Proceeds from Spirit of Hope Event support Gini's House for Women and Children

June 27, 2014

Enterprise Community Investment's support has been instrumental in completing Gini's House, Liberation Programs' new project that will provide 18 affordable apartments for families. Liberation Programs' Gini's House is named for Gini and Lou Bantle, Bob's parents. A generous gift from the Linda & Vince Family Foundation will help relocate the Families in Recovery Program to its new location at Gini's House.

Liberation Programs' celebrated its seventh annual Spirit of Hope benefit dinner recently with nearly 250 guests. Linda and Vince McMahon and Enterprise Community Investment were the honorees at this year's event. A gift from the Vince and Linda McMahon Family Foundation is helping create a new treatment center for women and children. Enterprise has been instrumental in transforming the dream of Gini's House into reality. Gini's House will provide 18 units of supportive housing for families and be the home of the Linda & Vince McMahon Center for Women and Children.

The event netted more than $100,000 to continue to help provide critical support services including housing and access to physical and mental health services for pregnant women and mothers working to overcome substance abuse disorders, including the new center and Gini's House. Spirit of Hope was again co-chaired by Katrina Bischoff and Amy Rabenhorst, both of Greenwich.

Keynote speaker Nancy Ramirez, a 1997 graduate of Liberation's Families in Recovery Program, cited her two children as the motivation for her to change her life. Now a certified nursing assistant and daily life skills coach, Nancy has been sober for 17 years with plans to become a certified substance abuse counselor. She and her husband recently purchased their first home. As Nancy shared, "I will always give back to the Families in Recovery Program at Liberation because of what they gave me – I was able to find myself. And life gave me an opportunity to be the best mom I can be for my children. I have gone from homeless to homeowner."

Major sponsors for Spirit of Hope included Laurel and Cliff Asness; Elizabeth Needham and Peter Mark and the Mark Family Foundation; Enterprise Community Investment, Inc.; GE Capital; Paul and Sonia Jones; The Mitchell Family; The Bassler Family Foundation; Meredith and Christy Sadler; Cohen and Wolf, P.C.; Vicki and David Craver; Debra and John Hertz; the LPI Senior Team; Melissa and Alan Mathis; Donna and Dennis Monson; Pitney Bowes Inc.; RDM Financial Group, Inc.; Dr. Michael and Brook Urban; The Bischoff and Rabenhorst Families; CBP Insurance; William and Carrie Frey; Judi and John McCarty and Marianne and Edward Pollak.

Liberation Programs, Inc. (LPI) is a non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to providing substance abuse prevention and treatment programs in Fairfield County. Its mission is to empower people and their families to be free of the disease of addiction by providing targeted solutions that restore lives and strengthen the community. For more information, and more photos, visit www.liberationprograms.org.