Media Room

Media Release

For Immediate Release

August 19, 2010

Shelter Donation Stolen

When a local company called wanting to donate some surplus office furniture to Alberta shelters in need, ACWS was thrilled and immediately sent out the word to 43 member shelters across the province.

Darlene Lightning-Mattson from the Sucker Creek Emergency Women’s Shelter was one of the Shelter Directors that took Caterpillar up on their offer, and made the journey to Edmonton on the morning of Friday the 13th. After loading up, Darlene parked her pick-up truck in the parking lot of Kingsway Garden Mall just before 1:00pm to run some errands. When she came out after 2:30 – the truck was gone and Darlene had to return to Sucker Creek empty-handed.

The police contacted Darlene yesterday with notice that they had found the truck around 124 Street and 107 Avenue, and it was completely empty. “After the high of getting such a wonderful gift of almost brand-new furniture, along with things like a computer monitor and projector, the let down of having these things stolen kind of makes you sick,” Says Lightning-Mattson, once again making the 4.5 hour trek into Edmonton from Sucker Creek to get her truck. “They’re probably just going to pawn this stuff and these tools could have helped our shelter better take care of women and children escaping violence in our community and create awareness.”

On-reserve shelters are constantly challenged to meet the high demand for service in their communities because their federal funding is inadequate. More than half of all women accessing shelters all over Alberta are Aboriginal.

“ACWS offers our thanks to the local anonymous company for being such a great corporate social citizen”, comments Jan Reimer, Provincial Coordinator of ACWS. “We hope the goods are identified by some compassionate person and returned to the shelter so that they can be put to the best possible use.”

Background:

The furniture stolen was 2 executive-style, L-shaped, almost-new Steelcase pine-coloured desks with charcoal supports and filing. There were also an industrial style floor-mat, travel mugs, computer monitor, projector and 3 office chairs in the truck. The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) is an umbrella, volunteer non-profit organization of 43 member sheltering agencies across the province. ACWS conducts action-based research projects, organizes training for frontline shelter workers and generates awareness about issues related to domestic abuse.

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For more information, please contact:

Christie Lavan, Communications & Partnerships

Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters
Tel: 780-456-7000 ext. 222 communications@acws.ca

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