5th Annual Galentine's Day Fundraiser raises more than $100,000 for girls in need in NW Florida
Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation (DCWAF), one of the nation’s leading fundraising organizations, is pleased to announce that the 5th Annual Galentine’s Day Fundraiser raised more than $100,000 for girls in need in Northwest Florida, bringing the total donated since the event’s inception to more than $450,000.
Hosted on Saturday, February 7 by DCWAF trustee Candis Wilson and DCWAF board members Tiffany Edwards, Jeanne Dailey, and Lane Redding, the event brought influential women in the community together to support one another while raising money for programs designed to empower young girls in need in Northwest Florida. All individuals and businesses affiliated with the production of the event are female owned and operated.
DCWAF would like to thank the following sponsors for generously supporting the event:
Presenting: Joan Carter, Jeanne Dailey, and Lane Redding
Ruby: Frances Roy Agency, Carolyn Dietzen, and Emerald Coast Magazine
Sweetheart: Tracy Conerly, Sage & Dragonfly Bookshop and Art Boutique, and Lynda Walker
Jewelry: McCaskill & Company
Wine: Vinuv
Dessert: Tiffany Edwards
The funds raised at this year’s Galentine’s Day Fundraiser will benefit the following charity initiatives:
Boys & Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast:
A 10-week, small group program focused on health, fitness, prevention, education, and self-esteem enhancement through dynamic sessions, activities, field trips, and mentoring opportunities with adult women projected to serve 200 girls and S.T.E.M. based field trips for approximately 75 girls across eight Club sites.
Caring & Sharing of South Walton:
Funds to provide full hygiene kits including toothbrushes, deodorant, tampons, cleaning wipes, and more for approximately 220 girls ages 10-18 that are experiencing several new body changes without the resources to help navigate them.
Children’s Home Society of Florida:
Funds for their Elegant Ambassadors Program, dedicated to helping girls at the elementary level become leaders, scholars, and a positive force within their community. This 28-week program for approximately 20 students is designed to equip girls with the confidence, self-awareness, and practical skills they need to both excel as students and emerge as future leaders and meaningful contributors to society.
Children in Crisis:
A Once in a Blue Moon Gala for the girls at the Children’s Neighborhood to give them the opportunity to dress up and experience an evening of fun while focusing on self-worth and affirmation.
Children’s Volunteer Health Network:
Camp Girl Power program designed, in partnership with the Cultural Arts Alliance, to educate young girls on the importance of proper dental hygiene while building self-care habits and boosting confidence. Built for roughly 250 participants, Camp Girl Power will bring mothers and daughters together for a fun-filled day focused on education, community, bonding, and empowerment.
Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County:
Funds for their Art for All grant program, the Art Club program produced in partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs, and Camp Girl Power produced in partnership with Children's Volunteer Health Network. All three programs foster creativity by providing equitable access to arts education and therapeutic art activities that assist in providing critical mental health resources for underprivileged girls in the local community.
Emerald Coast Autism Center:
An expansion of the 12-week program, funded through the 4th Annual Galentine’s Fundraiser, that focuses on small group training classes for female-specific, age-appropriate topics, such as tolerating hygiene habits like hair brushing (for younger students), puberty and menstruation education (for tween and early teen students), and self-advocacy in the workplace (for Transition to Work students). This year’s program will also include three new social events for girls on the spectrum and their moms: a breakfast for the girls’ moms where they can network and connect with each other, a luncheon social for both moms and daughters, and a dance for girls, their moms, and the other women in their family who support them.
Wmerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center:
Providing clothing and gift cards for girls following the trauma of a sexual assault exam. Many do not know that the clothes worn during an assault are collected as evidence during the exam. Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center provides victims with not only clothes to wear home, but a gift card to purchase new items that are not associated with assault in the hopes that the victim may create a new memory and regain a sense of control over her life.
Habitat for Humanity of Walton County:
Funds to expand upon their Women’s Build Initiative, including a new workforce-readiness and entrepreneurship component for girls and young women in foster care. Women’s Build empowers women and girls through housing stability, construction education, and economic self-sufficiency. This funding will support both the existing program, and a new program designed in partnership with Children in Crisis and Amy Hoard to teach young girls in foster care a chalk-paint finishing business, hands-on construction and power tools training, as well as financial literacy.
Point Washington Medical Clinic:
The Young Women’s Health and Hygiene Initiative will provide pathology for PAP smears, additional testing needed for positive results, HPV vaccinations, and feminine hygiene products for girls under the age of 18.
Shelter House Domestic Violence Center:
Funds for the Teen Girls Empowerment Program, a year-round initiative for approximately 400 girls designed to equip young women in our community with the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to build safe, healthy, and independent futures.
Westonwood Ranch:
Funds to support a 12-week Spelling to Communicate pilot program for six nonverbal girls with developmental differences to provide an evidence-informed communication pathway that empowers autonomy, learning, and meaningful self-expression.
Youth Village:
Youth Village is requesting funds to partner with the Gulfarium to provide a custom STEM-based summer camp for 12 girls ages 9-12 years interested in learning more about marine biology and its subsequent career opportunities.