A few years ago, Evie Vidrine and a friend of hers both dealt with people close to them committing suicide.
That spurred them to look for ways to help prevent it, and they learned Contact Helpline — an area crisis intervention service — did not have a dedicated fundraising event. So they started Tapas and Taps in 2019.
“At the time, the person that I started this with and I really felt the need to serve the community,” Vidrine said. “It was just a missed market basically. I hate to put it that way, but there was this community that wasn’t being served. Mental health awareness is not something that we talk about in the South a lot, and to experience it firsthand, having my best friend experience it with his brother and then me with my friend, in such a short time period, I knew something needed to be done. We decided to turn it into something positive and try and do something in their memory that made a difference.”
Vidrine’s group will host its second Tapas and Taps event from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Storehouse Event Venue in Starkville, after taking a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. Proceeds will again benefit Contact Helpline.
The event will feature dishes from several area restaurants and will be self-serve. There will be an open bar with beer provided as well as soft drinks and water.
Tickets for the event are $30 for an individual, or $50 for a couple, and it gains the holder access to all of the food and drinks provided within the event. Tickets can be purchased in advance at contact-helpline.ticketleap.com/tapas-and-taps/, or at the door using cash, check or card.
Donations can also be made if anyone wishes.
Anyone with questions can reach Vidrine at [email protected].
Jeffrey Rupp and Walton Jones will provide musical entertainment.
Contact Helpline
Contact Helpline is a free crisis intervention and referral service that serves Choctaw, Clay, Kemper, Lowndes, Monroe, Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Winston counties. It mans the 988 phone line, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24/7. It is also in the process of setting up a text helpline for those who don’t want to talk on the phone.
The organization is funded by United Way, but fundraising events such as this one are still needed.
“Fundraisers are very important for organizations such as ours,” said Katrina Sunivelle, executive director for the organization. “All of our services are free. When they call our crisis line, our suicide line and our warm line, that’s a free service. It will remain free because of these funds that we are receiving.”
The 2019 event raised more than $5,000 and Vidrine said that they hope to meet and possibly even exceed that amount this year.
“We’ve got some really great sponsors, some good restaurants involved and some volunteers that have given us their time, so I am hoping we can pull it together,” she said.
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