Old National names child advocacy group as 100 Cooks Who Care benefactor
The 2024 100 Cooks Who Care event will raise money to benefit the Southwestern Indiana Child Advocacy Center Coalition (www.swicacc.com).
Presented and brought to the community by Old National Bank, the 100 Cooks Who Care event aims to raise as much money as possible for local non-profit organizations. The fun event features 100 local celebrity chefs serving up their best culinary dishes for the community. In addition, the event offers music, live and silent auctions and a chef’s competition that honors the chef who raises the most money for the cause. To find out more, please visit the event website: https://jasper.100cookswhocare.com/.
“The idea is they (attendees) tip the chefs if they like the food or the chef,” Hoffman said.
The funds raised through those tips, the silent and live auction, and ticket sales proceeds are donated to the nonprofit chosen from among the applicants each year.
SWICACC works with investigators and prosecutors in seven Southern Indiana counties to help in cases involving the abuse or neglect of children. When children are reported to be victims of abuse, SWICACC facilitates multiple teams under one roof to help in the investigation process while providing specially trained forensic interviewers to speak with the victims. Additionally, the Center has groups working out of its offices that specialize in mental health so the victims can receive help in the aftermath of their trauma.
SWICACC Executive Director Tammy Lampert summarized the process as “bringing everyone together around that child in that report so that the child is not going to the police department, DCS (Division of Child Services) Office, all the places,” she said. “They come to the Center.”
This is done to avoid retraumatizing these young victims during the investigative process.
Being chosen as this year’s beneficiary is helping SWICACC add a much-needed service to the Center on 5th facility where they currently operate.
“Thanks to 100 Cooks Who Care, we are going to be able to get a medical suite up and running,” Lampert said on Thursday. “Kids can have medical services in that safe, child-friendly environment instead of them going to an emergency room.”
While many of the social and investigative resources needed to assist in the adjudication of child abuse cases is under one roof at the former Fifth Street Elementary site, the medical aspect of these types of investigations has been a missing component.
In addition to helping cover the cost of the equipment for the medical suite, the funds will also help pay for specially trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) to conduct the exams. These nurses help in the investigation but also help answer medical questions from the victims of sexual assaults.
“Medically, it is important for them to be checked,” Lampert explained. “But regarding mental health, it is so important for a kid to be able to hear somebody say, “You’re okay. Your body is okay.’ They can just have so many concerns.”
Unfortunately, the services provided by SWICACC are called upon regularly. The forensic team was involved in 324 cases in 2023. “I know that sounds like a lot,” Lampert said. “But research shows that maybe only 10 percent of these cases get reported. We have a ways to go in increasing that awareness and making sure victims know there is a safe place for them to come and tell whenever they are ready.”
Lampert said the impact of the fundraiser will be life-changing. She repeated something she had heard recently about the Center on 5th and its many services as she thanked Old National. “The Center is the end of the bad and the beginning of the good,” she said. “So, I’m very thankful.”
Held biennially since being brought to Old National Bank’s Jasper market in 2014, the event has grown in participation, attendees and funds raised. The first year brought in $114,000 to benefit the Indiana National Guard Relief Fund; in 2016, more than $245,000 benefited the E5 Foundation and Dubois County Leukemia Association; in 2018, $255,000 for CASA of Dubois County with expansion into Orange County; and in 2022, $225,000 for Mentors for Youth and Crisis Connection.
Market-wide, 100 Cooks Who Care events have raised more than $839,000 for local non-profits.
While announcing this year’s benefactor Thursday evening, Jasper Market President Chad Hoffman said he expected this year’s event to put their total over a million dollars cumulatively. “We are blessed in our community,” he said. “I think it speaks highly of our community. Where the money is needed, people just write checks and don’t ask too many questions. It is just wonderful.”
He said that it was an easy decision when the executive committee heard about SWICACC’s mission and what the organization would do with the funds if chosen. Knowing the children can be taken care of in the same safe space rather than a busy emergency room resonated with them.
With the amounts raised, 100 Cooks Who Care regularly makes an impact that changes lives and community outcomes.
“This is our signature event, and we just love to be the facilitator to get great amounts of money to the people that need it,” Hoffman said.
This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, September 7 at 6 p.m. at the Huntingburg Event Center. For information regarding sponsorship, chef registration, tickets and/or tables, please email Chad Hoffman at chad.hoffman@oldnational.com or call 812-634-5238.
Organizers issued a special thanks to Best Home Furnishings, French Lick Resort, Jasper Group, Memorial Hospital, Norris, Blessinger & Woebkenberg Orthopaedics & Spine, OFS Brands, Ruxer Ford Lincoln, TrueScripts Management Services, and WITZ Radio as the Iron Chef sponsors for the event.
