A local business is partnering up for an evening event of women helping women.
In its seventh year, Passion for Fashion will be coming to the St. George Banquet Hall on March 26. The event that provides guests with dinner, a fashion show and silent auction to boot sees all proceeds going to the YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo’s Family Relocation Project.
That initiative provides gently used dishes, couches and beds to women and children that have left abusive relationships, often escaping their homes with nothing but the clothes on their back.
“Women and children will quite often leave an abusive relationship and they leave with nothing,” said co-founder Nancy Koebel of Lyfestyle Financial Inc., who spearheaded the charitable event along with La Crème in St. Jacobs seven years ago.
Koebel went on to explain that the money they raise specifically is used to help women transition into their own apartments, providing furnishing and aiding the program with storage facilities that house donated items.
As of February, the relocation project has helped some 375 women and 485 children leave abusive relationships over the past 11 years.
“It is out there, it happens. Most people don’t realise that it happens so it is just nice that this is an event where the money stays local,” said Koebel.
Last year’s event helped to raise more than $26,000 to assist the charity, all of the funds aiding women and children in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
The first annual event, which Koebel says they threw together in just two months, drew 70 people who were interested in providing support for the cause. Having grown, the event this year they will be drawing in a crowd of 250, with tickets still available for anyone interested in supporting the cause.
Passion for Fashion will be happening on Monday March 26 at St. George Banquet Hall on King Street in Waterloo. Tickets are $90 and includes dinner, the fashion show and silent auction. For more information call Lyfestyle Financial Inc. at 519-744-5433 or at La Creme, St . Jacobs at 519-664-3275.
