HELENA – For more than a hundred years, the Florence Crittenton Home has been dedicated to helping pregnant and parenting young women and their babies.

And every year, the organization paints the town pink in one of Helena’s biggest parties of the year.

Paint the Town Pink is Florence Crittenton’s biggest fundraiser of the year. It’s a time to have some fun and support the girls. But, planning the social event of the year takes some time.

Carrie Krepps, development director, said, “Planning for, I mean really planning for pink starts, in the terms of the theme and some of the decorations, I think, really starts almost the minute that we finish the year before. So, but the real serious planning has started back in September. We start working on details, we start working on the major plans, the themes and really that’s when the auction and all those auction packages start to come together so it’s a big process.”

With the holidays behind us and starting a new year, this is the time that organizations look for those much needed donations.

Melissa Hiltunen, Vanilla Bean Bakery owner, said, “We try to really combine the aspect that we are here for a good cause, were here to raise money and try to have a really good time. You come out, you spend some money, you got dressed up, Lets make sure we have a combination of both.”

But Florence Crittenton is not the only ones prepping for this event. Vanilla Bean Bakery in Helena has 500 fortune cookies to make for this years dessert. It’s a daunting task that they welcome with open arms.

“We are starting the fortune cookies for the Paint the Town Pink project and this fortune cookie is going to go on top of a piece of cheesecake and we need to get started now because they are very labor intense. We have to mark our sheet pans, with about a four inch circle, were spreading the very thin batter on it. Bake it for 5 to 7 minutes, and when they come out we have to get right on top of it and start folding them along with the tags that they provided for us. It’s quite the process because you have to do it while its hot, you have to be able to fold them, twist them and put them on the cup and fold them. We look forward to Paint the Town Pink, we think it’s a fun event to do. The ball room is always gorgeous, its just always fun for us, as loving to make desserts, to be able to make those desserts for them because its such a beautiful event. Its kind of the society event of the year and its just nice to have our dessert on the table.”

At the end of the day, its all about the girls and their babies, girls like Alyson who live at Florence Crittenton to have a better life.

Alysen Hartwick, Florence Crittenton mom, said, “I am way better off, I have gone, like way, far. Like way far than what I would have. Like I wouldn’t have even known how to parent as much as I do now. And I am like way more successful, than I would have been if I had never come here.”

Paint the Town Pink is on February 1st.

http://www.kxlh.com/news/florence-crittenton-prepares-to-paint-the-town-pink-/