Celebrated as one of the city’s premier fundraising events, the Hearts with Hope Gala gives the Atlanta community the opportunity to come together to eradicate intimate partner violence. As the primary fundraiser and stewardship event for PADV, Hearts with Hope raises more than half a million dollars each year to help over 27,000 Metro Atlanta women and children escape and overcome domestic abuse. The event will be held April 21, 2012, 6:30 p,at the Ritz Carlton Buckhead.
“Our yearly gala was created to celebrate the thousands of women and children who have been given hope and empowered to thrive as a result of the services provided by PADV.” The event is usually attended by some of the most prominent individuals and companies in Metro Atlanta. Hearts with Hope is PADV’s signature fundraising event and supports PADV’s general operating expenses. The funds raised make it possible to implement the mission of PADV, to end the crime of intimate partner violence and empowering its survivors possible. The evening features a cocktail hour, a silent and live auction, dinner and dancing. This year, the event will be a fabulous garden party, complete with seersucker suits, mint juleps, gorgeous hats and blooming flowers. Attendance has grown to more than 600 people and raised nearly $500,000 in 2011. The goal for 2012 is $500,000.
The 2012 Hearts with Hope benefit is led under the leadership of Cecilia Houston Torrence. Cecilia Houston-Torrence is the Community Involvement Banking Officer for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, a $190 billion financial services organization that provides financial products and services to more than 1,200 financial institutions to increase home ownership, affordable housing, employment, and community and economic development in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
“The Hearts with Hope Gala is such an important night for the city of Atlanta,” said Cecilia Houston-Torrence. “It’s our moment to show PADV that we support the work they are doing to save lives and remind each other that we have a joint responsibility to end intimate partner violence.”
The first Hearts with Hope gala was held on February 14, 1988 when PADV was still the Council on Battered Women. Its purpose remains the same, to raise significant monies to support battered women and their children, and bring metro Atlanta citizens together to end domestic violence and celebrate survivors. Hearts with Hope is the primary fundraiser & stewardship event for PADV.For 35 years, PADV, the largest nonprofit domestic violence organization in Georgia, has provided professional, compassionate, and empowering support to battered women and their children in metro Atlanta. PADV began as an all-volunteer agency in 1975 and incorporated in 1977. Today, the agency has more than 40 full- and part-time staff with an administrative office and two 24-hour emergency shelters in Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
