First lady Jane Beshear spent her Saturday afternoon in Winchester, doing some shopping at Kroger.
Since 2008, Beshear has encouraged all Kentuckians to shop and share to benefit local domestic violence shelters.
“In the past four years, we’ve collected over $1 million for centers across the state,” Beshear said.
The first lady created the program in 2008, after representatives from the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association spoke to her about the financial problems faced by many shelters.
“There was not any more money to allot to them, but the amount of violence had gone up,” Beshear said, something she attributed to the unstable economy. “If we couldn’t give them money, we thought we could encourage people across the state to help.”
Participants shopped at Kroger and Food City locations in 42 counties to provide shelters with needed items, like non-perishable food and household cleaning supplies. In Winchester, members of the Democratic Woman’s Club, Girl Scout troops 699 and 612 and the Clark County Democratic Executive Committee helped organize the event and explained the program to local shoppers, as well as doing some shopping of their own.
