On December 17, the House of Hope received a special visit from the Elks Lodge and the Viejitos Car Club Douglas Chapter to celebrate advanced Christmas with the women and children at the House.

Hide Caption (Use arrows above to view more photos)

Around 15 members of the Elks Lodge took a total of 12 kids from the House to a local store to buy them Christmas presents of their choice and make these holidays happier for them. Elks Chaplain Julie Johnson-Romero said this activity has been done by them for many years and is a way to help them get through the hard process of recovering from domestic violence.

“Our Clothe a child program provides the opportunity to give these kids something to be happy for at this time of the year,” Johnson said.

She also said that the funds for this program come from fundraisers at the lodge and donations from members.

Also, the newly formed Viejitos Car Club, Douglas Chapter, formed by Frank Rodriguez, Ricardo Lopez and David Loreto, from Douglas arrived to the place with their customized cars to let the kids spend some time watching the cars and get a toy from them too.

Club members said that the purpose of the chapter is to promote friendship and brotherhood between members, their families and the community and the House of Hope was a good place to start doing it. Viejitos Car Club was recently formed in Douglas in October. Members said there are 37 chapters in the U.S.

The House of Hope

House of Hope is a domestic violence shelter which opened its doors on December of 1997. The shelter is a 24 bed facility which houses up to 10 families up to 120 days. It provides shelter, food, groups, transportation, referrals, advocacy and referrals to legal services. The shelter is open 24 hours a day. It also has transitional housing that can house two families for up to two years. This if for women that have completed the program and need time to rebuild their lives. The shelter has provided services to 700 women and their children.