Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

SOS at Zac’s Ridge Fundraiser Tomorrow Night

Abuse Awareness Events Scheduled

By John English

Contributing Writer

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and two Denton County organizations are hosting awareness events.

The 4th Annual "You Call This Love?" art exhibit appreciation dinner and dance is tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and will feature guest speaker Mildred Muhammad, ex-wife of John Muhammad, the D.C./Beltway Sniper.

Two organizations – Sircle of Safety and Zac’s Ridge – both with a mission to help others, merged into a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people and saving lives.

At SOS at Zac’s Ridge – through unique experiential training – teens, their families, veterans, police, firefighters and other first responders find a way to deal with the ghosts of life’s experiences that have changed them at their core. SOS at Zac’s Ridge is looking to open a new facility on 72 acres near Sanger that will welcome anyone, but especially, domestic abuse victims from Denton County.

"What we want to do is build an all-inclusive kind of campus," Founder and CEO of SOS at Zac’s Ridge Veda MacGregor said. "We do want to house and provide long-term services for the most critically-broken family legacies.

"Along with that, we want to have an equine rescue, a daycare center, and facilities for weekend trainees to lodge. They are not people who require our long-term, in-depth, on-campus needs. We’re trying to get to them all."

MacGregor said SOS finds its clients mainly through word of mouth, although some people are referred to the organization and some come voluntarily.

MacGregor said SOS at Zac’s Ridge never turns away anybody who needs help.

MacGregor said the organization’s goal is now to put more emphasis on addressing the reasons for domestic abuse to hopefully prevent the problem.

"Our training is experiential and it’s actually part of our outreach in the community," MacGregor said. "What we have found is that we can do more good using preventative measures than what we can ever do afterwards."

She added that: "If we do enough on the preventive side, we’re going to run out of a need for the shelter system."

The fundraising event tomorrow night is at Le Paris at 15040 W. Highway 380 in Krum, and MacGregor said people can come and pay at the door.

MacGregor said her organization is looking for volunteers and is always accepting contributions.

Visit www.sosinc.org for more information.

Denton County Friends of the Family will also commemorate Relationship Violence Awareness Month with its own events in the coming week.

Saturday, Oct. 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Fall Festival for families will be held at Denton County Courthouse on the Square, located at 110 W. Hickory Street, Denton. Activities will include a bounce house, caricature artist, country critters red barn, face painting, kid build project by Lowe’s, popcorn, live music and sandy candy art. Contact Wendy at 469-964-7297 for more information.

Thursday, Oct. 9, from 5 to 8 p.m., Ending Relationship Violence, A Community Affair will be held at the Civic Center Park Amphitheater, located at 321 E. McKinney St., Denton. Activities will include live music featuring Brave Combo, inflatable’s, cotton candy, sno cones, poetry, dancing, and face painting and local social service agencies. Contact Jennifer at 940-387-5131 ext. 244 or Tiffanie at 940-387-5131 ext. 240 for more information.

Call 940-387-5131 for more information on the Denton County Friends of the Family.