Safe Home welcomes gifts for late holiday clients

The Laurens County Safe Home has met its needed goal of collecting Christmas presents for current clients and their children, but the agency welcomes gifts to have on hand for new clients as the holiday nears.

“All of our current clients have been adopted out (for gifts) but we don’t stop accepting new people, so we are always looking for those generic gifts, especially for children,” said Dawn Ardelt, the director of The Safe Home. “Most families try to stay together during the holidays, but we invariably get calls for new clients who need to move quickly into the shelter.”

The Laurens County Safe Home is a non-profit agency which is not funded by Laurens County but rather through private donations from churches, individuals and grants. State guidelines allow it to serve women from Laurens, Saluda and Abbeville counties who need emergency shelter, assistance finding safe living arrangements or help navigating legal channels because of domestic violence.

Donations don’t need to be extravagant, she said.
“Children miss their simple toys left behind when their mother has to flee a domestic violence situation,” Ardelt said. “They just need to know people do care and the spirit of Christmas is with them.”
Anyone who would like to give new gifts which could be wrapped for women, children or teens can leave them at “Our Little Shop,” the Safe Home’s thrift store which is located at 1500 Western Square Plaza in Laurens, near the former BI-LO store.
Providing gift bags and wrapping paper helps as well.
Our Little Shop is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For other gift donation locations across the county, donors can call the Safe Home number at 864-682-7270 and staff will arrange a meeting place at a convenient public location elsewhere in Laurens county.
Monetary gifts can be mailed to P.O. Box 744, Clinton, SC 29325, and online gifts can be made using the Donate button on the Safe Home website’s home page at www.thesafehome.org.