Crisis Center Encourages Acts Of Kindness To Honor Cofounder

TINLEY PARK, IL – The Crisis Center of South Suburbia is encouraging members of the community to engage in acts of kindness for others in memory of the center's cofounder.

Crisis Center cofounder Dianne Masters was dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence and did so with kindness and compassion, according to a release from the center. Masters was murdered at the age of 35, after disappearing in March 1982. In 1989, her husband, Alan Masters, was convicted of federal charges of conspiring to murder his wife, according to reporting from the Chicago Tribune.

Masters would have turned 74 on Friday.

The Crisis Center has served more than 60,000 people in the 41 years since it was founded. To honor Masters' memory, the center is asking community members to do something kind for someone else between June 26 and June 28.

The center is also asking supporters to help spread kindness by sharing what they did by commenting on the center's June 26 Facebook post, emailing jwaldorf@crisisctr.org, or tagging the Crisis Center in their own post with the hashtag #DoItForDianne.

Over the past few months, the center said it has received a lot of support from community members who have paid for meals to be delivered to clients in shelters, donated furniture to outfit their clients' transitional housing, and donated money to replenish the Emergency Services Program.

"These acts of kindness help the Crisis Center better serve victims of domestic violence and their children, which is what Crisis Center co-founder Dianne Masters was all about," the center said in a prepared statement.

If you or someone you love it a victim of domestic violence, call the Crisis Center 24-hour hotline at 708-429-SAFE (7233).