Community event to help Charlotte County children who attend Valerie’s House

A community event to help raise money for Charlotte County children who attend Valerie’s House.

Valerie’s House services 200 kids and caregivers and now they want to extend.

Strutting down the runway, people showed off their passion for fashion at the Charlotte Harbor event and conference center on Saturday.

The event full of smiles and mini makeovers was all in favor of a good cause for Valerie’s House.

Christine Carey, Charlotte County Director of Valerie’s House said, “This is our first annual celebrating charlotte fundraising event for Valerie’s House. It’s very important to us.”

The non-profit expanded into Charlotte County back in 2019. It focuses on helping children and families work through the loss of a loved one.

Although they started small they now serve over 200 kids and their caregivers. They depend on community support events to continue day-to-day operations.

“It is such a blessing to have so much support here in charlotte county and our surrounding counties. All of the families that we service, all of the fundraisings that we receive goes right back to our families,” Carey said.

Alicia Cruz is one of the many kids who benefit from Valerie’s House services. She lost her mother to a heart attack a little over a year ago.

Cruz said if it weren’t for Valerie’s House, she’d still be grieving over the sudden loss.

“It was very shocking. I felt like it wasn’t real. I felt like it was fake. Valerie’s House was making it simple,” Cruz said.

Since then Cruz has met other kids going through loss just like her through group sessions.

“When you hear other people talk about, you know, if they had a really close relationship with their mom or their father, or whoever it’s like, you know, it gets a little hurtful to think about it. So, we try to help them out together, so that we both aren’t going through such a rough time,” Cruz said.

While she still misses her mother greatly she’s happy to see people support the non-profit that’s helped change her life for the better.

If you didn’t get a chance to make it out to the event you can donate by clicking the link, https://valerieshouse.org/inkind.