The Peace House’s longstanding, annual fundraiser — a jewelry shopping spree known as the Bling Fling — is no longer.
For seven years, local residents cleaned out their closets, dressers and jewelry boxes and donated their unworn rings, purses, and scarves to help raise funds for the Peace House, a Park City-based resource and shelter for residents affected by domestic violence.
According to Peace House Executive Director Kendra Wyckoff, this is the second year in a row that the event will be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and given the tremendous amount of volunteer effort and time to put it on, she says, it just made sense to end it.
“It really is an event that requires an incredible amount of advanced planning about six to nine months to build the inventory, and that incredible volunteer force,” she said. “The volunteers typically are working in close quarters. And just with the ongoing uncertainty of the public health crisis, it complicates that the health and safety issues. So our organization is reflecting on the fact that the event is not happening in its original form, now going on two years. So, we are reassessing what makes sense for our organization in terms of events, in this current, and our new normal, going forward.
She says the Bling Fling raised more than $300,000 total over its seven years to support the Peace House’s victim services.
COVID-19 has not impacted just the Bling Fling. Wyckoff says the pandemic has been devastating for victims of domestic violence, and the Peace House has seen a 50% increase in helpline calls since 2019.
In July 2021, the campus population of survivors was the highest it’s ever been in Peace House history – 33 adults and children.
Wyckoff hopes to make up the fundraising shortfall with the Peace House’s annual spring luncheon next year.
For those looking to clean out their bling fling accessories, she suggests making donations to the Christian Center and St. Lawrence – both of them partner with Peace House to support survivors of domestic violence by providing vouchers so they can shop at their boutiques in Park City and Heber City.
