Over 60 Lawrence area residents came out on a rainy Sunday afternoon to raise money for the Caring Center, a local food and clothing pantry currently located on East 46th Street. Julie Livingston, founder and president of Compassion4Kids and volunteer at the Caring Center, tallied the donations at the end of the event and was quite happy with the turnout.
“We raised $2,100 and received some clothing donations,” she said. “This basically pays for four months of rent which is great.”
The Caring Center, an outreach project of the Lawrence Church of God, is moving to the old Craig Middle School soon. Livingston explained the two major reasons for the move.
“We’ll have more room and much lower rent.”
The wine and appetizer fundraiser was hosted at Michael’s Southshore restaurant, giving owner Michael Moros an opportunity to showcase some of his signature menu items on the enclosed patio. Monarch Beverage’s Joe Sentner teamed up with National Wine & Spirit’s Susan Cotter to serve up tastings of various wines and beers. Emceeing the event was Elite Beverage’s Ray Cox, who with Sentner and Cotter, amassed over 50 raffle items.
“All this money stays right here in Lawrence to help children and families,” said Cox.
Throughout the event, attendees stuffed raffle tickets that they purchased into small bags next to items that they were interested in winning. Magnums of wine, chocolate vodka, Jazzercise certificates, gift cards, and even a fire bowl were then raffled off by drawing one lucky ticket from each bag. Pat Edging won the grand prize, a night’s stay at the new J.W. Marriott downtown and a $75 gift certificate to a Massachusetts Ave. restaurant.
The Caring Center is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:00-8:00 pm and on the first Saturday of each month from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Donations are accepted during these times or you can call 724-4284 to arrange other times. Old National Bank at 9901 Fall Creek Road also accepts donations during business hours. For more information, call Julie Livingston at (317) 823-5432.
