The Heels & Hearts initiative, a community driven program through True North Pin Up Magazine, has secured a generous donation supporting Colton’s Place, with their partners Everest Construction. Everest has pledged $5,000 to Colton’s Place and the funding will go directly to the Salvation Army and Big Country Anti-Violence Association to help sustain critical short-term housing and support services for those experiencing domestic violence in our region.
According to Keri Looijen with True North Pin Up Magazine, the Heels & Hearts initiative started with a former project the group was involved with. “With True North Pin Up Magazine, we are all women. Our biggest target audience is women and it’s all about empowering women. Before True North, there was Rides For Relief which was a car show that my best friend and I put on. We raised money for women’s shelters in Calgary and Airdrie. Since COVID, we’ve ended up having to pivot as the large car shows aren’t as feasible as they used to be. We thought this is a fun way to really change it up and keep it relevant.
They hope to continue to raise funds for shelters, like Colton’s Place through magazine sales confirms Looijen. “We are taking a portion of our proceeds from all our magazines that we sell and we’re going to donate it straight to places like Colton’s Place or other women’s shelters that really need the support. We also are going to be selling off calendars.” They also hope to have a poker run style event that starts in Didsbury and ends in Drumheller as another fundraising effort. So far through all of their fundraising efforts, the group has raised over $16,000 for shelters in our area.
Looijen shares that there are quite a number of people involved with the True North Pin Up Magazine. “There’s probably about 40 of us in Alberta. We’ve been pulling into Saskatchewan and BC for pin up contest as well. We dress up like 1950s. Well, technically it’s like the 30s to the 70s, but most of it’s like petticoats and victory rolls from the 40s and 50s. We have a lot of fun when we’re cheering each other on. When I started pin up, which is dialing back to rise for relief in 2018, it was celebrating my one year free from abuse. It has all these ties together and without this group of women in this community that I found after, I don’t think I would be where I am today.”
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