North Point Douglas Women's Centre celebrates sold-out fundraiser
CBC News | Posted: February 16, 2018 1:59 AM | Last Updated: February 16, 2018
Centre low on cash after provincial funding reduced, director says
Hundreds of people crammed into a North Point Douglas church Thursday night to fill up on perogies, bid on cakes and support a women's centre facing a funding crunch.
The North Point Douglas Women's Centre hosts an all-you-can-eat perogy dinner and cake auction every year.
But this year, the funds are sorely needed.
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"We obviously depend on donations quite a lot. We did have a funding cut about six months ago so we are low on funds right now," said executive director Tara Zajac. "It means more for the centre, whether it's continuing our counselling program, which we don't have funding for right now, or maybe increasing our hours again to be open Saturday like we used to be."
Zajac said they were hoping to raise $15,000 from the night and pulled out all the stops, with a local art auction as well as homemade cupcakes, cookies and frozen perogy sales.
"We've never reached these numbers," said Zajac. "Even just with ticket sales alone, two days ago, we were at $3,000."
Long lines snaked from the front door down the stairs and into the church basement, where kids could make "perogy puppets" out of construction paper and other supplies.
Zajac said she was happy to sell out but disappointed that some of the regulars at the annual event weren't able to get tickets.
"I would actually like to sit down with our fundraising committee from the board and talk about, 'How do we do something like this more often?' because this is amazing," said Zajac.