Nickolas Helten May 6, 2009
GALENA, IL - Fred Bonnet is a busy man. Today’s he is taking the afternoon off from being a restaurateur to be the head of a golf outing to benefit the Riverview Center of the Tri-state area.
“We’re very lucky in business to be able to give back to the community and the people who need the help we can donate money to them,” said Bonnet.
The people that need help today are victims of sexual assult. The Riverview Center offers counseling and assault intervention to local victims. The goal for this golf outing is to raise $30,000 for a new therapist in the Dubuque facility.
“We have 19 people right now requesting to get counseling services because they have been sexually assaulted and we simply can’t keep up because of the need,” said Riverview President Josh Jaspers.
Bonnet, the owner of Galena’s Fried Green Tomatoes, went to a benefit for Riverview a year ago and was captivated by their cause. After learning more about it, he started doing everything he could for the center.
“We’ve worked throughout the year doing different fundraising things along with the golf outing to raise money that they need, and we think it’s really worthwhile,” he said.
Joining him on the sun-splashed links today are 130 golfers looking to do their part as well.
“I hope they get a lot of money to keep the program going strong, because it’s a great program,” said participant Shirley Vaughn.
Women like Shirley are not the only ones out today. Choosing golf as the fundraiser was not only to raise money, but to get men involved with the center as well. Men dotted the fairways today, a step for the program in Jasper’s eyes.
“We need to have more men support our organization because its men that often times are perpetrating violence, but it’s not all of the men that are violent. So we need to get more men educated about what we do so that they are empowered to effectively prevent violence in the future,” he said.
Though sexual abuse won’t stop right away, the Tri-states is driving in the right direct to assist those in need.
Nickolas Helten can be contacted at nickolas.helten@loras.edu
