Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993 TAG: 9309140159
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"A Festival of Fashion and Music" is being billed as an entertainment extravaganza, not your run-of-the-mill fashion show.
It will feature fall fashions - coordinated by fashion and image consultant Jenny Taubman - but it will be staged as musical entertainment with the aid of Stan Kingma's Virginians performing troupe.
All proceeds from the "Silver Lining Benefit Gala" will go to the "Second Mile" program, according to the Rev. Julie Hollingsworth, RAM executive director.
Everything from food to performances to marketing has been donated, Hollingsworth said, so the money from tickets - $45 per couple or $25 for singles - will go directly to "Second Mile."
"Second Mile" is a specialized program to help make mortgage or rent payments for the working poor in a financial emergency, Hollingsworth said.
Though RAM has been providing emergency financial assistance to Roanoke Valley residents from its beginning, most of that has been in the form of small grants - usually $50 or less - to help pay for food, electricity, heating fuel and prescriptions.
"Second Mile" was initiated a year ago to provide larger grants to those in danger of losing their homes because they couldn't make rent or mortgage payments. Those can range up to about $500, Hollingsworth said.
Last year's benefit gala - the agency's first - raised almost $15,000 for the program, Hollingsworth said, but even more money is needed this year.
The gala is the only public event RAM has planned in commemoration of its quarter-century of public service.
The agency was begun in 1968 in a bid to coordinate the efforts of valley churches to provide emergency aid of food, heat and medicine to those in need - particularly those whose needs couldn't be met through other public assistance programs.
In the years since its founding the agency has added other services.
RAM - which includes support from Protestant, Catholic and Jewish congregations - also sponsors a Family Advocacy Group, a nutritional supplement distribution program and a clothing closet.
One of its highest profile programs is the RAM House day shelter for the homeless on Campbell Avenue Southwest. The shelter is open every day of the year and provides a hot midday meal to all who come in. Its meal clients include not only homeless men and women, but families from the community as well. Meals are served by almost 400 volunteers each month.
by CNB