As the spookiest month of the year draws to a close, The Link of Cullman County is preparing to kick off the seasons of a more thankful and giving nature with its annual meeting and Legacy Awards Gala on Nov. 3.

Executive Director of The Link Melissa Betts said the non-profit has experienced quite a bit since it was able to hold its most recent in person event four years ago.

“A lot has happened since 2018, the world survived a pandemic and we’ve changed leadership. So, we’re excited. We’re gonna be honoring people who have invested in The Link, people who serve at The Link on a regular basis, and people who just give their time and energy to the mission that we have, Betts said.

Betts said that this event will not only be a time to honor those who have enabled previous successes at The Link, but will also serve as the beginning of the organization’s end of the year push to enroll donors for next year and to launch its Season of Giving campaign.

“November, we think about that as kind of the month of Thanksgiving, being thankful, and also giving back,” Betts said. “We’ve always used November as the jump start of that end of the year giving. You know a lot of people like to give at the end of the year.”

From now until January, The Link will be concentrating on several initiatives. Vinyl bags with shopping lists will be available to help gather food for families preparing for long extended breaks from school. The Link will be partnering with local schools to be a distribution site where volunteers wishing to sponsor children that have been identified as needing assistance by the school can drop off gifts. Betts also estimates that roughly 500-600 will be fed at The Link’s community Thanksgiving meal by churches and groups in the area.

Next week’s event will be the first major event to be held at the Cotton Creek venue and will be divided into three segments sponsored by different businesses: the Welcoming Hour from 6-7 p.m. is sponsored by Lazarus LLC, the Dinner Hour — when awards will be presented — is sponsored by Cullman Regional will begin at 7 p.m. followed by the Desert Hour sponsored by Madison Core Labs.

Betts said that the Welcoming Hour was planned to provide guests with a fun opportunity to mingle while visiting a photo booth or participating in the evening’s silent auction.

The Original Butt Sketch Artists from Dallas, Texas will be providing guests the unique and memorable experience of creating portraits of their posteriors during the Welcoming Hour. Betts said that while the connection may not be apparent at first, she believes this is the perfect representation of the services that The Link provides.

“The idea behind The Butt Sketch Artists is they sketch you from behind — it’s a fun element for one — but it’s a good representation of what we do with our neighbors. So, we walk with our neighbors in a lot of situations that they come to us in, and they need that support and empowerment. At some point they continue their journey and we stop walking with them, but we definitely like to see them walking towards their next set of goals. That representation of sketching people from behind is kind of like them continuing on that journey even after we are not walking alongside them,” Betts said.

Proceeds from the event will help The Link to fund projects through the upcoming year such as the soon-to-be-launched Nurturing Place that will host tutoring sessions, summer camps, and serve as site for supervised visitations as well as parenting classes. But, for Betts raising money is not the ultimate goal for the event. It is raising awareness on the services that those funds provide.

“I think it’s important to host these types of events because it shows the need for fundraising. Non-profits are supported by the community, and I think it does something to people when they see the impact that they have. They are able to see the numbers and faces and families and they know that their gift is staying right here at home and serving their neighbors who are in need.”

Tickets to the event are $125 and can be purchased at linkingcullman.ticketspice.com/the-link-annual-meeting-legacy-award-gala-2022.