Global day of giving can help people locally;
matching gift will double first $5,000 donated
DANVILLE, Ind., Nov. 26 – “I thought we’d never make it,” said Jackie. “I thought we had nowhere else to go.”
Sheltering Wings of Danville, Ind., will mark #GivingTuesday on Dec. 3 with an appeal for donations to help families like Jackie’s to break the cycle of domestic violence. Thanks to a generous donor, the first $5,000 in gifts made on that day will be matched dollar for dollar.
#GivingTuesday gifts to Sheltering Wings will fund ongoing programming for the children of shelter residents. To learn more, visit shelteringwings.org/giving-tuesday.
#GivingTuesday helps real people in the community
Jackie was 13 when her father downed a handful of pills, put his family in the car – Jackie, her brother and sister, and her mother – and said he was going to kill them.
It wasn’t the first time he’d made the threat. He’d once lit a fire in a bedroom in hopes of burning the house down. He was always chasing Jackie through the yard just to knock her flat on her back, leaving her sore and breathless, and he beat her brother black and blue when he tried to protect his mother and sisters.
“And what he did to my mother … I just couldn’t stand it,” Jackie said.
That day in the car, he paid no heed to his kids screaming and crying or his wife begging him to stop. The speedometer rose higher and higher, too high for him to maintain control. The car finally veered to the side of the road and came to a halt.
Someone called an ambulance. But nothing slowed the man’s tirade.
“As the EMTs were putting my father in the ambulance, he kept yelling from the stretcher that he had his guns in his trunk and would kill us all. Sure enough, the police found his trunk loaded with weapons,” Jackie said. “They arrested him, and we went to a shelter near where we lived at the time.”
But it didn’t take long for her father to find them. “That shelter told us we weren’t safe there and they helped us to find refuge elsewhere. Thank God we then found Sheltering Wings.”
Years after arriving at Sheltering Wings as a scared little girl, Jackie works at Sheltering Wings as Children’s Activity Coordinator. She serves the children of survivors who are breaking the cycle of abuse and starting brand-new lives. Just like the shelter helped her and her family.
“Our family broke the cycle of abuse. You may not understand how a family like ours gets into an abusive situation or why they stay. Just know that you can be the reason they can get away.”
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 26, 2019
CONTACT
Kevin Carr
Development and Communications Officer
(317) 386-5050
kcarr@shelteringwings.org
Sheltering Wings provides emergency housing for survivors escaping domestic abuse and helps them build stable and independent lives through essential programs offered in a supportive and Christ-centered environment.
#GivingTuesday is an annual 24-hour global day of giving. Last year, 58% of U.S. and Canadian nonprofits and NPOs participated, along with millions of people in nearly 60 countries across the globe (source: Funraise). The point of #GivingTuesday is to inspire a massive wave of generosity. GivingTuesday.org
