Domestic Violence Prevention Gets Christmas Gifts and Big Check

Cenovus Energy teams up with United Way to help CASDA families.

It is the time of year when a lot of people are doing good things for one another. And Wednesday was another example of that.

Gift paper and gift wrappers came together in Superior to bring some Christmas to clients of CASDA, the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse.

Cenovus employees and their families were wrapping gifts for twenty CASDA client families who could use some cheer this season. It’s part of the company’s Cenovus Cares program and people were rolling up their sleeves and letting the scissors and tape fly as part of United Way’s Day of Caring.

Cenovus also presented some green in the form of a $25,000 check. CASDA said the timing couldn’t be better for helping victims of sexual and domestic violence and abuse.

“We have been made aware that next year we’re going to be taking a pretty good cut in one of our federal grants,” said Kelly Berger, CASDA Executive Director. “So, any kind of money that we can gather in with our contributions, and make sure that we have a small kitty to be prepared for that just helps us. Again, we don’t have to look at layoffs or stopping any services. We just don’t ever want to see that happen here. Because the numbers prove to us every year that there are families in need out there that need to have our kind of services,” Berger said.

The money was raised by Cenovus over the summer. How? Well, the company found itself with a lot of office furnishings it didn’t need anymore. They were all items from their temporary offices during their extensive rebuild. The sale included everything from office chairs to computer monitors to shovels.

“With that, we decided that we would have a flash furniture–and all of the other things–sale,” said Kate Van Daele, Senior Communications Advisor, for Cenovus. “So, we held that twice this summer, all the proceeds going back to CASDA. We really value domestic violence programs as part of an internal network that we have called ‘Women at Cenovus’,” Van Daele said.

She added that much of the furniture was purchased by others who could use it, including small businesses, and non-profits.