me Denton County Friends of the Family Imagine esa} Creating safety for victims of relationship violence and sexual assault since 1980. A Note from the Director... Cea ee ilies SRR ec Pee ee ei eee is ete Oe cae OR ee Ce at a MC ete eae eae or ae ree ener tc Cae in Ree a eat iccl services for victims. Great than| CoSery Foundation and Harold Si DTU contributions are gr eee Reka EN ne na Cea ee) reece em Cee! Holiday Help With the holiday season steadily approaching, the spirit of giving is alive and welll See pages 4-5 ! for details on how you can contribute. Vigil draws an eclectic crowd Rays of sunlight shone through the trees, music played and artwork was on display at Quakertown Park Thursday evening at Denton County Friends of the Family's Relationship Violence Vigil, “A Community Affair.” The event took place on October '8, to shed light on the issue affecting families in the | It’s a silent epidemic,” says Sarah Martinez, community resource coordina: tor. She says that DCFOF puts on this event annually. “So people are aware that this is an on-going thing and a community issue,” says Martinez ive music, interpretive dance an spoken word per s took place on stage while people stood in line to receive information about resources available to vietims, survivors and families. continued on pg. 5) DCFOF hosted its first Fall Festival on October 4th with great success! Families had the opportunity to par- ticipate in Kids Build by Lowe's where they crafted their very own pirate ships and cars, (continued on pg. 2)Imagine Vigil (continued from pg. 1) Volunteers from the local community and the college campuses — Texas Woman's University and the Univer- sity of North Texas — came out and helped with face painting, inflatable bounce houses, snow cones and cot: ton candy. Volunteer Leslie Hayes from her chapter of Sigma Al- pha lota, a music fraternity at UNT, manned the bounce house with her group. Hayes said she volunteered at a battered women’s shelter in Fort Worth over the sum- mer. She and other volunteers built relationships with the women there over talks and by giving manicures and pedicures. For this reason, Hayes desired to get her fra ternity involved with Denton County Friends of the Family. “Even though we are musicians, we find other avenues to give back to the community and this is a positive avenue for that,” said Hayes The local talent at the event included Brave Combo, the Box Car Bandits, Rock Baby, the UNT African Drum ensemble, and ‘Sung-Hun Lim of TWU Danceworks. The event lasted from 5-8 p.m. Donations were accepted through sale of artwork, cotton candy, snow cones and Yo-Yo balloons. Denton County Friends of the Family would like to thank all who attended the 2008 Relationship Violence Vigil. We espe- cially recognize the talents contributed by our volunteers. We look forward to making next years Vigil even more successfull If you or your group are interested in adopting a family or would like to collect needed items please contact Sarah Martinez at 940.387.5131 X 231 or sarah@dcfof.org The holiday season can be very difficult for survivors — we need your help to provide a happy holiday for these families. Each race car, babydoll, warm sweater and canned good has a very special meaning at this time of year. »