Nonprofit Hosts "Empowering Heroes" Event for Children At Risk

Recently, Pinwheel Place - a newly formed non-profit with a mission of helping young local children at risk of abuse and/or neglect - held its second annual ‘Tricky Tray’ Raffle at Saint Dorothea’s Church in Eatontown, N.J. The evening’s theme was “Empowering Heroes” and several participants came in appropriate costume. Miss Hawkins - cofounder of Pinwheel Place with her daughter Quadhera Simmons - welcomed the crowd of supporters by saying “being here you are helping a child find hope and empowering them to believe that a safe and happy life is in their future. That they are deserving enough and strong enough to have it. And if you think about the super hero(s) we all know, most of them overcame adversity and transformed their lives. Let us be heroes and help our children do that.”
Over one hundred local merchants and individual supporters of Pinwheel Place gave prizes for auction including two $500 gift certificates from Ashley HomeStore of Central Jersey - a commercial ‘partner’ of Pinwheel Place. “Ashley HomeStore of Central New Jersey and Staten Island is a proud supporter of Pinwheel Place. We strive to support organizations around our stores that will have a deep impact on the local community.” said CEO and President, Will Schafer. “We believe that Pinwheel Place’s mission to provide a safe haven for children in crisis due to abuse or neglect is an essential service needed in our community. At Ashley HomeStore CNJ-SI, we strive to enrich the lives of our guests and our community and we are able to to that by parenting with organizations such as Pinwheel Place. We are happy to support their Tricky Tray by donating two $500 gift certificates. The funds from this event will help Pinwheel Place secure a safe location to provide residential care and coordinate medical and psychological services according to the needs of the child. We hope to have a long relationship with Pinwheel Place and encourage other companies and organizations to partner with this fantastic organization that we are certain will have a profound impact on the children in our community.”
At the end of the event Miss Hawkins announced that with the help of all our generous supporters, “Empowering Heroes” was a complete success and Pinwheel Place reached it’s goal of raising enough money to buy it’s first home in 2018. We are so grateful and amazed by how generous our community is! It is hoped that the upcoming years will provide us many chances to lead the community into greater awareness of child abuse prevention and to help keep local children from suffering the trauma of abuse. For more information regarding Pinwheel Place and it’s mission, please go to www.pinwheelplace.org and find out how to help.