By Sarah Hall

Editor

Cheryl Heller thinks locally owned businesses have a responsibility to give back to their communities.

“It’s not just about you coming in my door and spending money,” said Heller, who owns The Savvy Chick in Baldwinsville. “It’s about me investing something that’s going to make a difference.”

That’s why she came up with the idea for A Cause to Celebrate four years ago.

“I got together with some of my merchant friends here in the Baldwinsville community, and said, ‘You know what? We need to do something in the spring that would allow us to give back to our community as business owners,’” she said.

A Cause to Celebrate — which will take place this year from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday, May 4, at the Fireside Inn — is a gala that benefits a local charity that serves the Baldwinsville community. The Cause to Celebrate board of directors, all of whom are women who own businesses in B’ville, select the nonprofit each year and arrange the event, which brings together business owners and community members.

This year’s beneficiary is Vera House, a domestic and sexual violence service agency providing community education, as well as counseling, shelter and advocacy for those in crisis. The money raised on May 4 will go to Vera House North, the organization’s crisis center, as well as education programs it provides to area schools, including Baldwinsville.

“Being that we are all women… Vera House is a very near and dear organization, especially to a couple of our committee members,” Heller said. “It just was a very natural fit in with our selection process.”

Vera House is not only a natural choice, but a timely one, Heller said.

“With all of the recent, the #MeToo that started up recently and then also the increase in the school violence, the violence in the schools, it was interesting that we picked it and then this is what’s been going on in our community and around the nation,” she said. “And it’s make us very, very glad that we chose them this year because we feel that this is a real issue that our community and our society is having to deal with.”

Previous beneficiaries include the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild, the Silver Knight Foundation and Purpose Farm.

This year’s event, the theme of which is An Evening of Wine and Art, will include a variety of artwork for sale, from pottery to paintings to survivor art from Vera House. A survivor from Vera House will share her story, and Grupo Pagan will perform. Attendees can also take part in a “heads and tails” dance, the final prize for which is a $1,400 necklace and earring set from Welch & Co. Jewelers in North Syracuse, as well as a silent auction, which includes such offerings as a $1,000 Park Lane Jewelry shopping spree, an overnight at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown (the former Hotel Syracuse), show tickets, dinner at Francesca’s and more.

None of the prizes would be available without the support of local merchants — and not just those in Baldwinsville.

“We’re very excited that we have started to gain support from the surrounding communities, like Skaneateles,” Heller said. “Skaneateles Patisserie, Glazed & Confused, they are providing the desserts for our dessert buffet. Skaneateles Jewelers has donated a gift certificate for the silent auction.”

Heller noted that the event has sponsors from all over Central New York — their largest sponsor is engineering firm O’Brien and Gere.

“They’ve said, ‘Oh my goodness, Cheryl, we have a lot of customers from the Baldwinsville area,’ or, ‘Oh my gosh, we are so on board with Vera House. We just really, really, really want to support it,’” Heller said. “So it’s been great to see expanding support for our event from our surrounding communities as well as our own.”

Heller said there has been some question about the dress code.

“It’s a night where you can dress up and put on your party dress and your guy can look his best. It’s not a black tie, but we are recommending cocktail to formal attire,” Heller said. “But of course we’re not going to turn anybody away if they show up in jeans.”

The real point of the evening is to thank the B’ville community for its patronage of local businesses while supporting a worthy cause.

“It’s giving us an opportunity to come together as a business community to show the community members that we care, that we care about the things that matter to them,” Heller said. “It would be wrong for me to have my doors open and say, ‘Hey, come buy from me. Come shop with me. Come spend your money here,’ without saying, ‘Now let me pay it back. Let me do something that tells you that your community is my community and you matter to me.’”

For more information or to buy tickets, visit bvillecausetocelebrate.com.