Earlier in the year, long time Oneida Crisis Center director Holly Llewllyn let the board know that she was planning to step down from her position.  A search was initiated for her successor, and when it was all said and done, Malena Jiminez was hired into the position fulltime.  Jiminez, who already worked at the Center in various capacities, proved to be an excellent choice for many reasons, one of which was that it gave Llewellyn the incentive to remain on as a fulltime advocate.  This allowed Holly’s invaluable experience with the operation of the center to remain in place.

And for many reason, that’s a great thing!  All hands are needed on deck, as the Crisis Center has a busy season coming up, with the Carol’s Pantry Food Drive working to resupply the shelves at the pantry on Saturday, the Suicide Awareness and Prevention Walk coming up on the next Tuesday, September 16, and its own fundraising event on October 3.  

The Crisis Center was one of the original partners involved with the hospital at the inception of the Suicide Awareness Walk, and has remained a strong partner.  They will be on hand once again to provide resources and information to those in attendance.  While the Crisis Center is not specifically focused on immediate medical/mental health crisis situations involving self-harm directly, those on staff at the Center are trained to handle calls from people facing emergency situations.  One of the primary missions of the Center, as Malena and Holly explained it, is to direct people to the resources that they need for a range of urgent situations.

The Food Pantry is currently in need of supplies, which will be added to by the Day of Service drives.  However, anyone can donate packaged food to the pantry (as well as produce and fresh items, including properly prepared frozen game meat) during the week.  They ask that people don’t leave food items outside on Friday evening, as the weekend is a long one for roaming dog and raccoons.  

In a change from the Gala fundraising event of past years, which was held in February, this year the Crisis Center is planning a different kind of event, which will take place on October 3.  At 7:00 p.m. on that evening, the Crisis Center will host a Dueling Pianos fundraising night, with tickets available or groups or individuals through the website, oneidacrisiscenter.org.  

As the evening of the Dueling Pianos event draws nearer, we will bring you a more detailed account of what the Crisis Center does, and how it offers a critical service to the community.  In the meantime, check out the Center’s website for information and tickets to help support an invaluable lifeline for the many people that have and will had their lives changed by it.