4th Annual Fundraiser – “An Evening of Caring & Sharing”
Sep 16, 2023 at 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm
$50
*Thank You to our 2023 Sponsors!*
WATTS 4th Annual Fundraiser – Our annual fundraiser is here again! Join us on Saturday, September 16, 2023 from 5pm to 11pm at Winchester Moose Lodge, upstairs banquet room, for a fun evening where we recognize all the volunteers, churches, community organizations, and businesses who make WATTS a success each and every season! The food promises to be delicious, the music will be lit, and you can dance, mingle, and raffle your way through the evening. It was a BLAST last year, so we hope you’ll join us again and bring a friend or two! This event is the major means through which we secure necessary funding for WATTS and the upcoming overnight shelter season.
GOOD TIME~GREAT CAUSE
Dinner
Live Music by Shag
Dancing
Cash Bar
Raffles
Live Auction
Guest Speakers
Awards
Networking
Selfie Station
Casual Attire
Interested in becoming a sponsor for the 4th Annual Fundraiser “An Evening of Caring & Sharing” to advertise your business or organization? Reach out to us today! We have many different levels available each with varying benefits so you can choose what works for you!
$5,000 Title Sponsor
$2,500 Signage Sponsor
$1,250 Raffle Sponsor
$600 Table Sponsor
$300 Ticket Sponsor
**Also accepting donations of full raffle baskets, items for a basket, business services, gift cards, etc. for our raffles!**
**More about WATTS** Our mission began with providing safe, temporary, overnight, cold-weather shelter for homeless individuals. Our overnight shelter operates from November through March each year with our guests receiving the hospitality of churches and other community organizations who provide their buildings for shelter and also make sure guests have a nice dinner as well as breakfast the next morning. Primarily, WATTS serves individuals from Winchester, Frederick, and Clarke counties, but our doors are open to ANY homeless person needing help, with many of our guests coming from neighboring Shenandoah, Warren, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties.
During the pandemic, WATTS continued to operate without any lapse in our regularly offered services. In fact, in the past few years, WATTS has actually expanded the services we offer. In 2020, we envisioned and succeeded in opening a wintertime Warming Center where homeless individuals could go during the day to warm up, get snacks and water, use a restroom, and have other basic needs met. The Warming Center was so successful that we have continued to offer it each year since! Similar to the Warming Center, during the summer of 2021 WATTS further expanded our services and opened a daytime Cooling Center in response to weather extremes of heat and rain. Once again, we found that it met a great need within our community, so we have continued that service as well.
Over the years we’ve found that oftentimes the five months when we operate the overnight shelter is not enough time to help someone who is homeless with getting out of homelessness. Many have lost everything, including vital records and identification. Rebuilding a life and navigating the various agencies is tricky and complex, which is why WATTS saw a need to expand our services further and create our Transition Support Staff (TSS) team. This team of incredibly passionate and dedicated people work year-round to help our guests with such things as obtaining birth certificates and identification, assisting with job applications, forms for Centralized Housing Intake, and apartments, applying for Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP benefits, information and placement in drug and alcohol detox/rehabilitation programs, and much, much more. All of these services are crucial to setting our guests on the path to a safe, stable future.
Homelessness isn’t just the problem of a few; most people today are only one or two catastrophic events away from becoming homeless and once you’re homeless, getting out is extremely difficult. WATTS is truly a community effort in the fight against homelessness. Donations from generous individuals, churches, community organizations, businesses, and foundations, in combination with successful fundraising efforts are the lifeblood that allows us to continue our mission and keep expanding our services. We couldn’t do it without you, and we earnestly appreciate your support, partnership, and heart for the homeless in our community.
