Albany Exchange Club President Wes Sadler recently presented Mary Martinez-Allen, Lily Pad Sane of Albany with a donation. The monies will help to offset medical cost, forensic testing and needs of victims the Lily Pad serves. Lily Pad does not charge any victims for any service related to abuse. The Lily Pad SANE Center is an umbrella organization that houses the Firefly House Children’s Advocacy Center, the Boren Center for Sexual Violence, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Program, Parents Accessing Visitation and Education Services (PAVES), and System of Care Dougherty. Lily Pad provides compassionate, comprehensive care and follow-up services to sexual assault and child abuse victims and their families.
Albany Exchange Club President Wes Sadler also presented Ladonna Urick, of Mission Change with a donation. These monies will help support two students to continue their higher education and other youths that their organization mentors. Mission Change is a grass-roots, volunteer-driven non-profit dedicated to raising awareness and taking action concerning often-overlooked issues that affect our region and speak to the core of our humanity. From homelessness to food insecurity; under-served inner-city youth to those struggling with drug and alcohol abuse; from the needs of the elderly to those of citizens with disabilities. Mission Change is determined to highlight those to whom society often turns a blind eye, putting faces and stories to the statistics that are so easily ignored. They are both a resource to those with little left and nowhere to turn, as well a community outlet providing an easy, hands-on approach for people who want to take action and make a visible difference within their community.