On Saturday Feb. 17, nonprofit organization Family Promise, held their seventh annual fundraising event called BEE-lieve in Change Gala. Nearly every seat was sold out at the Alice Hardie Stevens Center reaching their goal to raise almost $50,000 for Family Promise, an all time record.
Chaley Dimoff, the director at Family Promise and of the gala said, “So this is our seventh fundraiser. We had a lot of change and new programming with our organization and we just felt like it was a good time to make these changes.”
Family Promise is a smaller nonprofit that has been in Laramie for seven years and has been a national affiliate for five years for the nationwide organization. They support families in the Albany County community.
“We specifically help with families that are either currently experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness,” said Dimoff. “Because Laramie is such an interesting town when it comes to housing and rentals, our focus is trying to keep them in their home.”
They have three programs: Rental assistance, Temporary Shelter and a community-wide diaper and hygiene pantry.
At the gala, there was an opportunity where participants could bring in hygiene products or diapers in exchange for a ticket entry into the event’s raffle.
With over 175 people in attendance, they had 21 ½ tables filled with representatives of nonprofits in Laramie, Wyoming Fraternal Order of Police and other members of the community.
“We have one table where there’s most of the non profit directors– like the director from the soup kitchen and United Way and CLIMB and all those organizations that we work with directly,” said Dimoff.
Doors opened at 5:30 p.m. with a night full of activities, including Comedian Vinnie Montez who provided entertainment, a silent auction raffle. Local restaurants including the Sugar Mouse, Alibi and O’Dwyers catered a meal as well.
Diomoff said, “This year at Family Promise we wanted to call it BEE-lieve in Change because we’re making a change and going through change, and like next year we can do BEE-lieve in our Future.”
