STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Memory Park is ablaze with color right now as The Advocates’ Color Our World approaches today’s finish line.
This year’s colored ribbons, which donors have bought to support The Advocates, include a new twist.
In one corner of the park are 85 pink, red and yellow ribbons meant to signify the number of Healthy Relationship trainings provided to youth last year.
There are 157 green ribbons, each representing one person who had a safe night of sleep at The Advocates shelter last year (The Advocates also cared for 76 kids and provided safe housing for 11 dogs and 17 cats). And 62 blue ribbons each represent one sexual assault survivor in the community who received services from The Advocates last year.
Today is your last chance to purchase raffle tickets good for such prizes as a night at Rocky Mountain Ranch and five nights by the pool in San Diego. Tickets are $25 and you can select the prizes you covet at https://secure.givelively.org/event/advocates-for-survivors-of-domestic-violence-incorporated/color-our-world.
You can still donate a ribbon to support a world free of emotional, physical and sexual abuse at that website, as well.
The Advocates will celebrate a week of Color Our World with a Ribbon Round-up from 7 to 10 p.m. upstairs at Whiskeys in Ketchum. Tickets are $50 a person and the evening includes live music, whiskey tasting and dancing and appetizers.
As of Wednesday 167 donors had participated in color Our World, along with 22 sponsors. The Advocates had raised more than $300,000 toward their goal of $350,000, said Shannon Nichols.
Nichols said $20,000 funds 16 weeks of Skills for Success job and life skills training; $15,000, a year of food for shelter guests, and $5,000, brings a violence prevention expert to the community. A donation of $2,500 funds The Advocates’ 24-hour help line; $1,000 provides a month of safety, shelter and service for a family of four, and $500 educates every eighth-grader in the valley on healthy relationships.
A hundred-dollar donation, meanwhile provides one night of safety and support for a victim of abuse and their children at The Advocates. The organization is now in its 31st year.