Chamber Of Commerce—Eastern Connecticut: Leadership 2022 Fundraising For Safe Futures Playground, Gardens

Press release from the Chamber of Commerce—Eastern Connecticut:

April 5, 2021

The Leadership Eastern CT Class of 2022 is fundraising to complete its community service project for Safe Futures to construct an outdoor play area with playscape for the children at the Flora O’Neil Apartments and refurbishing the gardens at the Katie Blair House.

Leadership Eastern CT has been acquainting rising local leaders with issues that affect our communities, businesses and the public for over 30 years. An essential part of this program is a service project to benefit a local non-profit organization.

Safe Futures provides services, support, and housing for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking in New London County and serves 7,000 people annually. All services are free and confidential, provided by Certified Crisis Counselors to those in need regardless of income level, age, ability, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender.

While the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is not known yet, it has certainly presented challenges for Safe Futures. As an essential service, they never shut down any of their operations. Capacity at their emergency shelter was reduced to accommodate social distancing, but no one was ever turned away. To accommodate all of those is need, Safe Futures relied on local hotels for housing, resulting in a 716% increase in hotel costs compared to the previous year.

With the need greater than ever and resources spread thin, Leadership Class of 2022  is raising $5,000 to cover the costs associated with this project.

For those interested, checks can be mailed and made payable to Chamber of Commerce of Eastern CT Foundation, Attn: Megan Gilbert, 914 Hartford Turnpike, Waterford, CT 06385. On your check, please reference Leadership Project.

Donations may also be made via PayPal. Donors must specify “Leadership Project” via any available comment field. All funds raised will support the Leadership Projects at 501(c)(3) organizations, and future program scholarships.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact Kaiser Leuze at (860) 862.0853 or kleuze@mohegansun.com.

This press release was produced by the Chamber of Commerce—Eastern Connecticut. The views expressed here are the author’s own.