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Local Avon consultant, Wendy Wicklund, recently sponsored a Facebook fundraiser for Steps to HOPE. Money raised through donations and purchases of Avon’s 2019 fundraising toy, Finley the Fox, were used to purchase toiletries and personal items for shelter residents and their children.

Items donated included shampoo, hand soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, lotion, hand cream, deodorant, kid’s body wash, shampoo, lipstick, lip balm and mascara.

Wendy and her daughter, Jolie McKinney, delivered the toiletries and several of the plush foxes for Steps to HOPE to pass along to children in the shelter and in the Adopt-A-Family program during Christmas. Cindy Wicklund and B.J. Bayne gratefully accepted the gifts. 

Steps to HOPE is the domestic violence and sexual assault shelter and victim advocacy center serving Polk County and Upstate SC. Many shelter residents come in with only the clothes on their backs. Steps to HOPE strives to offer not only shelter in a time of crisis but comforts of home when there is little comfort to be had. If you would like to help or if you or someone you know is being abused, please call the Steps to HOPE 24-hour helpline at 828-894-2340.

Submitted by Paula Ravan