Prince George, BC – The Executive Director of the Association Advocating for Women and Children says tonight’s fundraiser is about maintaining operations and providing a small cushion, not frills.

With that said, Diane Nakamura wants AWAC’s ‘Feel the Love’ fundraiser to be an uplifting and fun evening for everyone.  "The services AWAC provides are for the most vulnerable, marginalized population in Prince George," she says.  "We’re talking about street-involved homeless women, so there are a lot of sad stories and sad circumstances, but I wanted it to be an event for the general public – where they could have a really good time."

For the past 19-years, AWAC has been operating an emergency shelter, 24-hour drop-in, outreach services, a supported housing program and educational programming for the city’s homeless and vulnerable women.

The Executive Director says, "On an average night, we can house up to 40 women – in the winter time, it bumps up to 50 – and we serve 150 meals a day."  She says AWAC operations are mainly supported by provincial funding, with a few small grants coming from elsewhere.

"We like to do the fundraising so that we have an extra cushion for those unexpecteds – for example, if we have plumbing problems, or have to make repairs to the building, and even with groceries as we seem to be feeding more and more women," says Nakamura.  "We’re needing to do extra to bring money in so that we can maintain the quality of our services."

The plan is to host a major event biennially.  There are still a few $50 tickets available at the Coast Inn of the North for the fundraiser, which begins at 7:30pm.  The evening features Harpdog Brown and his band from Vancouver, hor d’oeurves, a silent auction, 50/50 tickets, and a number of great door prizes, including a hand-crafted pendant designed by local jeweller, Darrell Hubbell.