HELENA — Helena's Florence Crittenton Family Services are turning the Lewis and Clark fairgrounds into a forest this evening for their twenty-second annual Paint the Town Pink benefit.
Each year, an elaborate theme is chosen. This year’s theme, Enchanted Forest, adorned the fairgrounds with leafy flora and fauna to raise awareness and funds for the organization's services to families, children, and individuals in the Treasure State. These include its residential treatment programs for parents and children, early childhood education, and other community programs.
Carrie Krepps, the executive director of Florence Crittenton Family Services, told MTN how the organization chose an Enchanted Forest theme for PINK 2025.
“This idea came a couple of years ago from our grant writer, and she had this really great idea about this enchanted forest because it was about trees and growing roots, and strong roots build a community. And I mean all the way down to the fact that our logo is a tree. It really spoke highly to the organization. And what we're about, about planting seeds and, you know, making sure that we're growing a strong community".
Krepps also shared which specific projects and areas of its work the organization plans to use raised funds on.
(Watch the video to hear how Pink the Town donations help the organization)
The event is a key effort to raise funds to cover operating costs each year.
“So, you know, it has become a point of celebration, but it also is a huge component in our fundraising efforts. We have to raise about $1.4 million a year in fundraising to operate our programs, and PINK accounts for around $400,000 to $450,000 of that goal. So it's a huge component of our fundraising, not just the money we raise in the night, but also kind of the friend-raising, and the awareness about what we're working on, and awareness about the families.” said Krepps.
Prior to the event, the organization said it had already raised over $64,000 from event partners and sponsors.
Tickets are no longer on sale for the event, but you can still support the eventby entering the online prize draw raffle. Winners will be drawn on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 8 pm.
