Crafters, home bakers and other creators from across the Pontiac set up shop in Fort Coulonge on Saturday for the third annual fundraiser craft market for L’EntourElle women’s shelter.
The event is put on every year by Mansfield resident Angela Tubman and her daughter Nia Lachapelle, who have a screen printing business together.
“We started a craft sale in 2022, so this was our third year,” Tubman said. “All of the proceeds from a 50/50 draw, all the vendors’ tables, as well as a bottle cap game goes to L’EntourElle.”
The event had upwards of 40 vendors and a variety of prizes for guests. There was a 50/50 draw and an entry raffle. After doing a draw for prizes last year, Tubman decided to do a bottle cap game this time. Guests purchased the bottle caps that were wrapped in tin foil. If they opened the tinfoil to find a number on the bottle cap, they won a prize.
Tubman said that they chose to donate to the shelter again because they want to see the money make a positive impact in the community.
“We wanted to help the community and we wanted to put it somewhere that is going to be used by the community,” Tubman said. “The shelter is someplace that’s safe so it’s nice that they have the funds.”
Shelter worker Cassey Bérubé said that they use the money to maintain the house and to put on events like the annual Christmas dinner.
Christie Adam, another staff member at the shelter, said sometimes the shelter needs things as simple as tampons.
“Sometimes it can be tampons or things like that, sometimes just hygiene in general,” Adam said. “It changes based on the time and depending on how many people we have. ”
The shelter, which offers support services to women and children experiencing domestic violence, has 12 rooms for women, three of which are family rooms that can accommodate up to six people.
Bérubé said that the last few weeks have seen a higher demand for both the shelter services and the external services offered by its staff, which include follow-up meetings and support for women living in the community.
Bérubé said that at the peak, the occupancy was at 137.9 per cent. This means that not only were all the rooms full, there were waitlists and a high demand for external services. When the rooms are full, Bérubé said they refer the women to other shelters in the area.
“The resources that we’re missing would be staffing, honestly, like everywhere else,” Bérubé said. “It’s more of our external services that we’re lacking because we don’t have enough staff to accommodate every little town.”
Saturday’s craft market, raised a total of $1,739 for the shelter.
