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Lift As You Grow to host Farm To Table dinner to benefit program's local at-risk women

Giving to others truly changes the world. It releases a certain reciprocal energy into our society, which creates whirlwinds of change within our communities and furthermore, within ourselves.
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Lift As You Grow will host its first ever Farm to Table Dinner fundraiser with wine pairings on Thursday, November 10, in the alleyway at 58 E. Main St. downtown. Limited tickets are available.

Giving to others truly changes the world. It releases a certain reciprocal energy into our society, which creates whirlwinds of change within our communities and furthermore, within ourselves.

Lift As You Grow is a local non-profit organization which leans on this understanding of giving, and they will soon host their first ever Farm to Table dinner, with proceeds going towards the local at-risk women the organization serves.

The four-course dinner will take place on Thursday, December 8, 2022. Participants will enjoy a farm-fresh dinner, with an accompanying wine-tasting experience.

While tickets to the event sold out just ahead of press time, Lift As You Grow is still accepting donations for the event. And we would still love to tell you more about this great organization!

About Lift As You Grow

Lift As You Grow is committed to the building and empowerment of local at-risk women through a transformational 12-week program. In this program, the enrolled women take various classes and learn transferrable skills, both personal and professional, which are aimed at providing support for re-entering the workforce and back into the community under a healthier and more empowered frame of mind.

Some of the classes which the women take in the program include that of candle-making, sewing, financial literacy, budget management, and so much more. The program itself takes place during the typical school hours in the earlier part of the day, to help assist with the women who have children in daycare or primary school and require proper accommodations for picking them up.

Lift As You Grow partners with local organizations such as Safe Haven and Open Hearts Community Mission to enroll women in those organizations into their program. The Lift As You Grow program aims to offer further assistance in the reclaiming of these women’s lives and provide support towards them living out their fullest potential.

Candles and bags made by the women in the program are available at the Statesboro Main Street Farmers Market.

The organization currently sells the candles made by the women in the program at the Statesboro Farmer’s Market every Saturday behind the Visit Statesboro Center, with all proceeds going back into the program for the various needs of the women.

Support and success

The mission and purpose for Lift As You Grow comes directly from its founder Sally Scott. Sally has always known that she wanted to contribute to the support and success of women in the community. However, it wasn’t until the onset of the 2020 pandemic when Sally brought forth her passion into reality.

Sally unfortunately lost her job at the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. She recalls that although it was unfortunate for her to have lost her job at such a time, she was able to get back on her feet relatively quickly and successfully due to the support of her family and friends. However, during this time, she began to hear stories of women who undergoing similar circumstances but weren’t as fortunate in being able to rebound quickly (particularly since they had no support system to lean on during the tough times). And thus, Sally found it the right time to pursue her passion project which she called “Lift As You Grow.”

According to Sally, the inspiration for the organization’s name comes from the premise that “We all need to be lifting each other up as we grow. We have all been in bad situations before, and when we get out of those situations, we need to be helping others in similar circumstances by supporting their growth out of their unfavorable conditions.”

And by December 2021, she was able to secure a legacy gift of $10,000 through the Georgia Power Foundation, and the fruition of her organization finally came to be. The Lift As You Grow organization kicked off officially in April 2022 and launched its inaugural class soon after.

In July 2022, Sally recruited her close friend Melissa Scull to become the director of the organization’s daily operations and management needs.

Not your average fundraiser

As one of the organization’s many efforts towards rallying additional support and donations for its mission, Sally wanted to do something that was different from the typical 5K or silent auction fundraiser. A Farm-to-Table dinner with a wine tasting experience quickly rose to the top of the list of fundraisers to choose from.

Lift As You Grow has already sold out the event, with 50 tickets purchased by community members and supporters. The benefit will take place in the alley way by the Business Innovation Group (BIG) center downtown at 58 E Main St. (where the local “White Wings” mural is located).

The food for the event will fall under a seafood theme, and Tandoor and Tap will be facilitating the preparation of the farm-to-table cuisine being used in each course of the dinner experience. Likewise, Vino 1910 Wine Bar will be providing a sommelier who will guide attendees through a wine-pairing experience being offered throughout the course of the event.

The check-in for the event will start at 5:30pm, and the dinner itself will begin at 6pm. All proceeds from the event will go directly towards benefitting the Lift As You Grow organization.

A community effort and investment

The Lift As You Grow organization would like to thank the Georgia Power Foundation and the United Way of Southeast Georgia organization for their ongoing sponsorship and charitable support. Additionally, they would like to thank the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority, Tandoor and Tap Restaurant, Vino 1910 Wine Bar, Queensboro National Bank, Renasant Bank, Bulloch Solutions, and the Brinson, Williams, & Groomes Insurance Agency for their collective efforts in ensuring the success and fruition of their event.

Finally, Sally would like to thank her parents Paul and Janet Williams for raising her with strong moral values of reaching back out into the community to support others in their time of need.

In the final remarks of our interview, Sally shared, "If women are okay, then children are okay. And reinvesting this level of support back into the community that’s already here only contributes to the greater success of our community’s women and children at large. So, the return on our organization’s work continues to be invaluable.”

How you can support Lift As You Grow

If you would like to give a charitable donation to the event, please click here.

You can follow along on the journey of Lift As You Grow and the women it serves on their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.

For more information on how you can lend charitable support to the organization, please visit their website at www.liftasyougrow.com or email liftasyougrow@gmail.com.