The YWCA Quad Cities is holding a Pumps, Purses and Pizzazz fundraising event this Thursday, Sept. 12th, from 5:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. at the Bettendorf Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center at 2021 State Street.
The event will have several fashion contests, including best in shoe and perfect purse and a live and silent auction.
Deanna Woodall is in charge of special events at YWCA Quad Cities, but worked as vice president of development and growth and the executive director for the empowerment center at the YWCA before transitioning into light retirement.
She says men are invited to attend, but the fundraising event theme is "Ultimate Girls Night Out."
"We encourage the ladies and the gents to sport their most fancy shoes," Woodall said in a phone interview with WVIK. "Footwear, because there will be some contests for the best pump, the best sandal, and the best out-of-the-box shoe, so as well as a perfect purse contest, so the most fancy handbag will take home that award."
Another aspect of the fundraising event is the inclusion of 15 "Charming Champions," male community members assigned to tables to sell some of the night's items. Their goal is to out-raise the others and be crowned the king of charm.
All the funds raised during the event will go towards the YWCA's plan to open a 24/7 youth shelter in the Quad Cities. The YWCA estimates that revamping its old facility in downtown Rock Island for the shelter will cost less than $500,000. The organization received a $250,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services to help its goal.
"Unfortunately, over the last several [years], any type of homeless youth shelter that was in the Quad Cities has been eliminated for many, many years," Woodall said. "And in 2010, YWCA Quad Cities incorporated a new service and resource called The Place to Be, which is a afterschool program for at-risk and homeless youth, but it wasn't a shelter per se. There was no overnight. There was no, you know, stay capability, et cetera."
Woodall says the closest shelter in Illinois is in Galesburg, and in Iowa, it's in Des Moines.
"So we are at a complete loss here in the Quad Cities to serve, unfortunately, youth that are experiencing homelessness. So this will, I guarantee it, we'll have a waiting list, just like our regular, you know, adult shelters do have currently as well," Woodall said. "But it just has been missing from the community, and we're very, and the YWCA is thrilled to be able to offer it."
She says the shelter will accommodate 15 youths each night, and the organization is looking for hundreds of thousands of dollars because running a youth shelter is expensive.
"So for one, for a youth to be housed in the shelter for one week is $2,100," Woodall said. "So multiply that by the number of weeks. So the average time that a youth will spend in the shelter is between one and two months. So you're looking at $4,200 per month for one youth to be housed."
According to a YWCA press release sent in August, the state of Illinois has licensed the old YWCA location in Rock Island as the only shelter for homeless youth in the Quad Cities and surrounding communities.
Tickets are still available for the YWCA's Pumps, Purses and Pizzazz event on their website.
