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Womanspace online fundraiser ends in a few days

Womanspace

A Rockford women’s organization’s online fundraiser is ending soon.

Liz Hiemstra is the marketing and development director at Womanspace. She said the "Beat the Heat" online auction has become one of their main fundraisers.

“Since Covid kind of shut everything down,” she said, “we've been slowly trying to get back to normal and honestly, normal fundraising levels, and we're not quite there yet. So, we really lean heavily on the sign online auction because it's convenient for people.”

Hiemstra said donor behaviors have changed since the pandemic.

“And I think that Covid also kind of caused a change in maybe personal behavior,” she said, “as far as you know, the time they allot for volunteering, and maybe the insecurity, or insecure feeling of, you know, making bigger donations.”

The online auction offers jewelry, restaurant gift cards and a few donations from downtown businesses.

Hiemstra said this fundraiser will help get them through into next year, which will be the organization’s 50th. The Beat the Heat Online Auction closes at 9 p.m. Sunday Aug. 18.

Yvonne covers artistic, cultural, and spiritual expressions in the COVID-19 era. This could include how members of community cultural groups are finding creative and innovative ways to enrich their personal lives through these expressions individually and within the context of their larger communities. Boose is a recent graduate of the Illinois Media School and returns to journalism after a career in the corporate world.