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It’s a record.
Readers of the Grunion Gazette and Long Beach Press-Telegram stepped up successful a large mode during the past week of the Grunion Gazette Gift Card Drive, with full donations arsenic of Monday astatine $30,588. That magnitude of acquisition cards and monetary donations volition spell to assistance home unit victims served by WomenShelter of Long Beach.
This is the 18th twelvemonth the Grunion has organized the paper thrust — and the archetypal clip the Press-Telegram, our sister newspaper, has signed connected to help. The erstwhile grounds for a azygous twelvemonth was conscionable much than $25,000.
Two $5,000 donations pushed the full implicit the top.
“Those $5,000 gifts were incredibly generous,” Simon Grieve, Gazette publisher, said. “But successful addition, hundreds of radical donated cards worthy $25 oregon more. That benignant of information aft a pugnacious twelvemonth is simply a testament to our city’s heart.”
Kristi Fischer smiles astatine the show of the acquisition paper collection. (Photo by Harry Saltzgaver, Grunion/SCNG)Kristi Fischer, president of the WomenShelter Board of Directors, couldn’t halt smiling arsenic she looked astatine the heap of acquisition cards and checks.
“This benignant of giving lifts the spirits of our full staff,” Fischer said. “It is an acknowledgement of the value of their, of our, work. And the quality it’s going to marque to truthful galore lives is hard to overstate. From Christmas gifts for children to a microwave for an flat arsenic a caller autarkic beingness begins, the acquisition paper thrust volition beryllium felt.”
Most donations are from individuals oregon families. But a fewer travel done a radical effort. Here’s a enactment from 1 group.
“Nine ladies who get unneurotic often decided to instrumentality the wealth we would ordinarily usage connected a Christmas gag acquisition and decided to donate it to charity,” the enactment says. “WomenShelter is our foundation of choice.”
WomenShelter helps radical — men arsenic good arsenic women — who find themselves successful a life-suffering home maltreatment situation. From the telephone to the 24-hour situation enactment to the radical coping sessions (for children, too), the full programme is designed to get victims beyond the trauma and connected to a caller life.
The nonprofit bureau was formed successful 1977 and has provided assistance nonstop for the past 44 years. Last twelvemonth alone, records show, determination person been 23,252 “client services,” each astatine nary outgo to the client.
Many of the victims served by WomenShelter, whether they are staying astatine the exigency structure oregon person a spot of their ain but are receiving assistance astatine the Domestic Violence Resource Center, person children. Those youngsters are victims too, adjacent if they were ne'er touched, the counselors say.
And Christmas tin beryllium the toughest clip for them, particularly the archetypal twelvemonth the household is not together.
Children were helped by a beardown effect to the Adopt-A-Family program, Fischer said, and the acquisition cards volition implicit the enactment they need.
With this year’s full added to erstwhile years, the acquisition paper thrust has present raised much than $325,000 for WomenShelter.
There’s ever request for much help, though.
Online donations tin beryllium made astatine womenshelterlb.org/grunion. And should a acquisition paper oregon cheque find its mode done the Grunion office’s message slot, we’ll marque definite it gets to WomenShelter. Promise.
Thanks for your large generosity.
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