North Star to host second fundraiser
North Star logo
MARYVILLE, Mo. — The North Star Advocacy Center is planning to host its second annual fundraiser on Thursday, March 21, at the Northwest Missouri State Agriculture Learning Center.
According to North Star Victim Advocate Meghann Kosman, last year’s fundraiser was very successful. It was held at the Rose Hill Acres Event Center and had a huge turnout, with more guests showing up than those who had reserved seats. Last year’s guest speakers included Nodaway County Associate Circuit Judge Robert Rice who spoke about his work with North Star as a prosecuting attorney and judge over the years. A survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault was also able to speak to those gathered to share her story.
Kosman said that the fundraiser serves not only as a way to raise money for the organization, but to raise awareness and education to the community on how they operate.
“I think a lot of people just look at us as a shelter piece when there’s a lot more to our organization than just the shelter,” Kosman said.
She began working at North Star 15 years ago as a student intern, the same way many of the center’s advocates start out. Holt County Victim Advocate Rita Carroll, however, joined in July after retiring from teaching.
“I was very interested in it, and North Star is an organization that services clients in Nodaway County, Atchison County, Gentry, Worth and Holt County,” Carroll said. “I live in Holt County, and at that time, they didn’t have an advocate that covered Holt County. They would all come to the center here in Maryville for services. So at that time, I talked to Linda (Mattson), the director, about possibly spreading North Star Advocacy directly into the county.”
Along with growing its footprint and the availability of its services comes a larger price tag, thus last year, North Star held its first auction fundraiser event.
According to Carroll, the Northwest’s Agricultural Learning Center was selected as the location to accommodate a larger crowd and offers a larger parking lot. Because Rose Hill was filled to capacity last year, the organization needed more space. It’s also a good place to display items in the paddle auction. Carroll said that Rose Hill is still helping with the evening affair by assisting in the decorations and making the event as inviting as possible. This year’s event begins at 5:30 p.m. and will include a cash bar, dinner, paddle auctions and guest speakers, including Northwest Missouri State University Chief of Police Clarence Green.
North Star reached out to Green to ask him to be a guest speaker at the fundraiser in part because the nonprofit and the UPD share a history of collaboration from the sexual assault response team. That team is comprised of local organizations including local law enforcement, medical staff from Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville, the university’s Wellness Center, the Fourth Circuit Court Victim Advocate and North Star. Kosman said that the response team studies local sexual assault cases to find ways to improve procedures and protocols.
“They are so great at calling, whenever they have a student report a sexual assault, they will immediately call an advocate and we will go out on the scene and respond and serve as emotional support for that person just to make sure their rights are being met, to make sure that they have everything that they need emotionally,” Kosman said.
The fundraiser’s other speaker is a survivor of domestic violence. Kosman said that what she hopes people will take away from the fundraiser is that domestic abuse is not always something that can be seen and that they walk away with a bigger sense of what North Star does.
“I think people just look at us as a domestic violence shelter, and that is a huge part of what we do, but … the bigger part of what we do is try to set people up for success, to stay out of their abusive situations, because victims of domestic violence go back to their abuser on average of about seven to eight times,” Kosman said. “And there’s so many reasons why that happens. And there’s a lot of barriers that victims meet after they leave their abuser or that keep them in their abusive relationships.”
North Star is currently accepting online donations. Interested donors may visit northstarac.org. A QR code to the organization’s Venmo page will be posted at the fundraiser.
“Once someone is here as our client, our support is there for them throughout their journey,” Carroll said. “It’s not just a here-and-now support, it’s long-term support for them.”
