Do I hear 15? Yes, we can!

Just put a donation in the mail a moment ago. Hope it helps!

Hey Kacy, thanks! That's great. Every contribution helps.

Yes, thank you, Kacy. The work continues. We must raise awareness, and money, year-round for this urgent cause. The next event coming up is the Heather's Tree benefit at Hal & Mal's on Oct. 11, hosted by friends and family of Heather Spencer. The JFP will do everything we can to help that wonderful group of people, as they helped us with the Chick Ball. To sign up to sponsor or donate, go to http://www.heatherstree.com .

And pray for the families who have lost beautiful women to domestic violence. Abusers get way too much protection from their families and society, not to mention law enforcement, and there is so much bad information out there on these issues. I was in a meeting the other day with a group of women who work on this issue, including some remarkable law-enforcement experts in the area of domestic abuse (one of the advantages of promoting awareness of this issue is meeting these kick-butt women). One of them worked directly on the Spencer case, and spoke specifically about the ignorance that justified the police dropping the felony charge, and people buying the JPD line that it was up to her to drop it. This is ignorance of the law (which is proved by the fact that the police actually charged Bell with the charge his victim was supposedly allow to drop against him once he had killed her). It is this kind of ignorance that leads our society to blame women for not leaving, even as leaving is often what gets them killed, especially when law enforcement doesn't take violence against women seriously enough.

Thank goodness for women like Heather Wagner in the AG's office, and all the other advocates who are fighting these battles of ignorance. The rest of us must step up and help them. Keep this conversation going year-round, ladies and gentlemen. Do it for Heather, and for Doris, and all the other victims of domestic abuse.

I am proud to be able to help such a worthy cause. Kudos to JFP and others for calling attention to an issue which has been too long ignored and neglected. In my line of work, I have seen--up close and personal and, unfortunately, all too often--how otherwise "strong" women have inexplicably remained in physically abusive relationships. They keep thinking and hoping that it will get better, but it very rarely does.

If CVP/MS is a 501(c)(3) non profit, there may be some other support avenues that I might also be able to explore.

I believe they are, Kacy. I can put you directly in touch with Sandy.

That's great, Ladd. Thanks.