Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House’s 22^nd annual Champions of Hope Sporting Clays event in April raised $102,844.19.

“We are so grateful for our community’s support in making this year’s Champions of Hope event a success,” said Nancy Bryan, Executive Director of Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House. “We would not be able to raise this amount without our community’s continued support through event sponsorships and in-kind donations.”

The money raised from this event will be used to help Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House provide services to victims of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault as well education and outreach on prevention tactics.

“While our organization does receive grant funding and donations throughout the year, we rely on the money raised at this event,” said Bryan. “The money raised helps us to continue providing services like our domestic violence emergency shelter, legal advocacy services for domestic violence victims, services to child abuse victims and their families through The Patticake House, sexual assault advocacy work with sexual assault victims, and continued outreach and education throughout our community. These are life changing and lifesaving services that we know make a positive impact on our community.”

While the money raised at the annual fundraiser will help Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House continue providing vital services to Tift, Turner, Worth, and Irwin Counties, Bryan said because of changes in federal grants and the recent budget vetoes by Governor Kemp in the state budget for victim serving organization, RCPCH is still projected to be several hundred thousand dollars short of previous budget years.

“Funds for victim serving programs have become unstable at a time when we are steadily growing in serving victims.” said Bryan. “We need our community’s support now more than ever. If we want to continue to keep our programs running, continue to add programs and services that will help us to better serve our communities through direct prevention or outreach and education, we need our communities’ help.”

Those interested in donating to RCPCH can do so online at www.stopthehurtga.org/donations/, through Venmo with the username @ruthscottage_thepatticakehouse, mailing a check to PO Box 2727, Tifton, GA 31793, or by bringing checks or cash by in person to the RCPCH Administrative Building, located at 211 Chesnutt Avenue in Tifton.