Gala benefits children
LANCASTER — The Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley will celebrate its 32nd year with the annual Heartsounds Charity Gala, whose theme is “A Sweetheart’s Ball,” Saturday in the H.W. Hunter Pavilion at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.
The black-tie optional event will feature a retro supper club theme with live dinner theater and Art Deco decor. The goal is to raise funds for treatment and therapy for children and families affected by abuse in the Antelope Valley.
The gala will feature 10 live auction items and more than 200 silent auction items.
“We don’t need to advertise for clients but what we do need is to expand awareness that this is an available resource,” Heartsounds co-chairwoman Kimberly Norris said.
All donated funds remain within the local community, with $0.92 cents of each dollar going directly to serve Children’s Center clients.
“We want to celebrate the good work, the hard work, that some are doing in our community and we want to wrap around and support it,” Norris said.
The Children’s Center has outgrown its building on Fern Avenue. It needs more space for other programs such as Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County that provide legal services for Children’s Center clients.
“Our building was really designed for small children, but now over the years, we’ve found that we really need to focus on teens, especially the kids that are aging out of foster care that are going to be homeless,” Donna Gaddis, compliance manager for the Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley, said.
Children Center Executive Director Sue Page said the Heartsounds Charity Gala is the center’s primary fundraiser.
The money raised can help pay for insurance for clients who do not have any.
“It just supplants the programs because the programs (grant funds) don’t pay for everything we need,” she said.
Founded in 1988 by a group of doctors and community leaders, the Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley is a private, nonprofit health care organization that provides a continuum of services to child victims of abuse, children at risk of abuse and their families. The Antelope Valley was once so well known as a child abuse capital, that Time magazine featured it.
“The emergency room doctors at AV Hospital said, ‘What are we going to do? We’re seeing these children come in abused and then we just sent them back home. What can we do to help their trauma? What
can we do to help them move forward in life,’” Page said.
The Children’s Center originally opened in a small office on Avenue M.
Services include prevention program and community awareness and education, advancing the Center’s mission, “To promote healing and provide protection from abuse through education and expert care for children and families in the Antelope Valley.”
The Heartsounds Gala is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., Saturday in the Hunter Pavilion at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, 2551 West Ave. H.
Each tax deductible ticket costs $125.
To purchase tickets call the Children’s Center at 661-949-1206 ext. 289 or visit www.ccav.org/ heartsounds or at www. eventbrite.com (search Heartsounds). For details visit Facebook @childrenscenterav.