A unique fundraiser for Three Oaks Foundation is back for its 6th year this week in Trenton.
INKED for Three Oaks, a well-celebrated event, is once again parterning with East Coast Tattoo Studio to offer a rare tattoo and piercing experience from November 10-16. The event allows people the opportunity to get a tattoo or piercing with all of the proceeds going back to Three Oaks Foundation supporting women and children fleeing domestic violence in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties.
Natalie O’Toole, Community Relations Manager of Three Oaks Foundation, said the event was created to reach more people in the community.
“With tattooing being such a niche interest, it helped us reach a lot more people,” she said.
“A lot of our fundraisers are geared towards women, where this allowed more men to come and support the work that we get to do.”
She mentioned that the biggest mission with the INKED fundraiser isn’t just to fundraise, but to bring awareness.
“We were talking yesterday about how special it is to see other folks who have been coming for six years and they have all of these different tattoos to show how much advocacy they’ve been putting into the work that we do. The fundraising aspect is also important because we have to fundraise about 40% of our operating budget each year just to remain open and to continue our programming,” she said.
“The Ministry of Children and Community of Social Services only funds about 80% of our budget, and that doesn’t include our second stage housing, which is our rent to income apartment building that we offer to women. It has such a huge impact on being able to continue doing our work.”
Year after year, the event sees more and more people. O’Toole stated that each year, there are approximately 100 more participants than the year prior.
O’Toole said the fundraising goal of the event is $20,000 and they have close to 400 appointments booked this week. Tattoos are priced at $60 a piece.
Three Oaks Foundation has been providing emergency shelter and services to women and children who have experienced domestic violence in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties since 1983.
Located in Belleville, they offer an emergency shelter with 16 beds for a stay of up to 6 weeks. The shelter is staffed 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Other services offered at Three Oaks Foundation include the 24-hour Crisis Line, outreach counselling for women and children who have experienced domestic violence, transitional housing support, family court support, and training and public education. All services are free and confidential.
If you are in need of Three Oaks Foundation’s services, contact the 24-hour Crisis Line at 613-966-3074 or Toll-Free at 1-800-267-0533.
