2012 Special Appeal Beneficiary Empowering Grace
Empowering Grace supports women and families by providing Blissful Escapes Self-Care Retreat for mothers who have children with cancer. This very caring organization provides mothers with coaching, workshops and retreats to help them find peace and balance in their lives as they cope with devastating illnesses in their families.
A special fundraising Appeal will be made during the Tea to raise funds for Empowering Grace!
Sharla Vellec, Empowering Grace Founder
I am so thrilled to present Empowering Grace Founder Sharla Vellek to our Diamond Tea Community and provide all of us the opportunity to share a part in making better the lives of women and families affected by cancer.
A donation can be made directly to Empowering Grace with the below Paypal donate button.
With the purchase of a Diamond Tea ticket, YOU can help keep our children safe from sex trafficking
Sex trafficking. We used to think that this happened in other countries, far from our secure homes in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a tragic fact that an epidemic of child sex trafficking has hit the Portland-Vancouver area.
Fortunately, AWARE, a nonprofit organization based in Vancouver, WA, offers a brilliant prevention program that educates children and teenagers against the predators of the sex trafficking industry. I strongly encourage you to watch the short videos available on the AWARE Web site. The ABC News video about sex trafficking of children in Portland is an eye-opener.
The AWARE website states, “Deceptions: Exposing the Lures of Child Sex Trafficking and Internet Dangers was created to meet the growing need to inform teens and their parents of the child sex trafficking going on in their own backyards along with Internet dangers preying upon our children. Deceptions will help prevent this atrocity from happening to the youth in our community. This program provides young people with the awareness and tools they need to defeat child predators. This prevention program was developed to align with Oregon and Washington State teaching standards addressing health, technology, media literacy and self-esteem.”
I met personally with Executive Director Jim Grenfell to review the Deceptions Program in detail. My heart both ached at the realities and leapt with hope for change as his presentation included the following highlights:
- Understanding the scope of the problem
- How to recognize coercion and manipulation, and expose the “grooming” process
- Powerful real-life stories from victims who wish someone had told them about the dangers
- Understanding pornography’s link to demand
- The potentially addictive effects of pornography, how it can be progressive to the point of acting out in harmful ways and it can destroy healthy intimacy (emotional connectedness) in a relationship
- Understanding the role of how human sexuality fits into a healthy, loving relationship
- Understanding the dangers of the internet and new technology
- Giving young people the resources to get help if they (or someone they know) is in danger
In 2011, more than 500 students from the greater Vancouver, Washington and Portland-Metro areas participated in the Deceptions program presented by AWARE. Through your ticket purchase a portion of the proceeds will help empower and safe-guard hundreds more children and teenagers in our communities.
I am so honored that the women of the Diamond Tea 2012 will have a part in making the lives of our children safe from the lures of child sex trafficking. Please take a moment and “Like” the AWARE Facebook page and then purchase your ticket to the Diamond Tea!
