Community Corner

Fundraiser to Benefit WINGS

Event will consist of cosmic bowling, dinner buffet, raffle and silent auction and all proceeds will go to help domestic violence victims.

Grab your bowling shoes and your appetite and head out to Brunswick Zone in Lake Zurich to help raise funds for Women In Need Growing Stronger (WINGS).

Celebrating All That Is Feminine (CATIF), a charity whose mission is to empower women, is sponsoring the fundraising effort where 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit WINGS.

“We are really excited and completely honored that CATIF picked us as their sole beneficiary; this is a group of amazing women,” said Rebecca Darr, executive director of WINGS.

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CATIF was founded in 2009 by Palatine resident Kara Cermak.

“WINGS is the entire reason I chose to go in the direction I did (with the charity) to empower women; when I learned about what WINGS’ mission was, my idea was born,” Cermak said.  

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The nonprofit consists of 10 board members and a number of volunteers; all professional women interested in supporting women and making a difference in their lives, Cermak said.  

“It became a natural progression that WINGS would be a recipient of our fundraising efforts,” Cermak said.

During the event, a woman named ‘Sara’ will be speaking about her experiences in the WINGS Program; including her time living at the Safe House domestic violence shelter after leaving a dangerously abusive marriage.

“She came in (to WINGS) and took everything she could; she went back to school, went through transitional housing and now has a great job and her two boys are doing great as well,” Darr said.

WINGS has experienced some setbacks over the last nine months, which has caused them to do some rebuilding of their own.

The Palatine resale shop caught fire during a storm in June 2010, after power lines fell onto the building and ignited it. The building ultimately was demolished in November 2010.

The organization's resale shop in Niles also was flooded after a water main broke in September 2010, causing it to shut down temporarily until the building was professionally cleaned up.  

The Palatine resale shop now is at a temporary location in the Park Place Shopping Center at 1315 North Rand Rd., between the Half Priced Books and TJ Maxx.  

Darr said the nonprofit currently is searching for their new and permanent location and their capital campaign is underway to continue to raise funds toward that end.

The CATIF fundraiser will be held from 7 p.m. until midnight on Friday, Feb. 25 at Brunswick Zone located at 21080 North Rand Rd., in Lake Zurich. 

Event tickets are a minimum $50 donation per person, which includes cosmic bowling and a pizza and salad buffet until 10 p.m.

The evening also will include raffle prizes and a silent auction.

Cermak said among the many auction items will be a Caribbean getaway for five days and four nights, salon baskets with a full range of services donated by Salon Lorrene in Palatine and a golf basket which includes golf for a foursome, cart included.

Raffle tickets are $5 a piece and attendees can win a Kindle wireless reading device, a fun night basket or a Blu-Ray disc player, to name just a few prizes.

The first CATIF fundraiser was held in 2010 at Lamplighters and raised over $11,000 for three nonprofit organizations in the surrounding suburbs, including WINGS.

“We chose to make WINGS our sole beneficiary this year because what it boils down to, they’ve had a lot of bad luck,” said Cermak.

Cermak said out of the funds raised during last year’s event, $4,000 was donated to WINGS, and CATIF’s goal is to double that donation this year.  

Those interested in attending can register online at www.catifcharity.com or at the WINGS website at www.wingsprogram.com. Individuals are also welcome to register at the event.

“We are always trying to do things for the community, and WINGS’ mission helps us to contribute back,” said Lorrene Conino, CATIF board member and owner of Salon Lorrene.

“It makes our job so much easier when we have phenomenal women like Kara and CATIF behind us,” said Darr.


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