Women’s shelter celebrates international women’s day with 10th annual gala
Saturday marked one decade of the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society’s Bread and Roses Gala that was held in honour of International Women’s Day.
The gala itself is named after a poem by James Oppenheim, which details a woman’s desire to live a full and rich life over merely surviving.
“We kind of use that name to make it really special,” said executive director Natasha Carvalho. “We have it every year and it’s wonderful. The community comes out and support says we usually sell out pretty early on.”
Over 320 people attended the fully sold out gala, including Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright and Mayor Linnsie Clark.
“The Women’s Shelter has been a bedrock organization committed to providing a safe haven for those individuals fleeing domestic violence and abuse,” said Wright. “The staff and volunteers don’t just offer a roof over their head for individuals fleeing domestic violence but they also provide counselling or support services to help them with trauma and rebuild their lives. The work done by Medicine Hat
Women’s Shelters is both life saving and life changing by empowering survivors and surrounding them with a circle of caring advocates.”
Carvalho expressed hope on the night of to see generosity from those in attendance during the biggest fundraiser of the shelter’s year, which was met with enthusiasm; the gala raised roughly $123,000 for the shelter, which will be used to support their programming, as well as renovations for the emergency shelter.
“I appreciate seeing similar faces in the crowd every year. But then this year, there’s a whole bunch of new faces,” said Carvalho. “So I appreciate people taking the time to come out; I know people live busy lives and they come out anyway, and they bring their wallets because they want to spend and support us. I appreciate them wanting to help, and their understanding that the work we do is essential.”
The event featured both a live and silent auction, a 50/50 draw, and live music provided by Taking August and The Hip Katz, as well as an impact speaker. The speaker, as a former MHWSS client, spoke on the affect that the society was able to have on their life.
“I’m just happy that people come out and we have a great night and people have fun and we raised some money to continue the work that we do every day,” said Carvalho.