Civitan funding rescues domestic violence conference series for high school students

Interval House Angels. Interval House of Lanark County executive director Erin Lee-Todd, third from left, accepts a cheque for about $4,500 from the Civitan Club. From left, Ken Fournier (Lanark), Carolyn Trenholme (Smiths Falls), Peter Guthrie (Mississippi Mills), Eric Pottle (Almonte), and Carol Rubino (Perth) were representing their various Civitan Clubs at the presentation at the Perth Civitan hall on Nov. 21. Desmond Devoy

Erin Lee-Todd has found the love, and it was with the Civitan Clubs throughout Lanark County.

For the past three years, thanks to funding from the federal government’s Status of Women Canada, Lanark County Interval House has hosted a series of conferences for high school students, entitled “Where Is The Love?” which taught lessons on everything from date rape to domestic abuse and bullying.

“That money is no longer available to Lanark County Interval House,” said Lee-Todd, Interval House’s executive director, to cries of “boo” and “shame” from some in the audience.

After the last “Where Is The Love?” conference in Perth last June, “we told you that it was done.”

But Lee-Todd proved to be a little premature in her declarations.

“We were very, very fortunate to get some funding support from agencies,” said Lee-Todd, like the Civitan Clubs, Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital, and the Perth Foundation. “We are no longer doing ‘Where Is The Love?’ It’s ‘Could This Be Love?’”

She commended the county’s united Civitan clubs for stepping up to the plate to fill in the funding gap.

“Without their leadership, we would not be here today,” she said at the inaugural “Could This Be Love?” conference at the Perth Civitan Club hall on Wednesday, Nov. 21. The club donated about $4,500 at a cheque presentation at the end of the conference.