A group of thrill-seekers did more than face their fears this summer by jumping out of an airplane. They also raised more than $21,000 for the Women and Children’s Shelter of Barrie.
The donation was presented to shelter staff Tuesday, Sept. 20 by LiceSquad — which hosted the skydive jump and an 1980s-themed party to raise money for the local shetler — as well as members of the jump team.
“They raised an incredible amount of money and brought awareness to the cause of ending violence against women. It was just really amazing that people wanted to take this leap of faith out of an airplane as we know women take a leap of faith when they leave their abuser,” Teresa MacLennan, the shelter’s executive director, told BarrieToday. “For us, it was very meaningful and very poignant that (this) leap was happening and there was just an incredible group of people from the community that came together… to jump out of that plane to support women and children.”
The money raised from the event will go directly to funding programs and services to help women and children in the shelter as well as the organization’s community services, including covering the costs of meals, hygiene products, gift cards to purchase clothing, and transportation to appointments.
“Those dollars help us do what we need to do to support all of the women and the kids and help us to keep the lights on,” she said. “Our shelter is a large building and it’s very costly. When women and children come to our shelter they come with nothing. They have fled because of a risk to their life and they will show up at our door … and they grab what they can as they are leaving their home. We have to fill in those gaps of all the things they’d need.”
The shelter provides emergency shelter services to abused women and their children as well as community outreach services to abused women and their children, explained MacLennan, noting although the shelter has 27 beds, they are always over capacity.
“We always run closer to 35. We have two dedicated beds for human-trafficking victims, but we always have way more than two just in our shelter,” she said, noting the shelter also offers a violence prevention program, women’s advocacy council as well as mental health and addiction support.
In addition to the money they received this week, a Shoppers Drug Mart campaign titled LOVE YOU Giving Shelter is another current initiative the organization is extremely grateful for, MacLennan said.
“Every dollar raised goes directly back to women's shelters,” she said, noting locally, there are approximately 11 Shoppers Drug Mart locations participating, and donations can be made in store or online at runs until October 14.
“Anyone in the community can go into a Shoppers and make a donation to our shelter,” she said, noting each store is doing its own (version) of the campaign. “I was in a Shoppers Drug Mart recently and they were doing a book sale. Those funds go right back into our supports and services for our women.
"Shoppers Drug Mart really embraces it because they want women to feel loved and cared for and they want them to know that there are community groups that care about our women, that want to circle around them and provide nice things for them. That’s what this financial support does for us.”
Being able to raise the funds the shelter needs to cover its daily costs, especially during COVID, has been especially challenging, admitted MacLennan.
“We have not been able to meet our fundraising targets throughout all of COVID, and we understand that our community has been hard hit too. We understand the financial impact on everyone else and we’ve certainly felt that here, but the needs for our services never changed,” she said. “We kept our doors open entirely and still brought in the same number of women and children we always had, but with less dollars to be able to do it, that’s why these two initiatives are so key for us in just helping us meet the needs of our women.”
