Last Saturday night, the Waterfowl Building in Easton was bustling with energy as a nearly sold out crowd attended the Lip Sync Battle to benefit Talbot Interfaith Shelter (TIS). Competitors from all over our community came together to dance, laugh, and NOT sing in order to raise money for TIS’ S4 Program (Shelter, Stability, Support, Success).
By the end of the night, the contestants – Team TIS, Team Scout, Team Talbot Mentors, The Happy Hour Honies, Gabby Pfeifer, The Country School Faculty, Team Eastern Shore Brewing, and The Country School HOHOs – had raised an astounding $17,000 to provide individuals and families in Talbot County with safe, stable shelter, case management, and access to resources and tools that will help them build sustainable self-sufficiency.
“We are so grateful to all of our participants for the time and energy they put in to make the night a success,” says TIS Marketing and Communications Director Jayme Dingler. “It was an incredibly fun night, but the outcome is that our community will be a better place because of these wonderful individuals.”
Country School HOHOs. L-R: Garrett Lang and Nick Oxnam. Photo Credit: Jonathan Williams
The big winners of the night were the Country School HOHOs, featuring last year’s winner Garret Lang and partner Nick Oxnam. Lang and Oxnam are part of the Helping Others, Helping Ourselves program at the Country School, and their advisory group has been volunteering at TIS’ shelter facility, Easton’s Promise, for three years. Together, they raised more than $4,000 for the shelter and transitional housing program.
The event was presented by the Easton branch of Wells Fargo Advisors for the second year in a row. Additional sponsorships and services were provided by the Mid-Shore Board of Realtors, Eastern Shore Vacation Rentals, Shore United Bank, Rise Up Coffee, Hill’s Café and Drug Store, Domino’s Pizza, Easton Pizzeria, On Your Mark Lighting Design and Equipment, Hair O The Dog, Kelly Distributors, Eastern Shore Brewing, and Eat Sprout.
Talbot Interfaith Shelter (TIS) is a 501(c)3 organization based in Easton and serving Talbot County and the surrounding areas. The organization has developed a program that they call S4 (Shelter, Stability, Support, Success), which is designed to give guests access to a stable home-like environment, services, and tools that can help them break the cycle of poverty and homelessness and regain their independence. Once guests are accepted into Easton’s Promise, they receive case management as they move through an individualized plan, eventually transitioning into one of the shelter’s eight subsidized off-site apartments, where they incrementally take over expenses until they are fully self-sufficient.
Their vision is that no one in Talbot County will ever have to spend a night on the streets, in a car or in the woods because he or she cannot find housing. To learn more about how you can help, visit www.talbotinterfaithshelter.org or contact Julie Lowe at 410-310-2316 or [email protected].
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