By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
Ivan’s Backstage in East Troy will host a fundraiser to benefit Walworth County’s Tree House Child and Family Center. The Be a Hero Party will be from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday.
Maryann Carlson, one of the event coordinators, said they are holding the fundraiser to help the center hire another full-time counselor.
“We wanted to have the fundraiser for a woman’s shelter in Walworth County, but there isn’t one,” Carlson said. “So we started looking at the Tree House, which serves children and families in the county and saw the real need there.”
She said the Tree House has served more than 3,000 kids in the past three years and was impressed with what the center does for the children.
“They have to teach them how it should be,” Carlson said. “Kids learn what they live and they have to be taught how be healthy and safe to break the cycle of abuse.”
Event organizer Charles Dimick said the fundraiser was the brainchild of Lloyd Sineni and they have been working with Carlson and Sandy Troemel of the Tree House to put the event on.
The fundraiser will feature live music and dancing with Viridian Moon and East Troy’s own Rock Freeway. There will also be a bar, food, silent auctions, raffles, cork pull and hand-painted wine glasses.
Tickets are $10 and are available at Ivan’s on the Square in East Troy or online at www.wcac4kids.org.
For more information, find Dimick on Facebook or call Carlson at (262) 492-6069.
About the Tree House
The Tree House, Elkhorn, is a special safe place where children and their families come for help if they’ve been abused sexually or physically, neglected, or exposed to domestic violence. Everything is child-centered.
The center brings needed agencies and professionals – local police, sheriff’s department, medical professionals, District Attorney’s Office, The Department of Health and Human Services – together with the children and their families. There is no need for multiple interviews and examinations that force children to relive painful memories repeatedly.
In the last two years, the center has received more than 1,900 referrals, conducted 600 interviews, and more than 200 medical exams performed. There were almost 700 sexual abuse cases, 600 neglect cases, 500 physical abuse cases and more than 150 other types of cases. The Tree House puts children on a much faster path to healing and dramatically increase prosecutions against perpetrators.
For more information, visit www.wcac4kids.org.
