Verde Valley Sanctuary Legacy Society Members JJ & PJ

VVS Legacy Society membership is extended to all who make a planned gift for our benefit. Members of the Society have one thing in common: All have committed to support the future of our organization and its mission. They understand the power of funding our operations and endowment and know the assets they leave to VVS will continue to grow, supporting extraordinary programs to revive courage and empower lives for generations to come.

We are excited to share a way in which you can support VVS operations and endowment fund and allow the programs we offer to the public to continue and grow. JJ and PJ are donors of VVS. They have been gracious enough to share how and why they became Legacy members.

J grew up in a family of seven children. He was the oldest and had six younger sisters. He witnessed several instances of verbal and sexual abuse as his sisters grew older and moved out on their own. In PJ’s mid to late 20s, she was a single mother with very low income and struggled to support herself and her son. Their daughter moved through several abusive relationships. These experiences made them very sensitive to the issues of sexual and domestic abuse.

“I was first exposed to VVS through various grant requests reviewed by Arizona Community Foundation,” says PJ. “We attended a Rotary fundraiser and heard a very moving speech delivered by Tracey McConnell. This prompted us to explore VVS, and we were given an extensive tour by former Executive Director Nicole Florisi. We were obviously inspired and moved to name VVS as a beneficiary of our revocable living trust.

We are very grateful for all the services provided by VVS. We are particularly inspired by the transitional housing, the legal advocacy programs, and the educational opportunities provided to the clients to empower them to make their own lives better.

Of course, in a perfect world, services like VVS would no longer be necessary. Since that is not likely, we would like to see a community that is more aware of the sexual and domestic abuse issues and better understands how to provide assistance to end the abuse cycles.

We do not want our passion to be remembered or even acknowledged. We only want VVS to continue to grow and serve the community.” PJ and JJ.