It was a night of coming together for a good cause.
Each year, the Dr. Margaret Savage Crisis Centre (DMSCC) in Cold Lake, hosts their annual Festival of Peace. On Saturday, Nov. 29, they kept that tradition going with this year's Christmas Under the Big Top gala.
The event is geared towards fundraising for the local shelter, which serves women and children experiencing domestic violence.
All of the money raised through auctions and donations at the Festival of Peace is used to ensure the centre can continue its work in the Lakeland.
The DMSCC, which is as a non-profit organization, not only offers a roof over the heads of women and children suffering from domestic violence, they also offer services through their community support programs in Cold Lake and Bonnyville.
“Running those programs is really a costly endeavor,” said Serina Parsons, resource development coordinator for the DMSCC, and organizer of the annual festival.
Parsons continued, “To work with people who may not necessarily need our emergency service, but people that still need that hands on direction and access to resources that we are able to offer... I can't put into words how important it is that we have funding for an organization like this.”
Through these programs, which are offered to men, women, and children, the centre focuses on prevention of domestic violence.
“That is key, it's extremely important, and that is really where we are putting the money, is where we require those expansions,” she added. “Our goal is to one day be out of business.”
Recently, the DMSCC expanded their services to Bonnyville, through the Bonnyville Community Support office, which opened 38 files for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
That doesn't include the other work being done through the shelter. Over the past year, the DMSCC has received over 2,848 help line calls, totalling more than 590 hours of call time. The shelter has housed 293 women and children for 2,896 nights.
The second stage program, Joie's Phoenix House, was home for 17 women and 42 children.
“One of the things that we always do at the gala, is represent the amount of women and children that we have had throughout the year,” explained Parsons, adding for those who may not have noticed, there were exactly 352 balloons scattered throughout the festival to represent those that utilized the DMSCC housing.
Although they don't have their exact numbers as of yet, Parsons said she believes the event raised a little under last year's $85,000 mark.
“The difference between last year and this year, well both years, we have seen some economic downturn. I think this year people have just been living in the reality of this economy for a longer period of time, so as a result of that I think the bidding on certain items were not as high.”
City of Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland got into the spirit of giving, and decided to donate to the shelter in a unique way. To help the DMSCC fundraise, he offered to put himself up for auction. The highest bidder got the pleasure of throwing a pie in his face. In the end, the opportunity was worth $450.
This year, the event took on a unique Christmas meets circus theme – something the Festival of Peace Committee began brainstorming a year ago.
“We spend a lot of time brainstorming… Every year we want to make it different,” said Parsons.
She continued that even though this year may not have raised the most money for the shelter, it “was our best year in terms of a successful event.”