Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
With their ballots last Wednesday night, the 100+ Women Who Care Lennox and Addington ensured one woman will be kept safe from domestic violence every night for six months.
That was part of the winning pitch Lennox and Addington Interval House board secretary Leslie Jermyn made to ensure her charity was the winner among three chosen at random to be in the running for over $13,000 in donations made by 90 individual members and 47 teams.
To make her sales pitch, Jermyn made it relatable to the audience. Citing Ontario government statistics, she explained 83 per cent of all spousal abuse victims are women and six per cent of all women will experience abuse by a partner.
“If we do a calculation, 15 of us in this room have experienced abuse. You can do another calculation that another 15-20-30 know someone who has. They’ve watched their mother experience abuse or their daughter experience abuse,” she said. “This is not an out there problem, it’s an in here problem.”
She added violence does not discriminate based on wealth or education.
Jermyn said working up the courage to leave, statistically, is harder than quitting smoking as it can take a woman up to five attempts to leave home — and given there’s a higher prevalence of women abused by ex-partners, the most dangerous point in an abusive relationship is choosing to end it.
“It seems to me that once a woman makes a commitment to leave her home and take her kids away from violence, the community really needs to be there to pick up the pieces.”
That is where Interval House comes in, at all hours a day. It provides shelter for women and children, clothing, food, and medicines if necessary, in a safe, anonymous location. Over time, it also can arrange transitional housing and counselling to help the women get a fresh start at life.
At this time, Jermyn said all of Interval House’s programs are fully subscribed or oversubscribed. As government does not fund shelter beds, its fundraising comes up about $30,000 a year to keep ask the beds at the home functional. Fundraising efforts are ongoing, but that also has an impact on the ability of staff to be free to deliver services. The clout of the 100+ Women changes that.
“This one-time contribution is going to have such an impact,” Jermyn said. “It just takes so much pressure off fundraising… It’s really half our (annual) fundraising in one shot. If we’re able to do more, we’ll be able to extend our services and not just hold steady. It’s a relief.”
Jermyn said Interval House continues to work in hopes of rendering itself redundant.
Among the 13 charities nominated, the Mazinaw Lake Swim Program and Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre were the others drawn and carried onto a vote.
Mazinaw Lake Swim Program champion Suzanne Stevens said the idea started 45 years ago when two children drowned in a lake in Addington Highlands. A group of mothers wanted to ensure no family experienced the same pain, so they devised a program where every child could learn to swim regardless of their family’s financial status.
This year, organizers are looking to include 100 children with Land O’Lakes residents, tourists, and visitors welcomed. The program provides transportation to Bon Echo Provincial Park and instructors at a cost of $300 each. With subsidies, they only charge $100.
“The majority of drownings occur from May-September, that’s right around the corner. It’s a perfect time to support this program,” Stevens said.
Marg Isbester once again spoke on behalf of Sandy Pines. She spoke about the devastating fire that destroyed a barn at the wildlife centre Jan. 5 and efforts to carry on rescue efforts.
“Due to some wonderful volunteers and some great firefighters we only lost one pig and a rabbit — and that’s enough,” she said. “What it has done to Sandy Pines is made this winter a very tough winter to get through for looking after the end of the 4,000 animals we’ve taken in this year.”
Isbester said she’s seen staff and volunteers under stress to keep things organized. She’s also seen the community really rally to offer financial, in-kind, and volunteer support. It was clear, however, that the deputy-mayor had been moved by the Interval House presentation. She encouraged people to continue to support Sandy Pines’ fundraising effort but added if other members saw another program they felt they had to support, she would understand. She also urged a change in the future.
“It’s very, very tough and I’ve had people say to me that it’s really tough to choose animals over people… What I would like to see — and I don’t know if it can be done by charter — is a night that does involve just the furry critters out there,” she said. “I hope we can do that so I don’t have to go back, sit down, and vote for somebody I wasn’t up here pitching.”
The Interval House donation was the eighth the group has made since it was founded.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the members also donated a large bag full of socks for Socks Napanee.