Royalty support chamber mixer, church festival and local fundraiser
Special to Leader-Press
Today, 22 veterans will lose their lives as a result suicide. Suicide prevention and awareness are a top priority for Ms. Rabbit Fest Trish Stutz whose platform of service for her year-long reign is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Stutz, who assisted at Fort Hood’s post-wide suicide prevention event earlier this month, led the charge to get her fellow titleholders involved in the cause as well.
The titleholders filed in to Camp Hope Garden sponsored by Clear Creek Meadows apartments in Copperas Cove to draw awareness to suicide by service members by writing names of loved ones on pinwheels and planting them in a garden.
“Studies show that 50 percent of service members with PTSD do not seek treatment,” Stutz said. “Recent statistical studies show that rates of veteran suicide are much higher than previously thought, 22-a-day, up from a low of 18-a-year in 2007.”
Stutz is spending the year sharing with groups about PTSD and drawing awareness to this hidden affliction in our military service members.
The royalty also served up more than hospitality at the monthly chamber mixer hosted by Extraco Banks-Copperas Cove, the pageant’s scholarship sponsor. Extraco’s Zuly Del Valle Neujahr invited the titleholders to assist with the event.
“(The royalty) all did great as always,” Del Valle said. “I am very proud of each and every one of those ladies.”
The titleholders helped the Holy Family Catholic Church welcome the fall season for the second consecutive year at the church’s annual Fall Festival. Money raised at the event helps fill the shelves at My Brother’s House Food Pantry, the platform of service of Rabbit Fest Ambassador Edith Natividad.
“The royalty have been so involved with My Brother’s House over the last 16 months that we all know first-hand the services that this charity provides to our community,” Natividad said. “We will once again host our Souper Bowl of Caring the Saturday prior to the Super Bowl to collect non-perishable food items and keep those shelves filled.”
The titleholders wrapped up their weekend at the Bras and Paws Pawslooza to benefit Double E Rescue Ranch and the Pink Warrior Angels Foundation, said PWA founder Julie Moser.
“We are honored to have the Rabbit Fest Royalty start the doggie parade so everyone could take a look at each participant in the doggie contest,” Moser said. “There were different categories for their dogs and owners where the royalty presented the awards.”
Titleholders remain busy this week assisting with the grand opening of Metroplex’s Hospital’s new cardiovascular unit in Killeen, lending a hand at the Special Olympics Bocce competition in Gatesville, volunteering at the Pink Warrior Foundation’s Zumbathon in Harker Heights, and operating three booths at Copperas Cove’s National Night Out event.