things, and those things do not include day-to-day-operation expenses,” Kornas said.

The Safe Place has room for 14 women and their children, Warren said.

The number of women and children in the shelter is confidential, she said.

“First of all, we have to be very concerned for their safety,” Warren said. Residents in the community might be able to figure out who is in the shelter based on that information, Warren said.

Conway and Perry counties make up the primary area served by the shelter, “but we serve people from all over the United States. We’ve had them from California, from Texas, from Illinois, from Georgia,” Warren said.

“Because of our federal funding, we do that. I’m in the middle of working on a federal grant right now,” she said. “Most of it goes to provide for the salaries, because that’s the only grant that will cover salaries that’s available to us.”

She said because of the confidential work the shelter does, it’s not conducive for volunteers to work with the women who are seeking help.

“We are very concerned, first and foremost, with providing them with immediate safety. We are also concerned with prevention — so education,” Warren said.

Warren said the federal wording, in part, regarding the shelter’s role is “facilitating the efforts of such victims to make decisions concerning their lives in the interest of safety and assisting such victims in healing from the effects of the violence.”

The more money the April 22 luncheon makes for The Safe Place, Warren said, the greater its progress toward accomplishing those goals.

For more information, call Warren at (501) 354-1884.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events