Oak Bay realtors Tasha Medve and Saira Waters set the bar higher, then leaped over it to aid area women’s shelters.
Their fundraiser Raise the Roof for Shelter on Sept. 22 raised $12,000 event aims to not only raise funds for local non-profits that help women and children who are faced with this, but it strives to bring this issue to the forefront.
Medve and Waters of the Modern Real Estate Team with Royal LePage Coast Capital Realty hosted the fifth annual event at the Robert Bateman Centre with a turnout of more than 100 guests. The event supports four local non-profit organizations including Victoria Women’s Transition House, the Cridge Transition House for Women, Sooke Transition House, and Margaret Laurence House. These organizations support women and children, and provide services including emergency shelters, counselling, and advocacy. Royal LePage’s national Shelter Foundation, which has raised more than $24 million since 1998.
“We rely on community support to keep our vehicles on the road to get women to appointments and to look for housing, to help pay for women’s legal costs, storage and moving costs, and even some of the basics like our grocery bills. We could not do what we do without this support to help so many women build violence free lives for themselves and their children,” says Marlene Goley, manager for the Cridge Transition House for Women.
Over the past five years their events have brought in more than $28,000 to support vulnerable women and children in Victoria. Beyond this, they donate a portion of their commissions from home sales back to these same non-profits.
“We all know a woman who has been affected by an abusive relationship. Domestic violence is so common yet no one really talks about it. We need events like this so we can support these women and their children who have no where else to turn,” says Waters.
More than two-thirds of all women in Canada personally know someone who has been physically or sexually abused. According to Statistics Canada, on average one Canadian woman is killed every six days by her intimate partner.
“It takes so much courage for a woman to go through something like this and leave an abusive relationship or situation. We need to keep the momentum going with future events and provide the platform to bring this cause to the forefront,” says Medve.
Their plan is to continue the event in 2018 and beyond.
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