Purple Box Drive A Success
By: Mark Gruba
Updated: November 22, 2012
The drive kicked off in October with the purple boxes placed at police substations, headquarters and City Hall. "We've been working with ABW for many years, but we wanted to bring awareness to the fact that people will be in the shelters at Christmastime, and be able to provide some toys and luxuries for them that they would not have," said Rochester Police Captain Lorri Strem.
ABW operates a 38 bed residential facility for women and their children. Often, women arrive in the middle of the night, abused, scared and hungry. What they receive goes beyond counseling and services. "We want to provide as supportive an environment as we can, especially at the holidays because sometimes for these women it's really unsafe for them to even reach out to their family, their friends, their faith community because of the safety reasons," said ABW Interim Executive Director Janine Lucas.
As the Purple Box Drive concludes, ABW is still accepting donations, with the greatest need pajamas, bbathrobes and slippers for the women, and multi-cultural dolls and remote control cars for their children.
To make a donation call Alternatives for Battered Women at 585-532-5200.
Women who need assistance can call the ABW hotline at 585-232-7353.
For more information about Alternatives for Battered Women, click here.


