This month marks the beginning of IJM’s 2007-2008 benefit dinner season. At nine events held in cities around the U.S., IJM’s supporters, along with those new to the organization, will have the opportunity to hear firsthand from staff the difference intervention and advocacy make in the lives of IJM’s clients.

During this fall’s benefit dinner season, friends and supporters of IJM will celebrate IJM’s 10-year anniversary. Attendees will hear from IJM President Gary Haugen as he shares clients’ stories and his vision for IJM’s next decade. Each benefit dinner also features musical entertainment.

Past benefit dinner attendees have enjoyed both the opportunity to get close to the work of IJM as well as the opportunity to introduce IJM to others in their lives. “I was anxious to introduce my community to the … incredible work of IJM,” says Jaime Rau, a Table Host in Minneapolis. “I can try to explain all that IJM is doing myself, but nothing I can say describes their work and the hope they are bringing to what appear to be such hopeless circumstances better than an IJM benefit dinner.”

IJM benefit dinners succeed each year through the work of table hosts. By committing to fill a 10-person table, table hosts ensure that more people hear about the need for justice professionals around the world and that IJM will have the funds needed to rescue and protect victims, prosecute perpetrators and seek structural transformation. “I didn’t want to just sit on the sidelines; I wanted to help,” Woody FitzHugh, a table host in Washington, DC, told IJM. “I bought a table and went to a benefit dinner where I listened to the testimony of a girl who had been held in bondage and was freed from it and restored through IJM. … I saw that there was a desperate need there and I wanted to help that by becoming a Table Host and doing what I could for IJM.”

In fall 2007, IJM will visit:

• Nashville, TN
• Houston, TX
• Portland, OR
• San Francisco, CA
• Washington, DC

In spring 2008, IJM will visit:

• San Diego, CA
• Orange County, CA
• Orlando, FL
• Seattle, WA
• Minneapolis, MN