Event planned to help fund Turningpoint

The UW-River Falls Nonprofit Marketing class is hosting an event called Turn It Up for Turningpoint on Thursday, May 9, to benefit Turningpoint in River Falls.

“We’re an advocacy agency for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence,” said Executive Director of Turningpoint Kim Wojcik. “It’s free and everything we do is confidential and it’s protected by law.”

Turningpoint provides services for children, women and men in Pierce and St. Croix counties that have some form of abuse. They have a 24-hour crisis line and text hotline.
They also help with emergency shelter, restraining orders and providing supplies that range anywhere from emotional support to shampoo to security systems.

“We never have a hidden agenda, the person we are supporting is our agenda,” said Sexual Assault Service Coordinator Katie Ryan.

The fundraiser will be held at Junior’s Bar and Restaurant from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 9. So far, there are three bands that are booked to play at the event, such as Bad Habits Brass. A beanbag tournament is also planned.

Roughly 22 students that are in the Nonprofit Marketing class with Marketing Communications Professor Dave Bonko, will be selling paper ribbons at the fundraiser for $1, as well as tiles that can a person can purchase and design which will be displayed at the new Second Chances building.

All of the proceeds of the fundraiser will go to Turningpoint to help them meet their goal of raising $85,000 to renovate a new space for Second Chances.

Second Chances is a thrift store located on Main Street that is a program of Turningpoint.
Anything that is donated to Second Chances is either sold or donated to those in need of it.

According to the March 2013 issue of the Turningpoint newsletter, the thrift store has been in business for eight years and it is looking to move from its current rental retail space to a new and permanent home also on Main Street by August.

“We knew that they are working on this restoration project so we thought that having this event would really promote that and raise money for the project,” said marketing communications student Brianna Samson.

The goal of moving Second Chances to the new location is not only to increase storage space, a loading area and elevator but also to include a floor of administrative office spaces.

The administrative offices are currently in the Turningpoint location and will be moved to the new Second Chances building so that there will be approximately 17 more bedrooms available for those in need of shelter.

“Because we’ve worked with Junior’s before, they know what to expect,” said Samson. “Every single year we’ve done something at Junior’s and there has always been a great turn out.”
Samson is on the branding committee for the fundraiser and is working with Turningpoint to market the tiles that will be for sale. She said that the nonprofit class has worked with Turningpoint in the past and thinks it’s a great cause.

According to the Turningpoint newsletter, in 2012 there were 698 clients that were served by Turningpoint.

Of that, 97 of those were children under the age of 10, and 68 adults over the age of 50.
Wojcik explained that due to limited space, the shelter does have to turn people away at times, and they would like to reduce the number of people turned down by being able to have more beds available.

“If the money is raised, we will have double the beds,” Wojcik said. “Every dollar matters.”

Samson explained that there will be a table available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 6 through May 8 in the University Center for those interested in signing up for the beanbag tournament.

There will also be a beanbag demonstration on the UC mall one of those days, with weather permitting, to promote the event.

“We’re hoping to have advertising at each table in Junior’s as well as we are painting their windows,” Samson said.

Both Wojcik and Ryan are looking forward to the fundraiser and are thankful that campus is eager to get involved to help Turningpoint.

“It’s really great to see people on campus care about these issues because they are heavy topics,” Ryan said. “It (the fundraiser) should be a lot of fun.”