Laura Labay did such a good job chairing the auction for Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas' 2018 Woman of Inspiration fundraiser that she secured the job for this year's event as well.
At last check, items were still coming in for this year's silent auction, which will include art, wine, fly-fishing and spa day packages, a couple's night out and a television. The $250-a-ticket event also incorporates a reception, a dinner and a fashion show.
The nonprofit is handing its 2019 Woman of Inspiration honor to Donna Malone, Oct. 25 at the Statehouse Convention Center's Wally Allen Ballroom.
Malone worked with her husband, former state Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia, to help children who had been sexually and/or physically abused and to close previous loopholes in state laws so as to now classify all incest as rape. (The Children's Advocacy Centers' child safety center in Arkadelphia is named for both Malones, by the way.)
During the event, designer and interior decorator Shayla Copas will receive the nonprofit's 2019 Blue Ribbon Award "for her willingness to share her own story of child abuse," according to a flier for the event.
It's the fifth year for one of the nonprofit's major fundraisers.
"Last year we raised over $700,000 and I hope to achieve that again this year," says Executive Director Elizabeth Pulley. Much of that comes from in-kind donations and business sponsors.
Labay, a former television news reporter who worked as a spokeswoman for former Secretary of State Mark Martin, is in her fourth year on the event committee.
"I heard the first lady [Susan Hutchinson, the event's honorary chairwoman] talking about this organization, and it was something I felt passionate about, so I volunteered," she explains.
Hutchinson was the Center's first Woman of Inspiration in 2015. The other honorees are Johnelle Hunt, co-founder of J.B. Hunt Transport Services (2016); Lisenne Rockefeller, president and chair of the Winrock Group Inc. and Winrock Farms Inc., and wife of the late Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul "Win" Rockefeller, (2017); and Shelley McMillon, children's advocate and wife of Walmart CEO Doug McMillion (2018).
Labay moved to central Arkansas from her native Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2012, and now works as a Realtor; "I wanted some flexible hours," she explains. Her volunteer record includes work "as a PTA mom" while the elder of her two sons was a student at Little Rock Central High.
Children's Advocacy Centers operates 17 full-time safety and advocacy centers and seven satellite centers across the state, providing services that include counseling, forensic work, medical examinations and advocacy to young survivors of physical abuse, sexual abuse and/or neglect. All services are free of cost to survivors and their nonoffending caregivers.
Most of the state's urban areas are covered, so they're looking at extending its reach into more rural areas, Pulley says, "so that a caregiver does not have to drive over an hour" to reach a center.
Labay says she's perfectly willing to take on the auction committee assignment for a third year.
"If they need me, I definitely will," she says.
Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas' "Woman of Inspiration" event, Oct. 25, Wally Allen Ballroom, Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets, Little Rock. Reception at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 7. Tickets are $250. Call (501) 615-8633 or visit cacarkansas.org/woi.
High Profile on 10/13/2019