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A Foothills women's shelter is holding a concert to raise funds and awareness.
The Rowan House Society (RHS) is holding its Rhythms for Rowan House concert at the Best Western Plus in Okotoks on Saturday, Nov. 18.
“We’re very excited. We’re going to have some appetizers, there’ll be some silent auction items,” said Linette Soldan, executive director of Rowan House.
“Throughout the evening there will be a mix of wonderful music, pop, country, rock, so it’s going to hit everybody’s tastes in music. The Best Western Plus has been very supportive of our event.”
The event will help further the Rowan House's important work, Soldan added.
“We’re also going to have some information about domestic violence and abuse,” she said. “We have a preventative education program here at Rowan House and that preventative education program is very key because the individuals go out to the schools.”
Taking to the stage will be local artists Joey J, KTR, Reg Gothard, the Relics, Sheep River Bandits, as well as Brettyn Rose and Chase Morgan.
The concert is the latest incarnation of the AmiJane Funraiser series, created by Ed and Debbie Sands to honour their daughter Amy, who was killed in a 2012 shooting, and to raise funds for Rowan House.
“It deeply touches our hearts. We’re deeply thankful to them for all their support and this year it still honours AmiJane Sands,” Soldan said.
“Debbie and Ed and Rowan House are working on the event together collaboratively, and it is really about raising awareness about domestic violence and abuse, specifically in Foothills County, Vulcan County and MD of Willow Creek.”
Creating and furthering conversation and awareness around the matter is important, given its prevalence.
“It's also very important is that when we talk about domestic violence and abuse,” Soldan said. “We know that it’s prevalent in Canada, and that Alberta has the third highest domestic violence and abuse rate in in Canada.”
That rate is even higher in rural areas, she added, where it's 75 per cent higher than in urban areas.
“Having this awareness and having the support of the community is just so key, and also just to let individuals know that there is support through the Rowan House,” Soldan said.
“With November being Family Violence Prevention Month, this event is just an important time to raise awareness and talk about the warning signs.”
The society's programming involves visiting schools on an annual basis as well as presentations in the community.
“So we touch base with a lot of the schools in the area that we service and what we do is we talk about healthy relationships, what is empathy, what is kindness,” Soldan said.
“Additionally, with that program, we do community presentations and we also provide a healthy relationships group for women who are 18 and older and we actually alternate between Okotoks and High River.”
The RHS is looking at providing similar programming in surrounding communities, such as Vulcan, Nanton, Clairesholm and Diamond Valley, and Soldan said fundraisers such as the concert are a key part of making that happen.
“The proceeds that are being raised by Rhythms for Rowan House is actually going into supporting our preventative education program,” Soldan said.
“Every year we actually have to raise all the money for that program, so we really rely on the community for their support.”
That support enabled the Rowan House, over the course of the last fiscal year, to provide its greatest reach since starting the program. From April 1, 2022 to March 1, 2023, 143 presentations were made to 4,935 students.
“We were super excited because we had the best reach and served the most students since we started the program,” Soldan said.
"So as you can tell our reach really was solid and the team did a wonderful job to make sure that they were providing that information and awareness to our communities and to the schools."
Doors open at 6 p.m. and tickets are $40, which includes admission, appetizers, silent auction and door prizes. Visit rowanhouse.ca/events/rrh for more information.
