5A & Women Helping Women

5A Rent-A-Space has taken on a new project and the goal of helping women who need it.  WHW is Women Helping Women, and they state: 


"The mission of Women Helping Women is to end domestic violence through advocacy, education and prevention; and to offer safety, support and empowerment to women and children, victims of domestic violence."

5A is a drop off location for all clothing, furniture and home equipment of the kind that can help a women make a new start in life.

They also take donations of funds, as with every new home situation there are unexpected needs. You’re welcome to contact Liz May at Lahaina 5A, (808) 669-5200 or at her e-mail: liz5a@aol.com

Recently they had a drive and challenge to gather as many donations as possible and here are some e-mails about the results from Stacey Moniz, Executive Director.

From: Stacey Moniz [mailto:staceymoniz@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 5:52 PM
To: Renée Ward @ Subject: End of year update

Aloha West Maui supporters!!  

First of all I wanted to thank everyone for your hard work in spreading the word about our end of the year challenge and I'm sure you are quite curious about how it turned out. First let me say that we received over 400 donations in the 45 days of the challenge, over half of which were from people who have never given us money before (they may have donated items or goods, but not money). That is incredible. But wait, it gets better. We were looking to make up an insurmountable loss of $189,000. 

To me, it felt kinda crazy to hope for that kind of generosity. The outpouring of support was beyond our expectations and beyond our donor's expectations, as well. While she was not able to match the appeal dollar for dollar, a considerable contribution was made and brought the entire amount of the appeal to $186,000!!  I have never seen this kind of giving, so fast and so generous, ever on this island. 

We had donors from as far away as Florida. We had donations from $5 to $25,000. We received donations from our staff, from our board, from former shelter residents, from all of you and from your friends and family, too. This was amazing, there just aren't words big enough to say WOW!!

So our shelter is already benefiting from this drive. We are reinstating staff hours and coverage at the shelter with the hopes of bringing back key staff members very soon. There are critical repairs to be made and we bought a new dryer... 

I cannot thank you all enough for all that you have done to encourage this overwhelming outcome. 

I will close my email with the words that were written in a card we received in December.

"Dear Leslie,

What a wonderful Christmas gift you are giving to so many needy, scared, lonely, helpless women. Your generosity touched my heart and my check for one thousand is included.

As a young mother with three children, one handicapped (deaf) I had a bad situation but there was no help in those days. Thankfully I finally got away and have had a great life. But I've never forgotten what I went through.

Hope this helps."

Every dollar helps. Thank you again.

Peace be the journey,

Stacey

Stacey Moniz
Executive Director
Women Helping Women
1935 Main Street, Suite 202
Wailuku, HI  96793
808-242-6600 x20
fax 808-249-8147
www.whwmaui.net