Thanks to our amazing sponsors, community donors, the nearly 300 generous guests, and our supportive family and friends, the 14^th Annual An Evening to RAVE About was a SMASHING success. Not only did we reach or fundraising goal, but we soared past it raising $115,956 net dollars that will help our organization grow and expand to meet the rapidly rising demand for respite care among Northern Nevada families.

RAVE’s mission is to improve the well-being of families in the Northern Nevada region by providing free respite care—a much-needed break—to caregivers of children and young adults with special needs. This includes children with developmental disabilities, autism, a special health care need, children with mental and behavioral health concerns, children in foster care, and their typically developing siblings who reside in the home.

In the past decade, RAVE has increased our reach by over 400%, enabling us to serve more families and children with disabilities than ever before in our 26-year history, and yet our operational budget has not increased alongside this unprecedented growth. Instead, RAVE has learned efficient ways to do more with less, serving record numbers of families while the need for trusted respite care in the Northern Nevada region grows. In Washoe County, more than 10,000 children have been identified with a disability or special need—and in the state, that number is more than 50,000. RAVE is currently only serving a fraction of the need while the number for requested care continues to rise.

Every $1,000 raised sponsors a child with special needs to attend up to four 3-hour respite care sessions per month for one year. It is our hope to never have a wait list, so families in need of a much-needed break are never turned away.